I'm having trouble navigating her blog. Specifically, I can't find the blog post for her day one website. I'm curious what resources she used to learn HTML/JS/CSS, and how much background she had (her day one website seems pretty advanced for somebody that had never used HTML/JS/CSS before).

A great comment by GuiA at Hacker News on this story:

This is fantastic. Especially inspiring to me, more than the fact that she learned how to code, is the fact that she dove into something that she had no background in, and after 180 days she came out with a solid understanding of the basics of programming; enough to do stuff on her own (and, combined with her graphic design/illustration skills, probably enough to do freelance webdev or get a junior level position in a tech company).

If you're a programmer, think about following a similar, inverted journey: spend 180 days learning how to paint, or how to play the guitar, or writing poems- delivering a concrete outcome every day (and log it in a journal so you can trace back your progress; making that journal public, like she did, is optional but has benefits).

I have many programmer friends (and myself!) who complain that they cannot draw/write/paint/cook for nothing. Those skills, just like programming, can be learned- and while becoming a master at any takes years, if not decades, learning the basics and being "functional" with any of them is a matter of a couple of months.

Of course, taking 6 months to do just that is a bit radical (but, if you're young and in tech, totally doable- saving 6 months worth of expenses on a tech salary when you have no dependents is trivial) - but if you take 1 day a week, you'll only be 7x slower. If you take 2 hours a day instead of 8, you'll only be 4x slower. If you can work part time to keep a minimal income while working on becoming a master painter on the side, only 2x slower (of course you can nitpick with those simplifications, but the core idea is there - if you spend 2 hours a day learning the guitar, you'll go from total novice to enlightened beginner pretty fast).

Thanks to the internet, it's now really hard to not find resources about learning anything- there are sites and forums and youtube videos on everything. Additionally, never underestimate the power of your social circle - trading skills is very fulfilling. (for example, my girlfriend's sister's bf is in a band, signed to a label, etc. and loves video games. He'd like to learn how to program basic little games, and I'm the only programmer he knows. That's pretty great, because I've been dying to get a talented guitar instructor).

And learning those skills can make you even more valuable professionally- if you make entertainment apps, learning an instrument will allow you to compose your own music. If you're a freelance web developer, learning graphic design will allow you to build higher quality products and charge much much more. If you like to program video games, learning how to draw will enable you to design your own assets.

I really enjoy her approach to creating websites. I think the way she tackled it allowed her to progress quickly and understand a ton by the end.

Having a strict, one day deadline was also helpful in maintaining rapid progress. Having to produce something everyday forced me not to get hung up on understanding all the details of how something worked.

When I tried to create a small website, I got stuck on the small details. With no deadline, I wanted everything to be perfect. Her plan forced her to overcome that and I think I'll try something like that soon.

On the flip side, I don't know how she had time for this everyday for 180 days. That's a ton of hours that I really don't have time for.