Tue Nov 02, 2021 2:49 PM ( updated 3 mo. 3 wk. ago )

Chapter 2 - Plan of Action

If you ever feel lost at sea, it might be that the winds have blown you off course. But if you, like me, aren’t even on a boat to begin with but just sitting landlocked at your computer it could be that you don’t have a destination to begin with.

Vision: “something that you imagine : a picture that you see in your mind” - Merriam-Webster

Goal: “something that you are trying to do or achieve” - Merriam-Webster

Goals and vision are not the same thing. You can dive right into jotting down all these various steps one would need to take in order to fulfill your… It will quickly become clear that you needed to define a goal or at least a major first step for your vision to become a reality. Just having an abstract picture in mind, can carry you out to all kinds of deep water with no clear route home.

Oh, and we cannot forget the other thing that differentiates a real goal from a vision: the formidable deadline. That is included below.

My First Goal

I want a beta / MVP version of learnhow.dev up and running by 1/1/22 (5/1/22) .

It should include:

• A wizard to help determine where users are at in their learning, with next steps
• Categories of expertise
• Resources to reference for beginners
• Resources explaining learnhow.dev mentorship learning process (using frontier)
• Basic content (/about, /resources)
• Links to frontierjs.com and knight.works
• Ways to communicate with me and others (tawk.to and slack)
• Email Signup via Mailchimp

Steps to Take

Site Theme

Some things to focus on are competency, privacy and the FOSS spirit as well being a independent coder with a small company mindset. My hopes are to attract those who are not attracted to the social media and big Tech mindset but still looking for a way forward in the tech world.

Site Design

I need to come up with basic layout, colors, and fonts for the site. The home page will mostly revolve around the Wizard. It will be mobile-first design, using frontier of course. The navigation will include any links to the content and resources. I need to make the layout for the learning resources. The wizard will mostly be functional but also serve as a basic example of what can be learned.

Site Content

I need to decide what other content/sections will go on home page. After deciding, I will need to actually grab that content. I also need the full list of articles to be written:

• about learnhow.dev
• learning process and mentorship
• how the wizard works and ranking process
• resources page

At the wizard’s core, I need to distinguish:

• those who match the learnhow ethos
• do you want to master javascript?
• are comfortable with javascript and the command line
• have used npm and are comfortable with it
• have basic knowledge of web frameworks

Wizard

The purpose of the wizard is two-fold. It is not only to find out how far someone is in their learning, but also to see if they are a good candidate for learnhow.dev. The goal/challenge here would be to ask as few questions as possible to get the most accurate understanding about where someone can pick up their education at learnhow.dev. If you fit the bill of going the FrontierWay, the wizard would place you in 1 of 4 categories: brand new, beginner, intermediate, experienced. I guess there is the expert level that wouldn’t be necessary here. I could make these themed somehow.

Breakdown of levels:

• brand new: someone who literally just decided to start learning about web development and doesn’t really know anything about html, css, js.
• beginner: someone who familiarity with the basics of web development and has done a few tutorials or simple projects but lacks a good understanding of the full development workflow. (might not know npm and build processes well, but could teach quickly)
• intermediate: someone who has a basic understanding of web dev workflow and has a side project or two (good with using npm and thus fli)
• experienced: someone who understands the workflow and has professional experience

Based on the skill level determined by the wizard, further instructions would be provided.

Tracks

Brand New

For brand new, I might point users to gets them to question if this is something they really want to do and if so, the best learning material/site I can find on where to start.

Beginner

For beginners, I think they could possibly start with Frontier if they have the right foundation, otherwise I could lead them through some type of guided primer course to get them up to speed rather than sending them elsewhere.

Intermediate

For intermediates, these should be readily comfortable starting with Frontier. I would need lead to the FrontierWay.

Experienced

For those more experienced, they could of course use Frontier but the question would be rather their path should be somewhat different. Possibly see if they are proponents of FOSS/JS/indie route and would be interested in being a mentor.

Knight.works

I think the only thing I need to really do is type up the /about page (done!). Otherwise, the articles will develop on their own. It should be pretty basic for now. I could add a /uses type page that describes my stack for web dev.

Frontier

I need a splash page for this on frontierjs.com. It should explain the Frontier Project and anything else I can think of. That being said, it will also need the “design package” to get started.

Communication

I already have tawk.to and slack up and running as primary means. I might as well keep using them. I would need to create a dedicated project for learnhow.dev and then a slack account. I also will need to create an email list using Mailchimp. Another option would be Discord.

In Summary

There is a trifecta working here between knight.works, learnhow.dev and frontierjs.com. The focus however will be on learnhow.dev which will support (as well as be supported by) frontierjs while knight.works will chronicle the journey of both as well as provide an outlet for any ideas that don’t fit either.

By staying focused on each step in the process along the way, I should be able to reach the cumulative goal. I think a basic outline would go in this order:

• Get placeholder pages up for sites with accompanying infrastructure (i.e. slack, mailchimp, etc.)
• Start building out content pages and resources to fill out those pages
• Work on the wizard and organizing frontier codebase

I am sure there will be several decisions along the way, but once this is all said and done, I think the next major step will be getting feedback and exposure.

Up Next - Where has the Time Gone

Freelancer Journey