Day 180: Finished

[chestnut-tree]

Very inspiring. I think this reinforces the idea that regular practice every day (even if it's short practice) is often better than longer sessions done intermittently or spaced apart more widely (like once a week).

Here's another example of the "daily practice" approach from a different domain. A self-taught designer callled Mike Winkelmann has been posting his "everydays" on his website. From his site's description:

"Originally I started out drawing and did that everyday for a year. Then I decided I'd like to learn a 3D animation package so I did a render using Cinema 4D every day for two years. Then I did some photography and also Adobe Illustrator for a bit..."

http://www.beeple-crap.com/everydays.php

Edit: Just to add, another great post on the idea of practicing everyday from a motion graphics designer. I think it's applicable to any field:

http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2013/01/one-a-day/

[lmartel]

I agree with you, but keep in mind that Jennifer has mentioned that she spent 8-10 hours per day on this project.

[roninresearcher]

Adding another thread that reinforces regular practice.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870

[philtar]

I don't think short practice does anything for you when it comes to something like coding.

I can't see anyone benefiting from less than a couple of hours of coding

[ValentineC]

Some background to this project: http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/post/56319597560/im-learning-...

(HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6097155)

[faddotio]

Lesson from Day 180: 99% of user generated content sucks.

[bandwevil]

I think that value might be a bit optimistic.

http://i.imgur.com/zYsc6oa.jpg

[newppc]

You mean day 179?

[obilgic]

Now the next challenge 1 website in 180 days.

[sanderjd]

Maybe she'll take a job where that will be exactly what she'll get to do!

[Pent]

The entire journey is very inspiring. I wonder what she will do now that it's done? You could take this idea and run with it into other niches, like music or photography projects.

[hownowstephen]

Or if you're really ambitious (also: independently wealthy), try a new niche each day. Must have been draining coming up with a new toy-size web project to do daily...

[ivanhoe]

a good friend of mine had done a similar photo project a few years ago: 100 days of kissing (http://www.flickr.com/photos/29413748@N00/sets/7215762279459...). He was capturing a "kiss a day" with his girlfriend in front of a different London landmark for 100 consecutive days :)

[bobbles]

Full list of the 180 websites on the main page: http://jenniferdewalt.com/

[ryan-allen]

Cool experiment, lots of discipline and lots of creativity. I poo-pooed the experiment in the past as the author described no programming experience prior, which I disputed. But irregardless, this is pretty awesome in my opinion, especially because the project was continued to completion, and that in itself is a 0.5% thing.

Inspiring effort.

[ValentineC]

Congrats, Jennifer! Now that you're done with 180 websites in 180 days, what's next in life?

[d0m]

Around the world 360 days!

[ufmace]

Cool project, and really cool on her actually sticking it out and producing a site a day for 180 days straight.

I am curious about her status/background. Is she in high school, college, out of school? Working a basic or full-time professional job? If she has a full-time job doing something else, it's a hell of a commitment to do something like this on an ongoing basis. I'm not sure how you could work 8+ hours a day, then come home and work on a project like this every day for 6 months straight. Even giving up more sleep than you should and any attempt to have a social life, it'd be tough to pull off.

It's a little different if this is the only thing she has going on right now. Not that it isn't still a great achievement - if I was in a position to do so, I'd be interested in hiring somebody with the intelligence, independence, and drive to complete a project like this with no definite payoff at the end. It may even be better that she can maintain a reasonable work-life balance on a long-term project and not burn out.

I'm working on my own project outside of work, but I sure couldn't spend 8-ish hours on it every day over the course of 6 months while still working at my normal job.

[jenniferDewalt]

Thanks for the kind words!

Making a website a day takes a lot of time. I've been working on this project full-time and on average worked for 10 hours a day including weekends. I'm looking forward to getting my social life back!

[fibbery]

She doesn't have a job, according to her blog.

[mattholtom]

Congratulations! This must have taken an incredible amount of personal discipline to accomplish. I can't even bring myself to floss for 180 consecutive days!

[sanderjd]

In fairness, flossing is a lot harder than making web sites... :)

[enry_straker]

This is awe inspiring.

Programming is a hand-on activity, and the best way to learn programming is by doing it every day, in every way, till you can do it in your sleep.

[jenniferDewalt]

As a side note, I have on countless nights been coding in my sleep. Sometimes I'll wake up realizing there is a bug in yesterday's code or having gained some insight on a new concept. Other times I wake up and wonder why I was trying to code an app to cook me ramen noodles.

[davvid]

The site is inspiring. Unfortunately the "rate limit this" and other stupid comments are annoying. The internet is 12 year olds, I guess... whaddaya expect

[__voidcast__]

+1 to say it out loud that "Programming is a hands-on activity". Imagine the inspiration she could be to countless people who, for various reasons, are afraid to even begin programming/continue after the initial(failed) efforts.

[thenomad]

Massive congratulations to her.

I'm about to start on a similar project myself, and seeing Jennifer complete her 6-month journey is both encouraging and quite a high bar to beat!

[BWStearns]

Congrats Jennifer! I am quite impressed by the dedication you showed. Good luck in your future efforts!

[damncabbage]

... "Paul Graham is gay"? http://i.imgur.com/UTk9DlM.png

[jere]

Sounds like an old case of the unmoderated user input.

I've actually seen this kind of thing on a company page beforehand. There's really no excuse in that environment.

[frenger]

the page takes user input & displays it in the background for the next visitor.

[hawkharris]

I was really taken aback by the "Paul Graham is Gay" in the background. Seems like that line is in poor taste unless there's some inside joke, which is not mean-spirited, that I don't know about.

Other than that, great work. I admire the author's dedication and her ability to create so many great apps on such a tight deadline.

[hawkharris]

Oh, sorry, this was a silly comment. I just realized that the background displays user input.

So some people in the HN community are sophomoric, not the author, which makes more sense. :p

[joe_computer]

Paul Graham is gay -- is not derogatory unless you think being gay is wrong; it's simply factually inaccurate. Like saying, "Harry Potter is in Ravenclaw." Which is offensive if you have a prejudice against Ravenclaws.

[Sukotto]

That's just more anecdotal evidence supporting John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad theory

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

[jankins]

That wasn't her, it's users on the website typing stuff into the 'Say Something' text box and hitting 'Send.'

[macarthy12]

> Paul Graham is Gay

anyone can type in the box to add text

[ratsimihah]

How can you assume it was NOT her? Well no one knows for sure whether it WAS her or not, and it's highly likely that it was NOT her, but it's still possible that it WAS her. Just saying.

[holyZoso]

Cool! Where does the "Say something! > Send" field go when I click send?

EDIT: Nevermind, it looks like the confetti dots were previously words, and displayed unfiltered user input from the form. Always hilarious, always dangerous, this thing with the unmoderated user input.

[vacri]

An important day 180 lesson :)

[jbenn]

Amazing and inspiring... how did you find the time to do this? Were you employed?

[shiftpgdn]

The lack of rate limiting on the chat box didn't take long to cause things to descend into chaos: http://i.imgur.com/IhaqMR3.png

[ateevchopra]

Hope more newcomers will learn from you and make such goals. Not just in the field of Web Development, but also other fields. Thanks for always sticking to your goal. Good Luck !

[ratsimihah]

Why the heck is it raining bacon?

[vacri]

Everything on the page is 'awesome'.