Boot.dev Beat. February 2023

I’m back from paternity leave! My new son is healthy, and my daughter is… busy. It’s good to be back writing code, writing courses and filming videos.

Here’s to a great February, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors this March!

All the best, Lane

What we’ve done this month

1. “Build a Pokedex” guided Golang project released

This project will guide you through the steps to build a REPL pokedex on the command line in Go. Learn how to use JSON, make network requests, implement caching, and more! This is a great project if you’re familiar with Go, but want some more practice. There is even a full video walkthrough (linked at the end of the newsletter) to watch in case you get stuck!

If you haven’t written any Go yet, check out my Learn Go course first.

2. PPP Discounts

We already offered purchasing power parity discounts, but now the whole experience is much smoother. Before, we only supported a 4 countries automatically, and you needed to send an email asking for a discount code if you live in a country with lower purchasing power.

Now, we have automatic support for PPP discounts in about 90 countries! Just load the pricing page, and you should see a discount in your local currency. If you don’t feel free to still send an email.

3. Challenges Update

We integrated all of the bonus challenges for the Learn Python course directly into the course itself! We noticed that the previous UX made it hard for you all to find the challenges, but this change brings all that extra content directly into the primary course flow.

4. Big speed improvements

It used to take a second or so to navigate between lessons within a course on Boot.dev. Well, we spent some time implementing some caching optimizations, and now navigation is instant! We want you spending more time coding and less time waiting.

What we’re working on now

• New “Learn Web Servers” course. I’ve written the first 3 chapters out of about 9. This one will be quite different, and I’m super pumped to get it out next month. You’ll write a back-end web server on your own machine and run automated tests from within the Boot.dev platform against it.
• We’re in the middle of adding challenges to the “Learn OOP course”, and those should be released within the next couple of weeks.

Top picks for this month

(Video) Why Self Taught Programmers Fail or Quit When Learning How To Code

by Danny Thompson

I loved this video by Danny, he’s a good friend and shared fantastic advice for self-taught developers who are getting into tech. “#2 Not doing the courses” is my favorite point out of his top seven list. Don’t buy Boot.dev access and then not use it! You need to be an explorer and a do-er, not a collector.

(Video) why are TUPLES even a thing?

by Network Chuck

It can be hard to understand why we would need two different built-in ways to deal with ordered data in Python. I love how Chuck breaks down the differences with great examples in just 7 minutes.

(Podcast) The Role of Trust in Remote Work

by The Bootstrapped Founder

While this podcast is aimed at entrpreneurship, Arvid does have a software engineering background, and this particular episode is a great dive into the nuances of remote work. If you’re interested in working remotely, or being a more effective remote worker, this is worth a listen.

Top plugs for this month

• (YouTube) Building a REPL in Go (PokeDex)
• (Article) Your Architecture is Bad, So Make it Easy to Change