thoughts on CSS styling from a budding developer
Back to basics. I saw a tweet the other day talking about how ambitious people's biggest weakness is over-optimizing. In my journey learning how to code, I took the age-old advice of building projects as the best way to learn. This worked, but as someone who considers themself ambitious, I took a very hacky way to get these projects done.
I'd prompt ChatGPT endlessly, learning how to get a simple prototype working, but without learning the essential fundamentals that would make me a strong programmer. It was like playing soccer, but instead of practicing free kicks myself, I'd sub myself in with David Beckham and telling him where I think he should kick the ball.
When learning CSS styling, I'd ask, how do I make this thing look like something else? I didn't know what justify-content or align-items did, but I knew you could throw some words together and suddenly a div would be centered. I've been taking the Odin Project fundamentals course and feeling delighted that I'm finally learning the ins and outs of what makes front end design possible. It's beautiful.
I finally get why people use things like Git and why people make jokes like how hard it is to center a div. Getting back to basics is one of the hardest things for an ambitious person to do. I want to be where my taste meets my present reality and I want to be there fast, but skills like programming, like any other skill, take time to hone. It's paying proper respect + homage to it.