Explain like I'm five
We as developers have a tendency to make things complicated. My intention is to explain things in a very simple manner first, and then dive into details when needed.
About Me
Hello, my name is Dejan. I am a self-taught Web Developer. Somewhere around February 2014, I started earning money with my coding skills. In the beginning I worked as a Freelancer. Nowadays, I am a full-time employee.
I like to think of myself as a fast learner, but sometimes going more in depth to understand the concepts throws me off track. At the end of it I appreciate that I get a wider picture of the issue and don't mind spending more time. I always strive for doing things right, instead of just making it work. As you might have guessed it, I care about the details.
The Blog
There are two reasons why I started this Blog:
The first one is, I wanted to have a place to document all the things I am learning. And if I need a refresher I can always go back and read what I wrote.
The second one is, I want to try and bring my understanding of things out there. Because I did not study Computer Science or Computer Engineering, sometimes I have trouble understanding certain topics and/or explanations. Therefore, I am a huge fan of explaining things like you are talking to a 5 year old. Of course, once you understand the concept, you should go deeper into the how and the why.
Learning in Public
I really like the Learning in Public concept. I think it makes you a bit more vulnerable to the very unforgiving people on the internet, but it's also a perfect test whether you really understand the stuff you are talking about.
With this Blog I am committing to this idea of putting yourself out there and sharing what you learn. I am certain that I will make mistakes, maybe even stupid ones. But that is alright, as long as I learn something from it and correct my understanding and solidify my knowledge.
Things I do in my spare time
In my spare time I am not really away from the computer that much. When I am, I enjoy spending time with my family (my wife Ivana and my son Mihajlo).
I have a big list of articles and books I want to read, tutorials I want to watch and things I want to try out. Constant learning.
One of the things I am super proud about is mentoring. I am one of the admins of a Facebook Group called CSS Srbija. There, I am sharing interesting CSS stuff as well as helping people out with their issues (CSS, HTML, JS). From there I was officially and unofficially mentoring several Junior Developers. Most of them started freelancing and some of them were able to get an internship and even full-time employment. I like to think that I helped them get there a bit easier.
I also train parkour (since 14.2.2011). Although I am struggling to find the time for regular training, I am still very passionate about it.
Open Source Projects
At the moment I do not have a lot of stuff public, but I have a lot of stuff pending and will be releasing as much as I can in the following period. The current open source projects I have are:
- Scrum Poker Cards - A small PWA to help with scrum poker estimates.
- Great learning resources - A collection of great resources for learning that I personally went through.
- Boilerplate Next.js - A boilerplate to start projects faster and easier. It has TypeScript, Styled Components and testing with Jest and React testing library set up.
