I think "making things" is overrated. I think because the majority of people rely on computers to do things, from finding apartments to sorting data/information, that for beginners, it's better to "make your own life better". I guess it is non-trivial to realize how your day-to-day tasks in your professional life can be streamlined/improved by simple scripts, but no harder than it is to build a basic website that isn't amateurish.
And learning to code by reading a Rails book? Don't you have to know how to code before you build even a basic Rails app? Even average coders can't easily grasp all the concepts behind building a full-fledged web app, nevermind someone who barely knows what a for loop is.
"And learning to code by reading a Rails book? Don't you have to know how to code before you build even a basic Rails app? Even average coders can't easily grasp all the concepts behind building a full-fledged web app, nevermind someone who barely knows what a for loop is."
Agreed. As someone who has some coding experience (i.e. current CS student) but who is learning web dev, many parts of Rails/Django are way over my head. Rails/Django weren't designed for beginners. I've found starting with Flask which does considerably less than Rails/Django to be much more understandable. Sure I am probably often reinventing a shittier wheel but I think there is benefit in understanding what a full blown framework like Rails or Django provides before using one.
Also agreed here. I started really getting into programming on rails, and really regret it. The only reason I made it through was because I was an intern full time and had the guidance of a bunch of really smart people available the entire day.
I'm going to write a post about this specifically soon. I feel like it's this insane craze that rails is the way to go for people that don't know a single thing about programming, and it makes me sad that 99% of these people will end up dropping it because of this misguided notion.
And learning to code by reading a Rails book? Don't you have to know how to code before you build even a basic Rails app? Even average coders can't easily grasp all the concepts behind building a full-fledged web app, nevermind someone who barely knows what a for loop is.