I have a problem when it comes to learning new skills/languages.
I am very theoretical minded person in a sense that I could read and watch videos about anything and be content. However, I have found that knowledge doesn’t stick as well with me if I don’t implement what I have learned.

Example:
I’m in the process of learning Angular Js and a few months ago I did the Code School course. When going over the course again, I noticed that I remembered a lot of theory. Things like, I’m able to make controllers in a separate JS file and integrate them into the HTML directly. Little detailed parts of a whole I remembered, but when it came to actual implementation I had forgotten the majority of it. That allowed me to catch up fairly quickly on what I was doing, I felt when I was learning it again a kind of snowball effect. Where everything felt strange at first, but the more I did the quicker it came back to me. However, I don’t want to fall that far back again. So this time I’m going to try a much different strategy.

I’ve decided on the majority of the Rails apps that I am going to be building in my upcoming weeks at The Iron Yard, that I would try to integrate Angular JS into my front end if just a little bit. Constantly reminding myself of what it is, how to use it, and how to use its incredibly responsive design to the optimal efficiency. I feel like I need to retain what I am learning by keeping on using it. It seems pretty basic, but it will be effort to constantly be using it and integrating it into my designs. Eventually I feel like I will be comfortable enough to not be integrating Angular JS into Rails, but develop API’s with Rails and have Angular call the JSON data returned and have two separate entities. This is where I want to be and what I want to develop.

I feel strongly about taking my Rails applications towards an API path. To me, this is where the power of Rails really comes in. To be able to quickly and efficiently build an API and let multiple mediums use the data that I create. One of the other classes at The Iron Yard is an IOS class. Here in the upcoming weeks we are going to be doing an internal Hackathon, being able for all of us to use our skills together. I want to be able to make an API that is usable by IOS, front-end, etc etc. This excites me greatly. I have a path and I’m looking forward to walking it.