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How to Start Planning – Improve Your Website And Get Organized

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How to Start Planning – Improve Your Website And Get Organized

Someone once said, ‘Planning is everything,’ and although I was initially uncertain about it, I now completely agree! Planning enables us to work more quickly and efficiently, while also helping us stay organized and stay on top of our tasks. Without it, I’d forget half of the things I need to do! This is especially relevant for people who have a full-time job and an online presence (blog, website, social media, etc.) as a side hustle. Keeping track of everything that needs to be done can be overwhelming. In this post, I will show you how to start planning and what you can plan in advance to make your life easier.

This is the first post of a 12-part series I have planned for this year. My goal is to help you improve your online presence, whether you have a small personal blog or a well-known business website. So, stay tuned for some awesome tips that will make your online presence shine!

How to Start Planning

To get started with planning, all you need is a piece of paper and a writing tool. If you prefer digital tools, you can use Notepad on your phone or computer. However, for me, physical planning has been a game changer.

Even the smallest lists count!

If you’re new to planning, don’t worry – we all start somewhere! My advice is to start small so that you don’t get overwhelmed. Having too many plans can easily discourage you, and that’s the last thing we want! What worked for me was creating a simple yearly plan with just a few projects or new things that I wanted to start. You can even put this list on your wall or fridge so that you see it often and stay motivated!

Another important thing is the weekly planner. I find it helpful to make a list of tasks I want to complete each week. Some of them are quick and easy, while others might take a whole day. Just remember to keep the list reasonable and not too long! Oh, and don’t forget to add short tasks to the list too! I find that crossing things off the list as I complete them really boosts my productivity and makes me feel accomplished.

I have designed a Life & Blog Planner that helps me to manage my life more easily. The planner is adaptable, giving you the freedom to print and use the pages that are important to you. You can start with the Weekly Planner page (or choose the Daily/Monthly one if you prefer) and add other pages like Yearly Goals or Finance Tracker as per your requirements.

The best things to plan first

It’s possible to plan every aspect of your life, including your meals, sleeping schedule, and work routine. However, it’s not advisable to turn your entire life into a rigid schedule. Everyone needs time for spontaneity and creativity. To avoid overthinking, you can start with these simple lists:

#1 Yearly Goals and Plans

It’s a good idea to make a list of things you want to achieve or do in the current year. Although it’s not necessary to make this list in January, it’s recommended to start at the beginning of the year. If it’s already summer, it’s better to switch to Monthly Goals and Plans. It’s best to use printed planners for this as you can pin your list in a visible place to keep track and stay focused. You can include both personal and business-related items on the list, or create two separate lists for them.

You can find the Yearly Vision and Goals page and Monthly calendars in our 2024 Life Planner

#2 Daily/Weekly/Monthly Plans

I’m a big fan of planning out my week in advance. It helps me stay organized and on top of everything. I make sure to jot down all the tasks I need to complete during the week, both big and small. And I always throw in a few easy ones too, just so I can cross them off my list and feel accomplished!

Plus, it’s a great way to motivate myself when I’m feeling a bit unmotivated. Whenever it’s time to work, I just take a look at my list and start with the task at the top. It’s amazing how much easier it is to get started when you have a plan in place. If you sometimes struggle with motivation, I highly recommend trying to complete at least one or two tasks from your list each day. You’ll be surprised at how much it can boost your productivity.

Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Planner pages can be found in Both Blog Planner and Life Planner.

#3 Social Media Planners

If you’re handling social media accounts for your business, I know it can be a lot of work. Using a planner is a super helpful way to keep your content on track and make sure you’re always promoting the things that matter most to you. Believe me, it can make a world of difference in how successful you are online.

Planning ahead is a great way to keep your social media posts organized and ensure your feed looks amazing. By planning a month in advance, you’ll get a bird’s-eye view of your content and can figure out which posts you might be missing, or which ones you’re sharing too frequently. It’s a great way to make sure your social media presence is on point!

Social Media Planners and Trackers can be found in 2024 Blog Planner.

Bonus: Finance Tracker

It is not really something you plan in advance but rather a way to keep track of your money. Planning your finances in advance can be tricky, but keeping track of your money is a great way to stay on top of things. It’s especially helpful for small business owners or bloggers like yourself. By keeping track of your additional expenses, you can make sure your business isn’t eating into your personal funds too much.

You can find the Finance Tracker pages and in our 2024 Life Planner

Are you ready to start planning?

I hope so! All you need is a piece of paper or any planner you have. We even have a Free 2024 Planner that you can download to get started! Give it a try and see how much of a difference it can make.

A Guide for Writing a How-To Article

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A Guide for Writing a How-To Article

That said, there are a few key elements that are important to include, which can be found in our contest rubric. Below, we share some examples from the Tip column to illustrate these elements.

Introduce your expert source.

The person you interviewed will be the main source of information for your piece. Ask yourself: How will my readers know this person is an expert in the skill or task? What information should I include about this person to make my readers feel that they can trust the person’s knowledge and advice?

Here is how Ms. Wollan introduces her expert in “How to Skip a Stone”:

“Throw at a 20-degree angle,” says Lydéric Bocquet, a physics professor at École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Later, she further explains Mr. Bocquet’s expertise:

Bocquet’s quest to understand how this happens — how a solid object can skim along water without immediately sinking — began more than a decade ago, while he was skipping stones on the Tarn River in southern France with his young son. “He turns to me,” Bocquet says, “and asks, ‘Why does the stone bounce on the water?’” To answer that question satisfactorily, Bocquet and his colleagues built a mechanical stone skipper and analyzed the angle of each toss using high-speed video. They also created a set of mathematical equations to predict the number of skips.

How do you know Bocquet is an expert in skipping stones? Do you, as the reader, trust him as an expert on this topic? Why or why not?

Explain how to do the task or skill.

The heart of your piece is, of course, your explanation. You might start by making a list of steps that your expert source shared and then paring it down to the most essential information.

Ask yourself:

  • What instructions are crucial to the reader’s understanding of how to accomplish this skill or task?

  • What did the expert share that I found surprising or may not have thought of?

  • What details can I leave out, either because they are not very interesting or because they are less important?

  • What sequence for the steps make the most sense for my readers?

Consider the first paragraph from “How to Build a Sand Castle”:

“Use your architect mind,” says Sudarsan Pattnaik, an award-winning sand sculptor from Puri, a seaside city in India. If you’re building from memory, first envision your castle. For Pattnaik, who is 42, that means well-known Hindu or Muslim sites. “I have made so many Taj Mahals,” he says. Build with fine-grained sand already wetted by an outgoing tide. “Dry sand is too, too difficult,” Pattnaik says. Bring tools: hand shovels, buckets with the bottoms cut off and squirt bottles. Tamp wet sand into your bucket molds, setting one layer and then the next, like bricks. Sculpt architectural details from the top of the mound down. Bring reference photographs if you’re aiming for realism.

See if you can identify all the steps to making a sand castle that the writer shares in this paragraph. What do you notice about the order? What, if anything, do you think the writer might have left out, and why do you think she made that choice? What tips did you find most surprising? What do these lines add to the piece?

How to … : An Informational Writing Contest for Teenagers

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How to … : An Informational Writing Contest for Teenagers

Do you know how to fix a brake light? What about how to memorize Shakespeare? How to keep a goldfish alive? Spot a shooting star? Write a love letter? Forgive someone?

These are just a few of the many skills explained in Tip, the how-to column by Malia Wollan which ran weekly in The New York Times Magazine from 2015-2022.

Inspired by this column, which took on topics both serious and silly, we are challenging students to write their own “how-to” for (almost) any task.

As long as the topic is appropriate for a family newspaper, students can explain whatever they like, including tasks that Tip has already taken on. But, just as the column did, they must also find, interview and quote one expert on the subject.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

Following the example of the long-running Tip column from The New York Times Magazine, write a description in 400 words or fewer about how to do a task.

What might that task be? Anything that is appropriate for a family newspaper and specific enough that you can thoroughly explain it within the word limit is fair game. We hope you’ll have fun choosing, and we have a collection of prompts to help.

For example, Tip covered topics as wide-ranging as how to survive a shark attack, wait in line, hoot like an owl, be less afraid of the dark, make a love potion and scale a chain-link fence. So whether you choose to write about something you already know how to do, or something you’d like to learn, your description of it should be clear, informative and engaging to read.

The only other requirement for your piece is that you also must find, interview and quote one expert on the subject.

If you read any of the Tip articles linked above, you’ll notice that each edition is built around an interview with a single expert. For this contest, we’re asking students to do the same: Interview an expert of your choice and include at least one quote from that person in your final piece.

Who counts as an expert? That’s up to you to decide — the only rule is that this person cannot be related to you. Choose someone who is knowledgeable enough about the subject that your readers will trust their advice.

Sometimes choosing the expert is easy. For example, to explain how to choose a karaoke song, Ms. Wollan interviewed a world karaoke champion; for how to recommend a book, she spoke to a librarian; and for how to suture a wound, she interviewed a doctor.

But your choice of expert can also be offbeat. For a column on how to breathe, Ms. Wollan interviewed a clarinet player; for one on how to slice a pie, she spoke to a restaurant owner; and for one on how to say goodbye, she interviewed a child-care worker who has bid farewell to many children over her career.

In addition to the guidelines above, here are a few more details:

  • You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate, and all students under 18 must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.

  • The work should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, written by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.

  • You may interview any expert on your topic you like, as long as that person is not related to you.

  • Your essay should be original for this contest. That means it should not already have been published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.

  • Keep in mind that the work you send in should be appropriate for a Times audience — that is, something that could be published in a family newspaper (so, please, no curse words).

  • Submit only one entry per student. And while many of our contests allow students to work in teams, for this one you must work alone.

  • As part of your submission, you must also submit an “artist’s statement” that describes your process. These statements, which will not be used to choose finalists, help us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. below to learn more.

  • All entries must be submitted by Feb. 14, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time, using the submission form at the bottom of this post.

Not sure where to start? Check out these resources:

  • The Tip column published hundreds of articles during the seven years it ran. You might scroll through the headlines or click on a few to read in full. A reminder that, if you don’t have a Times subscription, all of the Tip articles linked on this page and in our other resources are free when you access them through our site. (Note to teachers: Some articles may be not be appropriate for your students. Please preview the column before sharing it.)

  • For advice on finding topics and experts, read this piece from Times Insider about how the column is constructed.

  • Our related how-to guide breaks down the Tip formula and walks you through how to choose a topic and an expert, conduct an interview, then put it all together.

  • Our student forum can help students brainstorm topics and experts for their pieces.

  • Finally, here is the rubric we will use to judge this contest.

Below are answers to your questions about writing, judging, the rules and teaching with this contest. Please read these thoroughly and, if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, post your query in the comments or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

QUESTIONS ABOUT WRITING

What is a how-to essay?

It’s just what it sounds like — a piece of writing that explains how to do something. It is typically focused on one specific task and written directly to the reader. A how-to is a type of informational writing, which means everything you write should be true and based on facts and evidence. (For this assignment, that evidence is the expert source that you will find and interview yourself.)

By the end of your essay, your reader should understand how to do the task you set out to explain and come away with some practical advice or tools they can implement. But they should also have a wider understanding of the purpose of this skill and how and why they might use it. And remember, beyond being both clear and informative, your piece should be engaging to read.

I’m not sure what to write about. Where should I start?

Our student forum poses a series of questions that can help you brainstorm topic ideas. We hope you’ll not only contribute ideas but also read and respond to the ideas of others.

Is there anything I can’t write about?

You can cover any topic you like, as long as it is appropriate for a family newspaper and you can explain it sufficiently in 400 words or fewer.

Who counts as an “expert” and how do I find one to interview?

Our How To Write a ‘How-To’ Guide has more on this, but keep in mind that your expert doesn’t have to be the world champion of a sport or the national head of an organization to have expertise. This person can be anyone with specialized knowledge of a field or topic. For example, if you were writing a piece on how to start bird-watching, you could interview someone who works at a local park or zoo, someone from a birding group in your town or a bird-watcher you know personally, such as a neighbor or teacher.

But my grandma makes the best apple pies in the world. Why can’t I interview her for my how-to on baking?

One reason for this is that we want to encourage students to widen their circles and get to know new people in their communities.

But a bigger reason is that we want this contest, and all our contests, to help teach news literacy. In real-world journalism, no reporter would be assigned to cover their own family. Journalists must try to be as objective and unbiased as possible, and interviewing your grandmother — or your father, or your cousin — leads to a natural “conflict of interest” since it is hard to be objective about your relatives. For this reason, we also hope you won’t choose your close friends. One goal of this contest is for you to talk to people you don’t know well and learn from them.

The good news, however, is that you can suggest your relatives as a possible interview subjects for others in your class, so your friend is welcome to interview your grandma about her pies!

Do I need a Works Cited page?

Our submission form does not allow for a separate Works Cited page for this contest. Instead, you should give proper credit to your expert source in the piece itself.

Here is an example of how to do so from the Tip article “How to Recommend a Book”:

“Recommending books you love is the hardest thing of all,” says Joyce Saricks, 72, who worked for nearly 30 years as a reference librarian in suburban Chicago.

_________

QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING

How will my piece be judged?

Your work will be read by New York Times journalists as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

What’s the prize?

Having your work published on The Learning Network.

When will the winners be announced?

About two months after the contest has closed.

My essay wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?

We typically receive thousands of entries for our contests, so, unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide feedback on individual student essays.

_________

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES

Why are you asking for an Artist’s Statement about our process? What will you do with it?

All of us who work on The Learning Network are former teachers. One of the many things we miss, now that we work in a newsroom rather than a classroom, is being able to see how students are reacting to our “assignments” in real time — and to offer help, or tweaks, to make those assignments better. We’re asking you to reflect on what you did and why, and what was hard or easy about it, in large part so that we can improve our contests and the curriculum we create to support them. This is especially important for new contests, like this one.

Another reason? We have heard from many teachers that writing these statements is immensely helpful to students. Stepping back from a piece and trying to put into words what you wanted to express, and why and how you made artistic choices to do that, can help you see your piece anew and figure out how to make it stronger. For our staff, they offer important context that help us understand individual students and submissions, and learn more about the conditions under which kids around the world create.

We won’t be using your statements to choose our finalists, or publishing them alongside the winning work. Instead, they will strictly be for our staff to read. If we later decide to post something about student process using these statements, we will ask for your permission before quoting you. In other words, this is fairly informal; just be yourself and be honest in telling us as much as you can about how you worked and why.

Who is eligible to participate in this contest?

This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.

Whom can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?

Leave a comment on this post or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

_________

QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST

I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?

See the Resources for Students and Teachers section above.

Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?

No.

Students can get free access to Times pieces through The Learning Network, and for this contest our related materials link to well over 50 individual Tip columns.

In addition, all the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.

However, if you are interested in learning more about school subscriptions, visit this page.

How do my students prove to me that they entered this contest?

After they press “Submit” on the form below, they will see a “Thank you for your submission.” line appear. They can take a screenshot of this message. Please note: Our system does not currently send confirmation emails.

We will post the submission form here when the contest opens on Jan. 10, 2024.

What Do You Wish You Could Do Well?

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What Do You Wish You Could Do Well?

Are you a karaoke enthusiast? If so, you might have a few tips to share about how to choose a song — for example, “just because you like it does not mean you should sing it.” (After all, not everybody has the vocal range for “Bohemian Rhapsody.”)

For seven years, The New York Times’s Tip column offered advice on subjects both serious and silly, and the above words of wisdom come from “How to Choose a Karaoke Song.” You can find many more short, useful bits of advice by scrolling through the Tip column, which took on topics as wide-ranging as keeping a goldfish alive, writing a love letter, being less afraid of the dark, choosing an online handle and scaling a chain-link fence.

Now we’re inviting teenagers to write their own Tip columns, focusing on explaining skills that are interesting or important to you. But the first hurdle is figuring out what skill you’d like to explore.

To help, here are some questions. The goal is to brainstorm as long a list as possible, and then post some of your ideas in the comments. After, we hope you’ll read what others have written, respond to those comments, and maybe even borrow a few ideas for your own list from others.

Here are our questions:

  • To start, ask yourself what you would like to be able to do better — no matter how small or silly. Set a timer for three minutes and make as long a list as you can, writing down anything from a tiny skill like “remembering where I left my keys” to a more ambitious one like “learning to cook.”

Now add more to your list by answering some or all of these questions:

  • What physical skills do you wish you had — either those specific to a sport or a hobby, or those, like scaling a chain-link fence, that might come in handy in everyday life?

  • What practical skills would you like to master? Would you like to be on time consistently? Learn how to start a fire? Change a tire? Roast a chicken? Play poker?

  • What emotional or interpersonal skills would you like to have? For instance, maybe you wish you knew how to comfort friends when they’re sad, how to calm yourself down when you’re nervous or how to make conversation at a party.

  • What school-specific skills might come in handy? Maybe you wish you were better at memorizing Spanish vocabulary, taking notes, speaking up in class or getting your homework done on time.

  • Are there any skills you’d like to have just for fun, even if they don’t serve much of a practical purpose? For instance, maybe you’d like to be able to hail a cab with a whistle — even if you don’t live in New York?

  • What problems are you or a friend or family member struggling with right now that you could seek advice on? Again, it could be something small and specific like learning how to fill out a FAFSA or something larger like figuring out how to apply to college in general.

  • What is something people your age know a lot about that older people might not?

  • Do you know any experts? The answer might be obvious, like your math teacher who is an expert on making algebra fun, but it could also be something more subtle, like your math teacher’s other life as a rabid comic-book collector. Make a list of teenagers, adults or even children you know who are experts at some skill or in a specific field.

  • Now make a new list. What can you already do well — no matter how small? Set a timer for three minutes and make as long a list as you can, putting down anything, little or big, that you can think of. Then read over that list and consider all the ways you could improve. For instance, maybe you’re an Ultimate Frisbee player whose basic throwing and catching game is excellent — but someday you’d love to be able to “lay out.” What additional skills can you add to your wish list if you think about refining something you’re already pretty good at?

  • Finally, look over everything you wrote. What jumps out at you? Is there a skill or two that you might like to focus on? What? Why is it interesting to you? Is there an expert who could give you good advice?

Before you go, post anything you like in the comments. Tell us about skills you have, skills you’d like to gain, experts you know or why you’d like to learn something.

When you have a topic, use our related guide to go on to the next step, which is finding an expert to interview.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.

Introducing “Navigating Generative AI: A CEO Playbook” 

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Introducing “Navigating Generative AI: A CEO Playbook” 

Course offers decision-makers access to hands-on GenAI labs for learning, strategy development, organization transformation, and risk navigation

By Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO

I have been a CEO for 25 years. During this time, I have witnessed several technological shifts. None has been more exciting and sweeping than the rise of Generative AI. I was at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos in Jan 2023 when ChatGPT burst onto the scene and captured the imagination of every global leader at the event. Since then, the world has realized that this technology will transform every aspect of our lives. In the past, we didn’t have many educational tools to navigate seismic shifts as they unfolded. Thanks to online learning, we now have the means to rapidly disseminate knowledge that can transform threats into opportunities.

As I prepare to attend Davos this year, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new course, Navigating Generative AI: A CEO Playbook — a resource for my fellow CEOs and executives worldwide to learn and apply the technology to drive innovation and productivity. The course will help CEOs navigate the “GenAI conundrum”: the ethical, data, and regulatory risks if they move too quickly, but the risk of falling behind agile competitors if they are slow to adopt.

“Navigating Generative AI: A CEO Playbook” will help CEOs and execs:

  1. Understand Generative AI: This course is made by a CEO for CEOs. It gives CEOs a practical overview of the technology’s unique capabilities and limitations and where it may be heading.
  2. Harness the Power of GenAI: It offers practical examples and tools to use GenAI as a “thought partner,” including how to leverage GenAI for information synthesis, setting strategy, decision-making, competitive analysis, and effective communication. Hands-on labs give CEOs secure access to the latest GenAI models that they can use to identify opportunities to create customer value, boost productivity, and develop strategies — all tailored to their business.
  3. Transform Organizations: The course provides a structured approach to organizational transformation. It explains how GenAI transformation is different than anything we’ve seen and equips leaders with the knowledge and skills to help their organizations engage, experiment, and innovate within technological and organizational guardrails.
  4. Consider Ethical, Data, and Legal Implications: The course addresses how to navigate ethical, regulatory, and legal considerations related to GenAI and manage risks in order to move quickly but safely in adopting the technology.
  5. Gain from Expert Perspectives: The course features several guest experts, including Andrew Ng, worldwide AI expert and Coursera co-founder; Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI; Steve Jarret, Chief AI Officer of Orange Telecom; and Alondra Nelson, author of the Biden administration’s “AI Bill of Rights.” Expert voices and reading materials will be updated quarterly to reflect the latest genAI developments and research.

The course also offers access to a hands-on lab Playground, running on Google Gemini Pro and hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. This secure, private sandbox environment lets executives not only learn how to use GenAI but also apply the use of this technology to formulate strategic plans and identify specific opportunities to create customer value and boost productivity.

The full impact of Generative AI is still unfolding. However, CEOs will play a crucial role in helping organizations adapt and harness the technology as a tool to transform their institutions and society more broadly. I hope you enjoy the new course, and share your learnings and insights with the wider community.

Navigating Generative AI: A CEO Playbook is available in 17 languages, including Arabic, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian Bahasa, and Thai.

Click here to enroll in Navigating Generative AI: A CEO Playbook today.

Weekly Student News Quiz: Primary Season, Football, Mickey Mouse

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Weekly Student News Quiz: Primary Season, Football, Mickey Mouse

Above is an image related to one of the news stories we followed over the past week. Do you know what it shows? You’ll find the answer at the bottom of this quiz.

But first, here are 10 questions about current events. How many can you answer correctly?

How I Went from Business Owner to Software Engineer II in 2 Years

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How I Went from Business Owner to Software Engineer II in 2 Years

Learning to code so that you can land a job in tech can feel daunting. That’s why we’re sharing inspiring stories from Codecademy’s community — to show how people like you (yes, you!) can embark on a learning journey and end up with a totally new career. We hope these stories serve as a reminder that there’s no single path to a more fulfilling work life.

Today’s story is from Pradeep Sukhwani, a 30-year-old Software Engineer II at Airbase, living in Ahmedabad, India. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here — and be sure to share your story here.

Why I chose to learn to code

“I had an issue with my business back in 2014. It actually went down, and I had nothing in my career. I followed my interest at the time; I wanted to be a game developer because I play games a lot. In my childhood days, I started my gaming journey playing Sega games, and then I jumped on PlayStation — I still have a console with me. That’s why I started this journey through Codecademy.

Codecademy was the first step for me to build a career and to get familiar with the computer science world. I had no knowledge about what computer science was or how I could build a career without a degree. But I just followed my passion.

I took courses from Codecademy, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and I slowly moved to Python Django. For Codecademy, the first thing was taking the course and doing it in real time. Whenever I needed any language, I could do it on Codecademy. Taking the courses, it’s like a user-friendly thing. It’s not a steep learning curve; it’s more like slowly increasing, and you can use the forums if you have any doubts.”

Learn something new for free

How I saved up money to switch careers

“At the time, I was financially dependent on my family members, so I didn’t have the luxury to buy a nice laptop or anything. Codecademy provided me with a platform where I could do code practice. I used the Basic plan, so everything was free. I had a job as a Technical Service Associate, which was a customer service role. It was just to ensure that I could keep up with my living expenses and, again, learn new things. I wanted to make sure that maybe I could get a chance to jump to a different career if this current one didn’t work out.”

How long it took me to land a job

“It took me a year to land a job. I started my journey back in 2015, and by the next year, I had this internship, and then 2017 was the year I started my professional career. I began my first full-time job as a Software Engineer, and I worked on Python Django as a primary tech stack. Slowly, I moved towards React because I had a good understanding of how JavaScript worked and what jQuery was.

Gradually, I built my career in the computer science world, and today I am working as a Software Engineer II at Airbase, which is an SES company based out of San Francisco.”

How I got in the door

“It involved a lot of preparation and, of course, patience. Whenever I learned anything, it was entirely new for me — things like pointers, lists, and arrays. To maintain patience, I would go back to Google repeatedly, asking questions and trying to understand concepts, like, ‘What is this?’ and ‘What is that?’ I utilized Codecademy’s forums, where people helped me out. Forums was actually like my stepping [stone], where many questions were solved. That’s basically how I cleared my interview rounds.”

How I nailed the interview

“I faced a lot of issues during the coding round because, I can see that I am a software engineer, but in the end, I still didn’t know how to solve the problem. I used to spend hours on Codecademy and other forums just to solve it.

It’s important to have a clear gist of how you can approach the problem in a different way. You have to think about why you are doing it and what is the reason behind it. A problem can be solved in multiple ways. That actually helped me a lot and changed my entire mindset when approaching problems.”

“It’s important to have a clear gist of how you can approach the problem in a different way. You have to think about why you are doing it and what is the reason behind it.”

Pradeep Sukhwani

Software Engineer II at Airbase

How day one and beyond went

“My first day as a software engineer was in a challenging environment because it was something I had never experienced before. There were so many people around me, many of whom were way more senior and from a computer science background. No one was like me, coming from a non-tech background and asking questions about things that others might assume you should already know.

Basically, it’s okay to ask ‘stupid’ questions; having questions means you are growing. It shows a willingness to learn new things, so it’s okay to ask any questions.

I was still at a stage where I was learning new things, but it was more about the mindset I faced. Even now, it’s still a quite challenging environment because you have to keep up with the knowledge and the new things coming in. You have to question why you’re doing things in a certain way, because engineers ask questions like, ‘Why are you doing it this way? Why not that way? Do you have any specific reasons?’ You have to make sure that you ask these questions to yourself. Is there any better way to do it or not?”

What I wish I knew before I started learning

“The first thing is to have an open mindset, as if you don’t know anything. It really helps to grasp things as fast as possible. Once you have a mindset of already knowing, it can slow you down. For instance, thinking, ‘I know this because I’ve done a similar thing in some other code, website, or place.’

The second thing is to learn how Google works. Google primarily operates on keywords, so you don’t really need to type the entire sentence with a question mark or perfect grammar.”

Not sure where to start? Check out our personality quiz! We’ll help you find the best programming language to learn based on your strengths and interests.

Want to share your Codecademy learner story? Drop us a line here. And don’t forget to join the discussions in our community.

What Are Your Thoughts on Last Names?

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What Are Your Thoughts on Last Names?

How did you get your last name? Was it passed down to you from your father’s side of the family? That is how last names are usually given to babies in the United States, but some families are taking different approaches. They may draw from the mother’s side instead, use both parents’ last names (sometimes placing a hyphen between them), choose a name that has family history or other significance — or come up with something wholly original.

What does your last name mean to you? If you have children someday, how will you decide on their last names?

When Judy Pellarin had her daughters three decades ago, she and her husband gave them her last name instead of his. A generation later, her daughters also broke tradition — one gave her daughter her surname, and the other created a new name, a blending of her and her husband’s middle names.

Though some families have deviated from the patrilineal tradition for decades, they remain part of a small minority. Even as many gender norms have changed over the generation since Ms. Pellarin named her children, the tradition of giving babies their fathers’ surnames remains so strong as to be almost unquestioned.

Yet in other ways, the American family looks very different. Fifty years ago, most adults under 50 were married and raising children as a couple; that is no longer the norm for U.S. adults. Parents are increasingly likely to be never married or divorced, or same-sex or interethnic couples.

These changes complicate the patrilineal tradition, say parents who have taken a different approach. Many hyphenate their last names. Some make less common choices, like giving children the mother’s surname or coming up with new names altogether. For some, it is a rejection of patriarchal norms. Others say it’s about maintaining ties to their heritage or ethnicity, or because fathers weren’t involved in raising the children.

There is no nationwide data on how many parents give children a surname other than the father’s. But data on the names couples take at marriage suggests it’s uncommon. Of men in opposite-sex marriages, a Pew survey found this year, 5 percent took their wife’s last name, and less than 1 percent hyphenated their names.

Four in five women take their husband’s last name at marriage. Those who keep their names are likelier to be liberal, highly educated or Hispanic — and this minority is more likely to make unconventional choices with their children’s names, research shows.

The patrilineal tradition arose, said Charlotte J. Patterson, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, as an acknowledgment that “fathers were the head of the household, and when they named their child this way, it was expressing that it was a legitimate birth and the child could inherit from them.”

Even as those reasons have become less relevant, she said, “because we have this longstanding custom, I think many people do this without really considering any alternatives.”

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Coveted Cup

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Coveted Cup

Have you heard about people camping out for and fighting over a special Valentine’s Day cup at Target stores? Yes, a cup!

The Times writes:

The next time you go to Target, you might need to wear a helmet. The store sells them, come to think of it.

The reason is that last week, Stanley, the company known for trendy tumblers, released special-edition cups — a collaboration with Starbucks — for Valentine’s Day. It caused tumult at multiple Target stores across the country. There has been a steady stream of social-media videos showing customers nearly coming to blows or otherwise overrunning the store to obtain their own 40-ounce pink or red water tumbler. Some are even camping — camping! — outside Target to make sure they can get their hands on one.

What’s your reaction to the story?

What would you be willing to camp out for a chance to get your hands on it? Could you imagine arguing — or even coming to blows over it?

How far have you gone to buy something in the past? Was it worth it?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Picture Prompts here.

Word of the Day: portentous

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Word of the Day: portentous

The word portentous has appeared in 25 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Nov. 3 in “Is Fluminense the Team of the Future?” by Rory Smith:

… Fluminense had just fired its coach. Diniz had both played for and managed the team already, and he had fond memories of his time working with Bittencourt, a 45-year-old lawyer. In his heart, he said, he felt that “the time was right to return.”

His message — one full of “shyness, reflection and a very pure feeling,” as Diniz put it, which is the vibe of most of my WhatsApps, too — found a receptive audience. “He was the one I wanted, but we hadn’t spoken yet,” Bittencourt told the Brazilian news outlet Globo. He put the coincidence down to an “exchange of energy,” one that was too portentous to ignore. Diniz got the job.

Can you correctly use the word portentous in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

If you want a better idea of how portentous can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

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