Hi RedwoodJS Rockstars,
I’m creating an app with RedwoodJS, and I thought I’d capture my experience as a relative-newbie. (I’m capturing what I really wanted when I started out developing my first React app about a year ago - a glimpse at the grind and sausage-making of a day-in-the-life). So, hopefully it helps other relative-newbies 
My first YouTube episode is available at FlipAgain 1 - Thinking in React.
It’s a flashcard app (or will be eventually). That is, a tool for studying. It’s called FlipAgain.
I hope it helps build up this community!
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I love that you’ve created a video around explaining React that uses RedwoodJS.
We’ve talked a lot about using Redwood as a learning tool for GraphQL but I’ve always felt that with the first introduction you could even teach Redwood to someone with almost no React experience.
I think this will be a fantastic resource for anyone coming from that direction. I’ll add this to the awesome-redwood repo and get this out on the Twitters!
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@ajcwebdev That is actually what brought me to RedwoodJS when I discovered it, the ability to learn the different pieces. Not a software engineer by any stretch of the word even though I have written a lot of code and definitely not a web developer. I had tried Udemy courses, Free Code Camp, etc but could never in my mind make it all work as there was too much to learn to make a real world application. I am one of those people who learn out of pure necessity so instead of just trying to learn something I like to build something and learn what I don’t know to make it do what I want it to do.
RedwoodJS took away a lot of the fear/complexity of standing up a real world application, not just a static website. It has allowed me to actually start working on a real world application that I hope to be able to demonstrate shortly.
@keith.t.elliott thanks for putting that video together and sharing your journey with the rest of the community
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Really nice stuff @keith.t.elliott. I like how you take your time and really break things down, I will recommend this to others looking to learn!
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Thanks to all of you for making me feel welcomed and valued!
I’m jazzed, and will keep it up. And, I’ll improve the quality as I progress. Please, always feel free to critique or suggest ideas.
A sustainable pace is probably about one video release per week. I recently released the second one: FlipAgain 2 - Thinking in React (Again) . I’ll keep truckin’!
So much fun!
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Hello Redwood Friends,
FYI, I just released FlipAgain 3 - Adding State to Our ToDo App. In the episode, we will continue adding state to a simple ToDo starter app. And, we write our first unit test.
My pace seems so slow, this could be called Slow Coding with Keith
But, I’m encouraged and have a silly story… YouTube posted a Bob Ross instructional painting video on the top of my list of recommended videos. At the beginning (at 1 min 30 seconds into the video) he says “Take your time and work at your own pace. Speed with come with practice.” Oh, I’m ruined! I’ve taken Bob’s advice - hook, line & sinker. I’m taking my time. I’m slow. But I’m practicing. Speed will come…
Cheers,
Keith
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Hi Redwood Friends,
In FlipAgain 4 - Unit Tests, I create a robust unit test for a utility function. In doing so, and as I continue working through the Redwood tutorial, I’m really starting to appreciate Redwood Cells and scaffolds to setup common workflows. Because, if I grow my own (and do my best to make it robust), it will take me forever!
So, thanks for making Slow Coding with Keith faster 
Cheers,
Keith
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Rockin’ Redwooders,
I have to share a fun benchmark: I just pushed my first-ever open source contribution to GitHub: The simple RedwoodJS ToDo App that I’ve been creating in public.
It’s a very modest open source contribution, but I am delighted at how satisfying it feels to actually publish code
It jives with my FlipAgain 5 - Controlled Component video, where I walk through the concept of controlling an input element via React, then call it DONE.
But, I’ll keep trucking along these lines…
Next up: Re-do my basic app with Redwood Cells (state and persistence are the biggest concepts that I’m wrestling with at the moment).
So, I’m off to crank out ToDoVersionTwo!
Cheers,
Keith
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Hi Redwood Friends,
Yesterday I had a great time leading buddies over at the React Podcast Discord Channel through a discussion titled Thinking in React.
It was fun! The above link will take you to a recorded version of it. The audio quality is challenged, but if you can bear it, it may worth a listen/watch (especially the newbies among us). We enjoyed getting to know each other and stepping through my simple Redwood ToDo app. Our very own Anthony Campolo joined us - glad to spend time with you Anthony!
Cheers,
Keith
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