The First 20 Hours

How To Learn Anything… Fast!

A practitioner’s guide to rapid skill acquisition. Accelerate your learning by deconstructing complex skills, practicing the most important elements first, and removing barriers to deliberate practice. What do you want to learn?

Buy the book:


Chapter 5: Programming

Josh Kaufman programming

Summary: How I Learned to Program using Ruby

Project #1: Blogging with Jekyll

Here's the full source code for Monograph, the simple Sinatra application I use to run static Jekyll websites on Heroku.

Aside from the Sinatra application, Monograph contains a basic template for an SEO-friendly two-column blog-style website using the jekyll static website generator. The template is ready for customization and deployment on Heroku's Bamboo stack. The application includes sane defaults for page caching, keywords, RSS feeds, a sitemap, and canonical URLs.

View Monograph on Github

Project #2: Codex, a personal notes application

Here's the full source code for the personal note-taking application I discuss in the "Programming" chapter of the book.

Codex is a simple single-user reference web application written in Ruby. Codex uses Sinatra and Datamapper to create, save, update, and delete page records from a simple Postgres database. The application is ready for immediate deployment on Heroku.

Markdown formatting is enabled for all pages, which makes it easy to write complex pages with simple markup. HTTP authentication and forced SSL for all traffic keeps your information secure. Bootstrap styling and Subtle Patterns backgrounds make your pages look clean and attractive.

View Codex on Github


The First 20 Hours

How To Learn Anything… Fast!

A practitioner’s guide to rapid skill acquisition. Accelerate your learning by deconstructing complex skills, practicing the most important elements first, and removing barriers to deliberate practice. What do you want to learn?

Buy the book:


About Josh Kaufman

Josh Kaufman is an acclaimed business, learning, and skill acquisition expert. He is the author of two international bestsellers: The Personal MBA and The First 20 Hours. Josh's research and writing have helped millions of people worldwide learn the fundamentals of modern business.

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