The pre-class readings and videos made me realize that this class could provide me with a lot of new abilities and ways to expand my reach and amplify my voice. While I feel like I had a pretty good idea of how the internet works, I realized that I’m going to have to keep up with new developments, and that computing is always evolving after seeing the timeline of computation. I realized that more and more journalists are going to have to rely on programming and learn to do more on their own in order to be a successful part of their office, and they will definitely need these skills if they wish to strike out on their own.

Although WordPress is something I have used in other classes and experimented with in the past, and it can be used for the masses, I can have much more freedom if I learn how to used coding and programming to make my blog more dynamic and useful for my content. This can be done more cheaply if I am using the free, dot org version of WordPress and work without the constraints of paid templates. I am also realizing that putting in the legwork in early is going to pay large dividends in the end.

If I can make code as simple as I can early on, my building blocks will be stronger and more secure, and I will save myself a lot of time in the end. If I make sure I understand the concepts completely, in their simplest form, they will be much easier to use. The zen philosophy is simple, and encourages simplicity and tackling problems head on, early on, as “sparse is better than dense,” and “simple is better than complex.” Not letting things go until the last minute will be very helpful, as “now is better than never.”