{"id":865,"date":"2014-05-06T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novicenolonger.com\/?p=865"},"modified":"2014-05-09T22:15:54","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T02:15:54","slug":"win-a-free-ticket-to-the-modev-ux-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novicenolonger.com\/win-a-free-ticket-to-the-modev-ux-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Win a free ticket to the MoDev UX conference!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
One lucky reader will win a free ticket<\/strong> to the MoDev UX conference<\/a> in Washington, DC this month! That’s a $799 value, and all you need to do is tell me why you want to go \u2014 I’ve got a form at the bottom of this post. But first,\u00a0I want to tell you why I’m<\/em> going and why you should want to go, too.<\/p>\n Once of the first books I bought when I decided to quit my job at The Verge<\/em> and start freelancing and working on this website full-time was\u00a0Deduct It!: Lower Your Small Business Taxes<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Stephen Fishman.\u00a0Up until that point, my knowledge of the United States tax system was practically nonexistent, and I got the book to make sure that my first small business venture got off on the right foot.<\/p>\n But reading Deduct It!<\/em>\u00a0had unexpected consequences beyond simply understanding the law:\u00a0each new chapter gave me a ton of new ideas for growing my business.<\/p>\n I was expecting a book about tax law\u00a0to be extremely boring, but it read more like an instruction manual for kicking ass in small business.\u00a0By learning the laws pertaining to certain types of purchases and income, I discovered new assets to buy and revenue streams I never even considered.<\/p>\n They say that the best way to learn a new language is\u00a0through total immersion. That’s exactly what happens at conferences. And speaking this new language is the best way to think differently about your own projects and problems.<\/p>\n A computer science degree doesn’t teach\u00a0how to code \u2014 it teaches how to think<\/em>. Students still need to independently study\u00a0individual programming languages, but the computer science background makes learning new languages much easier.\u00a0When you already understand the concept of a linked list<\/a> or an array<\/a>, it’s easier to learn how to write\u00a0them in Ruby, Java, Objective-C, or any other programming language.<\/p>\n Similarly, user experience\u00a0teaches a different way to think about problems. Learning a new method for structuring a website or app will reveal user problems you never even realized existed.<\/p>\nWhy are conferences important?<\/h2>\n
Why should I learn UX?<\/h2>\n
Novice…no longer!<\/h2>\n