There is some pseudo-science that claims the second or third Monday in January is “blue Monday” – the most depressing day of the year. The reasons given include weather conditions in the northern hemisphere being bleak, the amount of time since the Christmas holiday, the number of people giving up on New Year’s resolutions, and more.
It is, of course, nonsense, but it does have one grain of truth: it’s easy to get discouraged when you’re part-way through something, because the initial novelty has worn off and there’s still a lot more work ahead of you.
That’s where you are today. You’re less than half the way through the 100 Days of Swift, but you’re already being asked to tackle complicated topics in multiple consecutive days – the difficulty level is ramping up, the pace probably feels a little quicker, and the amount of code you’re being asked to write is also going up.
I know some of the days you’ve faced have been harder than others, and I also know you’re probably feeling tired – you’re giving up a lot of time to make this happen. But I want to encourage you to keep pushing on: you’re almost at the half-way point now, and the apps you’re now able to build are genuinely useful – you’ve come a long way!
Helpfully, today is another consolidation day, which is partly a chance for us to go over some topics again to make sure you really understand them, partly a chance for me to dive into specific topics such as enumerated()
and GCD’s background/foreground bounce, and partly a chance for you to try making your own app from scratch.
As always, the challenge you’ll face is absolutely within your current skill level, and it gives you a chance to see how far you’ve come for yourself. Ricky Mondello – one of the team who builds Safari at Apple – once said, “one of my favorite things about software engineering, or any kind of growth really, is coming back to something that you previously thought was too hard and knowing that you can do it.”
Today you have three topics to work through, one of which of is your challenge.
Note: Don’t worry if you don’t complete challenges in the day they were assigned – in future days you’ll find you have some time to spare here and there, so challenges are something you can return back to in the future.
Need help? Tweet me @twostraws!
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The 100 Days of Swift is a free collection of videos, tutorials, tests, and more to help you learn Swift faster. Click here to learn more, or watch the video below.
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