Log of what of Amimul Arnab has learned at Techie Youth

I finished up the website. Even though I did this in such short notice, there is a lot of room for improvement. With only beginner level knowledge, I was able to create a functioning website with buttons, texts and links, however im not too familiar with javascript and since im short on time, there wasn't much flexibility. I did do enough to complete the requirements and it does fit the Minimally Viable Product. Overall, I learned a lot more from attempting this project than watching youtube tutorials and I will continue creating websites after this program with Techie Youth is over. This is a career I am interested in.

Overall, my experience in Techie Youth has been wonderful. This summer I learned new things, explored a business model to make money (selling clothing using art and branding), found a fun hobby that I was originally bad at (music production), learned a high income skill (copywriting), learning how to trade and invest (Online Trading) and found a career I am interested in pursuing full time (Frontend Development). This summer was overall very productive and a great learning opportunity. I also love the cause Techie Youth aims to solve and help homeless and incarcerated teenagers by giving them a second chance to learn how to make money and exploring a passion someone can enjoy. Thank you for this opportunity and I am very grateful for this.

I learned how to start building a website from watching the videos on the website development unit. I downloaded visual studio code and started building my very own website. I made it themed to techie youth, added webpage functionality and added images and navigation toolbar and styled the page using CSS. Tomorrow, I will continue adding more features and learn Javascript to add more functionality to my website.

Overall, I have an idea of the website, which will be a blog post where users can input text just like what I am doing here while having a page to call for action using one of my previous unit assessments from the copywriting unit.

Today I started my introduction to web development. I always wanted to do web development and I will purse this as a career. The average salary for a frontend developer is 109k which is huge starting salary and all I have to do is create and manage websites which is doable. I learned that HTML is used to create a webage and add text and buttons. I also learned that CSS is a stylesheet used to give color and aesthetics. Javascript is backend where all the script and functionality happens to ensure the website is running smoothly. Tomorrow, I will learn how to create the website using html and css to create the basics and then use javascript to add functionality.

Also waiting approval for the unit assessment for Stocks and Cryptocurrency unit.

I completed two unit assessments this week:

1) Analyst unit was complete as I spent hours researching and using my writing skills to take the data and formulate a proposal to combat youth homelessness. I created a three step plan with links and useful articles to help combat NYC youth homelessness and posted my answers on reddit since reddit is the most active forum.

2) I made a follow-up video on my stocks and cryptocurrencies unit assessment and I was 6/10 correct. 60% accuracy for someone that just started learning how to trade/invest made me happy. This was by far my most favorite unit and very useful skill I learned.

For my final week, I will start the longest unit which is web development. Since I'm a computer science major and I plan on doing Frontend Development as a career, this will come in handy

Today I learned and completed the Data Analyst unit. Data analysis is the study of data (a set of recorded information) and analyzed into better understanding and leading to solutions or growth for a company. A data analyst will research, identify and used to create trends of similar data and recognize pattern behaviors which in then is reported to the company. They are very crucial to a success of a company because valuable data sets dictate the success and failures of a company. For example, Tik Tok uses data sets to record the topics of videos that people watch repeatedly, which then is used to record that same data and identify a trend that is being used, to then placed in a search algorithm to find similar content as the user previously watched. This is the work of a data analyst job, to identify data types and find similar patterns.

I firmly believe I have enough knowledge to start this unit assessment. I chose to find and collect data on youth homelessness, study the data and find trends, and provide solutions on this given data set. I found one useful source so far. I will work on the unit assessment tomorrow with my following dataset:

https://www.usich.gov/resources/uploads/asset_library/Ending_Youth_Homelessness_Coordinated_Response.pdf

Today I learned a lot about stocks and cryptocurrencies and the basics of trading. I did trade in the past with no prior experience and learned the methods and strategies but didn't know the technical names nor terms for it. I learned that bullish means rising prices and bearish means falling prices and bull market is a market where stock prices go up and bear market means stock prices go down. I learned how to read and analyze a chart, identify the trendline, support and resistance of a stock price. The two most important thing is stock price and volume where volume dictates the momentum and direction of price as more trades are happening simultaneously, the more price is likely to increase, the less volume, the less likely it drops. The same can be said about cryptocurrencies but the difference is that cryptos are more digital currency and decentralized but that means its more volatile because ANYTHING can cause price shifts unlike stocks which are basically derived from a company's performance and events that shift prices. Stocks are more stable and offers dividends while cryptocurrencies are mainly used to trade currency, but that price can vary depending on the state of the crypto. I also learned you can exchange, and trade currencies known as FOREX where you trade through the foreign exchange market, with much less risk, but the same trading principles apply. Going into this, I thought trading can be FAST money and its true, you can gain money FAST but you can lose money just as FAST. It's a skill that requires practice and experienced traders have been honing these skills for years regardless of what they trade whether its stocks, cryptos or forex. Now I have more than enough knowledge to start the unit assessment which I started with one stock and used my analysis to predict where Roblox will go. I will make a YouTube video, edit it and finish the unit assessment and wait 3 days later to check where the price will be for 5 stocks and 5 cryptocurrencies. Overall, this unit was fun and I gained a lot of value from this and a lot of progress has been made today.

I haven't been completing my unit assessments, so I completed the copywriting unit assessment. I used the techie youth website for reference and their causes to establish credibility, and with the wide variety of courses techie youth offers, I was able to turn the features techie youth offers such as the wide variety of classes for different skills people may be interested in and then turn the features into a benefit as how it can help them in their daily lives. I included a link and a call to action as well as contact page to generate more leads. I included different colors and added images to make the page more appealing, but the message was the most important part. Tomorrow, I will start the stocks and cryptocurrencies unit because I'm very interested in that and try to finish that by the end of the week.

Today I learned how copywriting works. The way copywriting works is to create conversions for a business. It needs three things, first of all a catch is important to get a potential client interested. Then you find a way to lead your "features" into selling points to solve a problem and get through a customer to understand why this product will benefit them. Finally, you need to create a call-to-action that will help a client contact you. And for the unit assessment, I will work on creating a PSA about Techie Youth since I understand how Copywriting is and I can complete this easily.

Today I switched from digital goods to learning about writing and the unit assessment is something I can do for this unit. In this unit, I covered the essence of Magazines and Journals. A magazine is something that uses a variety of illustrations and anecdotes or facts that are checked and use catchy headlines with graphics to get the reader's attention and use a multitude of subjects to keep the reader interested. In one magazine, you can have multiple sections in one such as current events, new automobile, tech, fashion, clothing, fitness, health and the headline will be the "main" issue that the magazine discusses. A journal is more formal and focuses on a singular topic which is catered towards a specific audience. Just like a magazine, it is also peer reviewed to ensure the quality, grammar and the tone and wording that the purpose of the journal conveys the message its intended to. I am eager to learn more, and this unit is something that keeps me interested.

Today I learned more about sales funnels. Their purpose is to acquire traffic to generate leads and prospects, which then leads to customers that will buy your product or service. A sales funnel page can be used as a marketing strategy to generate those exact leads. Clickfunnels is the most popular sales funnel page where in this one website, it handles every aspect of the marketing. It creates a sales page, a website, and even uses links to scout and acquire prospects which is then used to generate customers all in one place. You can also use to create an email list that can be used to target specific clients to advertise a product you're willing to sell. The reason Clickfunnels is so effective is because its automated and a timesaver for business owners that don't want to waste time manually advertising, generating an email list, creating a website, a checkout page, and making blog posts. The downside of Clickbank is its costly monthly subscription of $97 per month after 30 day free trial

I learned how to make a video game and the process it takes. It has to undergo through many stages and requires a lot of patience and time to properly formulate a video game. For example, a video game has levels to it meaning you have to undergo through character design, level, graphics, and then movement of the character, gameplay and then add visuals and audio and sound effects. Its a very lengthy process which can be done in multitude of platforms such as Unity, Unreal Engine and if you know how to code, you can even create a game yourself in Java. Overall its a tough process but totally worth it when the project is complete.

Podcasts are becoming more and more popular now and some examples include the JRE experience hosted by Joe Rogan. I do listen to podcasts more when I'm in the car because there's a lot of things to learn. Me as an individual, I do have very good insights on a lot of topics and the topics I'm very strong or my "niche" is mental health, dating, exercise, anime, and educational system as well as some history. I do have a couple of friends that wanted to get into the podcast idea but we have been lazy to start one and didn't know how to. I read the article a bunch of times and I know we need to actually schedule, record through discord audio (length 15-20 minutes) and our host of four people will divide the responsibilities where one of us will record the voices, another one will transcript the audio and we will have social media pages on tik tok, instagram, and youtube with background gameplay while our discussion highlights are condensed in 45 seconds to bring more audience. The full podcast will be uploaded to Spotify and iTunes. Since this is a unit assignment, I have to complete it and finally my friends and I can get started on this idea we have been procrastinating on.

While composing my music which is taking a very long time, I started a new unit in digital goods. A digital good is goods and services that you can use but electronically. Subscription based goods such as Netflix, Spotify and Hulu are considered digital goods. Common digital goods include e-books, music, voiceovers, web-design, and so much more. To create a digital good, you can either create something tangible that can be used electronically such as an e-book, a beat, or even a skill. Or, you can use a skill or service that you can market. For example, if you have a talented voice, you can use that to create audiobooks or create a podcast. I will figure out what digital good or service I can market and utilize that.

The past couple of days I learned mostly about the the music creation industry. Even though composing music isn't my strong suit, I kept trying to pursue this and try to create music myself. The last couple of hours of my work, I downloaded garageband on my ipad and tried to make a beat. I am a fan of NYC and UK Drill which took the internet by storm and added a genre of music where the drill beats are mostly trap and pop combined. I got an idea to create a drill beat using a drum set to add base, snare and clap to get a foundation. For the past four hours, I realize how difficult and time consuming creating a beat actually is. Yet I got a solid foundation and I plan to work on finishing the beat on Monday for submission for the assignment. I'm motivated to finish the assignment by composing myself and see how it comes out at the end. This does take time and my respect for producers increase and the level of creativity and their ears to a great and catchy beat is very good.

Today I went more in depth on how to create music. Theres a lot of DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) such as Audacity, Garageband, Traction 6 and so many more. Although theres so many that are similar, yet they are so different. A lot of these DAW's are either simplistic such as Garageband that has a user interface thats easy for beginners to follow and get into creating music. Also the loops with already built in samples with almost every instrument you can think of is in Garage Band with very detailed and accurate notes and sounds. Other DAW's like audacity and Traction 6 are more complex that are meant for more intermediate level. I also learned about MIDI. Short for (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) that records and controls how loud and accurate each note is. This records the AUTHENTIC version of the recording however it doesn't the full recording of the sound itself, just the instruments and vocals of whats recorded. An MP3 file however, does. MP3 is a more lossly converted (lower sound quality) than an MP3 but high enough to be playable. MP3 does take more storage than MIDI but MP3 is widely used. Since im almost done with this unit, I will be complete the assignment for this and use Garageband since im a beginner and its more user friendly to compose a beat for techie youth.

After completing the final assignment for Selling Computer-Designed Objects & Technological Crafts, I chose to do Music Creation mainly because my curiousity. I watched through the videos and learned that music does take a lot of startup and equipment. Even though most DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) have built in software with hundreds of instruments to use. However for a studio, setups have microphones with different functionality to best pick up the artist's voice and creating a beat is an art form that utilizes many of the instruments and notes such as C sharp, G sharp (the most common one by artists) and even utilize broken chords to make a beat. It is still relatively new to me and quite difficult since it's out of my comfort zone with no background in music but I'm eager to learn

Ever wonder how when you go shopping and you see a photo with cool drawings and designs? Personally, I'd assume it was made by some talented graphics designer. However, I was wrong. Anyone can do it. This beginner friendly adobe illustrator showed just how easy it is to use and you can use your creativity. The basics of illustrator was covered by drawing using shapes and lines. You can group them together while adding texts and lines. Knowing just the basics, its enough to create a custom logo. There is an assortment of pen and brushes with different sensitivity suited for different purposes and brushes for the paint-like effect. I also learned the use of colors and layering colors using gradient effect that gives the drawing that real-life like color especially using shadows. I'm not that artistic but the way the gradient scale was used, I understood how it works. Using text and shapes you can warp them and scale to vectorize your drawings that gives that sharp and accurate look and even combine and layer shapes together to give you the desired image you want. Overall, after knowing the basics, using adobe illustrator isn't nearly as complicated as people think it is and overall quite fun. The only downside is that Adobe charges way too much money to use these services so only those that use this everyday are mostly benefitting from it. Luckily, there's a free trial option to use so people can try it out for themselves.

I learned how to do the bare basics using microsoft paint. The main things I learned from paint is how to draw and select colors, erase tool and also import images. I can also crop or trim the images that best suit my needs. Theres also filters I can use as well as different grades of color schemes. I would personally use paint to create and edit youtube thumbnails because of how simplistic and easy it is to use paint