Rotterdam designer learning to code (or coder learning design?)

Tessa. Rotterdam. Product designer, eight years, now learning backend because I am tired of designs dying in handoff. Current status: can build a CRUD app, cannot deploy it without crying. The crying is scheduled for Thursdays.

Sander's Eigenstats thread convinced me self-hosting is learnable. Hoshi's checklist convinced me deployments are survivable. This forum convinced me to post before I felt ready. Here we are. Unready, posting.

What should a designer-turned-builder learn first: Docker or SQL?

SQL first. Docker is packaging, SQL is thinking. You already design queries every time you design a filter UI. Learn the language for the thinking you already do. Utrecht says hello to Rotterdam.

Checklist author says: SQL first, then Docker via one guided deploy (copy a working Compose file, change one thing at a time). Thursday crying sessions decrease by 80%. Measured.

SQL first, guided deploy, crying metrics tracked. Thursday sessions already feel shorter. Rotterdam thanks Utrecht and Vancouver.

Designer-to-builder solidarity from Cologne! The handoff-death frustration is universal. Six months ahead of you: it gets better, then worse (production), then much better. Keep posting through the worse part.