Last week I started diving into the perpetual learning section of the
Apprenticeship patterns book, beginning with the expand your bandwidth
section. I talked about how I want to learn more about my field and explore
new discoveries in the industry. This time however I read up on the “Break
Your Toys” section from the book. This section covers the need to fail in
order to improve, and how to set up an environment where you can sort of
fail on purpose.

I am no stranger to failing and struggling when it comes to computer
programming, as I am sure we all are familiar with it. This section makes a
case for using a pet project, or a “toy program” as they put it, to test and
break to your heart’s content. This is supposed to allow you an environment
in which to practice whatever programming you desire, and most importantly
an environment to fail in. Failure in your job usually leads to you losing
the respect of your peers at best, or losing your job at worst. This is not
an environment where you can make mistakes comfortably, and mistakes are
necessary for growth. 

So basically the section is telling us to make a side project where we can
mess up all we want, and learn from it. Pretty basic advice, but it can go a
long way to making you a better programmer. In fact, it is a piece of advice
I have already implemented in other parts of my life. As a hobby, I build
and paint plastic miniatures, and use them in tabletop games. Recently I
have become much more focused on improving my painting skills. As a result,
I have taken up several side projects where I can experiment with different
painting techniques. I even keep around spare models to use as test
subjects. Not all of these projects pan as I would like them to, but that is
part of what makes them appealing to me. It allows me to fool around and try
new things, without the risk of failure being an impediment. Back in the
book they suggest maintaining a wiki as a way to practice without worry.
Personally, I am thinking of fooling around in some game engines as a way to
practice.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

   Last week I started diving into the perpetual learning section of the
Apprenticeship patterns book, beginning with the expand your bandwidth
section. I talked about how I want to learn more about my field and explore
new discoveries in the industry. This time however I read up on the “Break
Your Toys” section from the book. This section covers the need to fail in
order to improve, and how to set up an environment where you can sort of
fail on purpose.

I am no stranger to failing and struggling when it comes to computer
programming, as I am sure we all are familiar with it. This section makes a
case for using a pet project, or a “toy program” as they put it, to test and
break to your heart’s content. This is supposed to allow you an environment
in which to practice whatever programming you desire, and most importantly
an environment to fail in. Failure in your job usually leads to you losing
the respect of your peers at best, or losing your job at worst. This is not
an environment where you can make mistakes comfortably, and mistakes are
necessary for growth. 

So basically the section is telling us to make a side project where we can
mess up all we want, and learn from it. Pretty basic advice, but it can go a
long way to making you a better programmer. In fact, it is a piece of advice
I have already implemented in other parts of my life. As a hobby, I build
and paint plastic miniatures, and use them in tabletop games. Recently I
have become much more focused on improving my painting skills. As a result,
I have taken up several side projects where I can experiment with different
painting techniques. I even keep around spare models to use as test
subjects. Not all of these projects pan as I would like them to, but that is
part of what makes them appealing to me. It allows me to fool around and try
new things, without the risk of failure being an impediment. Back in the
book they suggest maintaining a wiki as a way to practice without worry.
Personally, I am thinking of fooling around in some game engines as a way to
practice.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 I find the assertion that one is never done learning to be very true
to life. One’s skills as a software developer should be iterated upon just
like the very programs we craft. The section on perpetual learning
provided  many interesting examples of ways to tackle improving one’s
own knowledge base and skillset. I want to cover some of my favorite
sections in this blog post and over the course of the next couple blog
posts.

Expand Your Bandwidth

I constantly get the feeling that my knowledge in my career is always much
shallower than it should be. The suggestions provided at the start with
Google Reader and following software luminaries seemed interesting, but I
was much more interested in looking at online courses and podcasts. I want
to be able to constantly expand my knowledge base and explore new
horizons.  This reminds me of when I was keeping up to date with a
subreddit that was all about mesh networks and peer-to-peer computing. It
sprung up in the aftermath of network neutrality being struck down, and a
lot of people on there were proposing creating a giant open source mesh
network to combat predatory internet service providers. It had the overly
ambitious goal of decentralizing the internet which ,suffice to say, has not
come to pass yet, although I’ve heard that the emergent Web 3.0 is supposed
to be it. I was fascinated by the ingenuity of using a bunch of Raspberry
Pis to create mesh networks all around a city. I want to reignite some of my
passion for obtaining new knowledge and explore what is new today. I know
A.I. has gotten a lot of publicity, to the point of becoming something like
a buzzword, but I want to see what the other sectors of the tech industry
are working on. Thanks to writing this blogpost I went and looked to find
new sources of information. I even started perusing reddit, specifically in
the technology and programming tag,  again to search for any new and
interesting developments. I have already checked out the r/webdev amd
r/learnprogramming for some tips.

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.