The pattern “The Deep End” is all about taking on challenges and hard tasks to further your progress in learning and avoid plateauing. The pattern also talks about how it will help build your portfolio and give you more experience in different areas and fields of computer science. There is also a risk for this pattern which is that you may feel like you are drowning when you are unable to complete or work on the task because it is too difficult. According to the pattern, you should write down the biggest project you worked on was and the biggest code base you have made and look for projects of similar dimensions and attempt to work on those as well. The best way to grow is to challenge yourself and take on bigger and bigger tasks to both show your progress and what you can achieve. I relate to this pattern since I believe that its the best way to grow and learn when it comes to everything else so it makes sense that it applies here as well. There will always be a ability to fail, but it takes a strong person to look at that possibility and still push forward. I feel that this pattern made me think of how I will be doing a fair amount of work outside of any job that I employed to do because I will want to and need to learn and experience more to grow.
I feel that this pattern is helpful and useful information for anyone in any profession since it can be applied in different ways. The pattern talks about keeping your head above water, but I feel that at times you need to really go down under water to get stronger. I think it’s important to be reasonable with what you can handle, but I don’t think that means you need to be afraid of being really challenged by a task or project that pushes you “under water”. By taking calculated risks and challenges, we can achieve greater heights of what we are able to do. I feel like this pattern pushed me to want to take on greater challenges and work on larger projects to build up my portfolio and learn new things that I will be able to use in future professions/projects.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern “Sweep the Floor” talks about how as a new member of a development team you should take the jobs that people dislike and work on the things that are an annoyance. This strategy is something that will help a person to become a valued and respected member of the team that they have recently joined since they did something others felt was a pain. The pattern suggests that you take the leap that others are unwilling to because it will build your reputation among your colleagues. The pattern also talks about how when you start a job after college, that you are effectively starting from square one and the education you received only raises what people will expect of you. This pattern also talks about some negative impacts that may happen, which are that you might become the team’s gopher and be stuck doing the menial tasks that others do not wish to.
This pattern reminds me of my sports teams in high school because the younger and newer players would be stuck carrying the equipment, like basketballs/soccer balls, because they were still learning and were going to be the next generation of the team. I felt that this hierarchy was necessary and built character in many of my teammates and myself. I can see myself wanting to impress and help my future development team in the future, so I will apply this in my future job. I felt that it’s important that the pattern mentioned the possible downsides of this pattern which is being stuck as a floor sweeper. I respect people with more experience than me, but after some time has passed I will not allow myself to be stuck as a floor sweeper and I am not afraid to voice my thoughts and opinions on these matters. Trust is an important part of teamwork, so this is something that can easily help me and others to build that trust with their new team. This pattern didn’t change my thoughts on what I expected in the software development field because having the new workers do things that are a hassle or really low level things is common practice in every job in every field.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern “Stay in the Trenches” talks about how you should avoid climbing into management or other positions that don’t involve coding when offered them. The pattern suggests that you suggests alternatives, such as pay raises and other incentives that can be offered to you, if a person is offered a job in management or another job that pulls them away from coding. The pattern also talks about how taking a management job can lead to loss of skill when it comes to programming since it wont be a daily occurrence for the person in management. The pattern talks about how a person should, as the name suggests, stay in the “trenches” or in a position that involves coding directly and where they can continue their craft. The pattern hopes to convince people that they should focus on excelling in their passion of coding and find other ways to be rewarded for their work, instead of pulling a person away from coding.
I feel like this pattern makes a great point that was discussed in the pattern “Practice,Practice,Practice”, which is that when people don’t code for a while, then they will most likely see a drop in their coding abilities and lose most, if not all, of the progress they have made. I think it’s important for any person in the computer science field to do things that interests them the most, either with the work they do, a side project or both. I can see myself continuing side projects of my own as a hobby even when employed in a coding job to not only further my skills, but to do things that I find interesting, fun, or both. I don’t fully agree with this pattern and believe that if offered the opportunity to get into a higher position in a field I’m interested in, I will, most-likely, take the opportunity as a chance to further my career and myself as person. While coding will always be one of my passions, I can not stop myself or hold myself back from trying to reach higher and higher goals in my career and life.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

“Study the Classics” pattern is all about starting with the oldest books in your reading pile and understanding them before moving to newer books. In order to understand the things that other people in the Computer Science field, A person should ask about what they don’t understand and where they can read more about the topic. By focusing on and studying the great works in your area of interest, a person can gain a basic understanding of information on that topic and expand their knowledge at to meet the same level as others in the same profession/area. While some books may have outdated information, they might still have some important points and vital information on how things should be treated today. The pattern also talks about how it can also be a bad thing because you follow classics over more pragmatic solutions for problems.
I think there is a lot to be learned from the past since it took a lot more precision to complete even the simplest tasks of today and things like file size/code size was extremely important and coveted as something that could make or break a project. While things like systems, programs, services and so on continue to get more advanced and powerful rules from the past still apply in many cases and because of this we can still learn a great deal of knowledge from past works on areas of computer science. I Knew there would be a need to continue studying and learning in my profession, but I was unaware of to what degree I would need to take it. I feel that this pattern makes sense and helps a person to further their understanding of their area of interest to one of the highest degrees. It allows a person to understand concepts that most people in that industry/field will know and thus opens up the conversation and ability to learn even more. I think they should have also had more of a focus on how you should intermingle both the classics and the modern/pragmatic books because they are both equally important and if you only focus on only one then you are bound to run into some serious issues when faced with a challenge.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern “The White Belt” is all about becoming a student once again and not letting your knowledge or expertise in a certain subject get in the way of learning new things. The pattern also talks about how you should put aside past experience and unlearn things so that you can understand what you were struggling to learn. The pattern also wants you to use a new language or style to solve a problem so that you don’t fall into the same hole that you have been when it comes to learning. I often find myself in a similar problem when it comes to programming because I often use similar code in future projects or rely heavily on what I know works versus trying new things that may work better. This pattern is similar to other patterns but focuses on relearning or learning new things and setting aside past experience. I felt that this pattern is important to remember for my professional career cause I could see myself facing a similar problem to the one described in the pattern.
I think that an extremely important part of the pattern is that you should try to learn from other people. This part of the pattern is discussed and is the key focus of the pattern “Be the Worst”. I do not like the fact that they continue to blend patterns together since it makes it harder to distinguish between the different patterns. I think focusing on learning new things without allowing old knowledge to corrupt the new knowledge is an important part of learning anything and especially coding. With the way people can easily connect on common interests and topics on platforms like Discord, Twitter, FaceBook, and more, I can see myself joining different coding communities and interacting with other people that may have more knowledge on a topic than me, in order to learn more in different areas of coding. This pattern has given me a new way to avoid getting stuck in a rut that is common in the computer science field. Using different languages is important to better understand the inner works of what a function does and how it can be implemented in different ways.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern “practice practice practice” is what the title implies and focuses on one of the most important things in any kind of career. The idea that practice makes perfect has been apart of every job/hobby/club/etc. since the beginning of time. Since programming puts you in a situation where any mistake could ruin the entire project/work, you need to avoid mistakes at all costs. Practice allows for programmers to work on different things and see what works for both them and what ever they are working on. The pattern suggest that you solve an exercise multiple times over a few weeks from scratch and see how your solutions evolve and change overtime and use those in your future projects.
This pattern is something that I thought of when reading the breakable toys pattern since they have a similar aspect of taking things from work home and expanding your knowledge on things that could be used in projects. I felt like this would be something that I would need to do for most jobs in the field of computer science. I think one thing that I found interesting was how it suggests to use exercises in different books because it wasn’t something that I would have thought of to help practice on different aspects of coding. The pattern, similar to breakable toys, suggests to have fun with it and not worry about things like deadlines, production issues and so on cause it allows you to expand on what you learned and see what works and what doesn’t. I felt like this pattern had a lot that I wish I knew about when I began computer science classes because it would have made my learning experience easier and more enjoyable.
I will use this in my professional career since it seems to be something that would benefit me and help me to be a better developer and computer scientist. The idea of using different computer science books on different topics and using the exercise in the book were a good idea that I will use in my career as well. While old books may have the fundamentals of coding, it is important to get newer books focused more on the languages that are being used since they will have a good understanding of how to use the language to the best of its ability.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern “Be the Worst” is one that most people have heard many times and its a great life lesson that can be applied to many other situations. The idea is to surround yourself with people that are better than you and learn from them and grow. Basically don’t be afraid to not be at the same level as your peers and try to surpass them with every experience. This can also be a way to help others that are struggling or want to be better at something that you excel at. This pattern is definitely one that i could see myself using in my professional career and also in my education because the quickest way to learn something is to be surrounded by people that understand the concepts and to observe them and ask questions. Everyone has weak points and things that they wish they could be better at so finding people that excel at what you struggle with can only help you to learn and grow.
The one thing that I feel this pattern failed to make an extremely important part is that you should strive to go on and become the best at what you learn. I might just be a competitive person and this may not apply to all people, but I personally would want to become the best at whatever I do. This pattern also fails to really talk about doing the reverse which would be helping others in the same way that you want help. This pattern changed my perception about the profession of software development because I didn’t really think about how people from all over the place could be assembled to help one another understand things and it makes me think of a coalition/brotherhood rather than work or a job. The pattern talks about how it is a little selfish to join a team knowing that you are the weakest link and that you might hold them back a little, but sometimes you need to be selfish and think about yourself and what you need to grow and become better. Being selfish at times is needed to advance yourself and your career, so I’ll probably do this pattern unashamed and ready to become the best in every group.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tyler Quist’s CS Blog by Tyler Quist and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.