For this week, I chose to read the pattern ‘Create Feedback Loops’ from Chapter 5: Perpetual Learning. The name is pretty self explanatory as to what the pattern will be on, finding feedback on your progress. I chose this pattern because chapter 5 had the best info to digest, in my opinion, because I’m at that stage in my software craftsman career that where these patterns are the most relatable to me and will only prove to be more useful to me as time goes on. The context for this pattern is, not being able to tell if you’re unaware of how unskilled you actually are. By being unaware of your skill level, you are worse at assessing your own skills and when you do receive feedback, it’ll come as a surprise to your self assessment instead of a support mechanism to help you improve. I thought the context of this problem was spot on, the Dunning-Kruger effect came into my mind when I read this, sometimes people are too falsely confident of their own skills and clearly haven’t been told their real skill level on a certain subject matter. Ever since I became aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect, I’ve been trying to be more open minded to discussion and debate if I’m wrong on something.

For the problem of this pattern, it says your self assessment is only relative to the abilities you used opt have, you will always lack objectivity. I was not sure what this meant at first and I still don’t, however the next few parts that it describes I can relate to. It describes how being in a above-average team will make you feel like a superstar when in reality you’re more of a back up dancer, and how being on a below-average team will make you feel complacently smug. I can relate to this because in class, the backend team for the guest info system, they are definitely gonna go far in life as software craftsmen, I feel like they know what they’re doing which in turn makes me feel like I should know what I’m doing but, I’m just a back-up dancer.

For the solution of this pattern, you want to create mechanisms to regularly gather more or less objective external data about your performance. You will also want to be able to process the raw data from these mechanisms in order to get useful feedback about yourself. Honestly, the solution for this pattern was kind of confusing at first, I didn’t understand some of the mechanisms described but I’m sure in practice it is better than it is described.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Brendan Lai by Brendan Lai and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern I have chosen today is one about kindred spirits which is when one finds themselves in an unfavorable situation regarding the workplace they reside in or the kind of organization they work for, they should seek some sort of help from someone else. That someone else should be a mentor to you, someone that you want try to emulate, feel intimidated by while also feeling secure around them. These people will help you on your journey on becoming better software programmer whether it be by sharpening your skills or even just giving some extra motivation for you to push on.

The pattern mentions that on the long road, nobody walks alone and that some sort of cooperation is well needed for you to push on with your career. The path one has taken so far should be proof of that, you should have always had someone to help stimulate your learning with your teachers and classmates available for help. They have done a great deal of work helping you realize your career and you will soon see these go away as your enter your career. This means that you will need to start to put in work yourself to build new connections to new mentors and friends that have similar career interests. The sooner this is done, the better so that way the experience is gained earlier and you are setup before any new hardships happen.

I myself should start looking into different ways on getting of connecting to a camaraderie of those who are looking into similar lines of work regarding software programming. There are tons of different sites to look through and resources to use to obtain these connections and there are probably several in the university that I can use. The pattern does mention of it creating an irregular meetup of craftsman in the region that eventually becomes large enough to be self sustaining. I disagree on getting such thing to happen to be easier than one might think and that it is probably something the average craftsman wouldn’t be able to create. I myself don’t see myself creating such a group.

From the blog CS@Worcester – kbcoding by kennybui986 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The pattern I read about this week is called Use the Source. This pattern is intended to show apprentices how to take advantage of the open source era. In the open source world, the ability of self-learning by reading and understanding source code is much more important than asking and waiting for answers from others. That is because only the code can tell you the truth, “the programmer’s intentions are irrelevant if the code disagrees”. That means it is always best when you can understand the code yourself without anyone telling you. However, the problem with this pattern is how to use the source, how to know if it is a good source and how to know if your work is good or bad when there are no exemplars or experts around you.

To answer those questions, the author has made many suggestions to help apprentices use the sources effectively. I can summarize them into two main ideas that an apprentice should adopt to become an expert. First, it’s about self-learning. All apprentices should seek out other people’s code to read and see the difference between the code written by all programmers. When you find any good programmers, you can learn to program like them. By reading the code, you should find out the intentions of the programmers, once you understand the codebase you can try to refactor them to ensure that you can build the projects independently. Taking the time to read and learn code written by other programmers is how you make other people’s tools your own; and that is also how you build your own toolbox, which is used to solve most of your career problems quickly and easily. Second, besides educating yourself from all the open source, you should learn from your community where you might have someone interested in reading your code and give you feedback. On the contrary, you should also be willing to read their code and be able to give them correct feedback or also be able to learn from their code.

In my opinion, Use the Source is the pattern that every programmer or every apprentice should use to develop their programming skills. That’s because I believe that reading the source is how you learn everything on your own; and this is also an opportunity for you to expose with other programmers to see their works and to also share your works to grow together. Moreover, as the author said that the software development field is lacking teachers; and there is no shortcut to learn all the tools for solving all the problems. So, I think open source is one of the most essential elements that no programmer can live without.

From the blog CS@Worcester – T's CSblog by tyahhhh and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I am choosing to write about this section this week because I can feel like I can relate to this topic deeply. In one of the opening statements of this section, the author talks about how people who have never failed or say that they have never failed have avoided pushing themselves or have just glazed over their failures. I agree with this statement. Another point that author brings up and I agree with is reflecting about your mistakes is not about ranting about the mistakes that we have made but rather it is a matter of character. We should be reflecting on our mistakes so that the next time we do something similar, we can make something better. This is a sentiment that I can really relate to because whenever I finish a project or assignment, even I did it correctly, I would look back at it afterwards and analyze my work to see what I could have done better or done instead. For example, if I barely finish something before the due date, I might look back at it and think to myself, “I wish I had more time and added this feature” or “this feature took a lot longer than I thought it would and that I should have managed my time better”. One point I disagree with is ranting about our mistakes. I think being able to identify the mistakes that we made is very important and when I talk or rant to someone about the mistakes that I made during a project, I am able to identify more mistakes that I had made that I did not realize before. Another topic that the author brought up in this section is the importance on certain skills or goals. I am finding myself agreeing more with this statement each and every day. I used to do the opposite and try to identify all of the skills that I am not good at and tried to get better at all of those skills at once. This did not end well. I often found myself spreading myself too thin. I found that I was spending too much time on one topic and not enough time on another. This led me to feeling that I had mastered no skills at all because I was trying to learn and master too many things at once. So, I am going to end this post by echoing something that was said in this section. At some point we need to realize we cannot excel at everything and that we need to know and accept our limits so that we can focus what we know we can improve.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Just a Guy Passing By by Eric Nguyen and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Sustainable Motivations

At some point while developing your skills while working on a project or a job, you’ll find yourself primarily focused on your current skills or focused on your work. During this you might find yourself in a bit of a rut and a lack of desire to continue working on those projects. Though you might want to take a break and try something new, you find that the project you are working on is paying the bills or giving you the validation of your skills. The conundrum comes down to do you keep at it even though your work is draining you, or do you strike out on something new to hone your craft.

Now obviously you need to continue your work, but you don’t need to be trapped by it. You can always on your own build something that you want to rather than something that you have to. In your job you may find that its not improving yourself and become monotonous. Nothing is stopping you at home from taking up a personal side project to grow yourself.

The thing I primarily learned from this pattern is the concept of the golden lock. It never really struck me before. The idea that my own motivation to work would be the one to lock me in place and prevent me from progressing. When thinking further, it does make sense. You have a motivation to work because it provides you with income or a status on showing your skill. Simply placing yourself into that mindset will lock you into that position and you’ll never make the time to improve yourself. That little golden latch holding you in place because this is what’s advancing your career. Your career is more of a side note to your progression as a software developer, its not the primary driving force. Your job is a job, but there might be something else out there that you can hone as a fine skill that barely anyone else can and could even lead to a new field you never considered for your career. Your passion for learning programming cannot be tied to motivations to complete your work.

From the blog CS@Worcester – A Boolean Not An Or by Julion DeVincentis and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Summary:

This apprenticeship pattern deals with the practice of working in real-world projects that may be rigorous, frustrating, or exhausting such that it makes the Apprentice question his motivations in the field. There may also be employment issues, bad leadership, or bad co-workers. Whether this programmer hates the job but desires a good income, is in a hiatus for his love of the field, or works on open source projects for a reputation.

One of my greatest fears in my career is a lack of interest in what I’m required to do. If I work at a company that shifts my work into something that I have no interest in or is very different, I run a real risk of burning out. Although, my favorite element of Computer Science and of programming stems from a certain love of creating things, a type that is not universally palpable in different fields. Hence, even though I don’t have a lot of peculiar interest in, say, creating a website, I’d do it if I need to and I’d probably enjoy doing it. 

I don’t agree or disagree with the action recommended in this apprenticeship pattern, however I feel as though more could be done in a situation like this. On top of writing the things that motivate you, you should try to think to yourself why you are motivated by the things that motivate you, and what is the common connection between all of them that acts as the catalyst. It may be that your motivations are either inconsistent or are the way they are for the wrong reasons. Shifting motivations to be more realistic or to make them fit more appropriately for a given situation can be very useful. On the other hand, if you’re in an untenable situation where you may become burnt out, forcing yourself to be in that situation while attempting to justify it may be harmful.

This apprenticeship pattern has at least caused me to be more aware of a situation that I may be befallen to in my future career. It may be better to move projects or companies if I’m in a situation where I may be burnt out working on something that I don’t like, whereas I could take some initiative and move to where I feel I’d be better suited.

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