So far, of all the patterns I’ve encountered, Reflect as you work seems to be the one that can be most easily tracked in a more concrete form! This is very interesting to me because many of the other patterns deal with almost abstract topics, whether it be considering how you yourself grow, or how to approach learning, it is usually hard to determine your growth, but Reflect as you work makes a tangible ‘map’ that someone can reference!

Reflecting as you work, to put it simply, is the process of making some sort of way to track what kinds of things you are doing. It seems like it could be a map of your skills and process, or it could be a variety of other things. But essentially, as long as you are making a way to visualize the types of skills you have, it is a way for you to go over each of those different skills and see if things are working, or if they are counterproductive. An example that was made was that if someone made a map of these skills, they can go over them as time goes on, and though this process or that approach might have worked in the past, it might need to be updated, or transformed all together.

Overall, this is something that I have never really thought about doing, but it seems incredibly helpful. No doubt, if I made a map of my own skills to reflect on, it would make it blatantly obvious to see which things I am lacking, or even better, which things to improve on. Already, I have an idea that my algorithm skills are a bit lacking, but I am sure that there are other things that I can improve upon as well. With the creation of a visualizer, I can much more easily reflect on the type of work I am doing, and overtime, I can also see if the things I am doing are good, or a bit flawed. I know for a fact, that if I looked back at my older works, I’d be complete horrified by some of the ways I fixed problems, and I know that in the future, it will be the same! This process of reflection is usually just internal, but with a concrete tool to use, it would probably be so, so much easier.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Bored Coding by iisbor and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

As I was going through the patterns, I came across the Unleash your enthusiasm. At first, I didn’t consider it too much, and took it at face value, and as it was explaining the pattern, I was frankly confused. From my perspective, it appeared like the author was trying to curb a bit of enthusiasm rather than nurture it, but there is actually more nuance to the whole pattern than it seems. Rather than the pattern being all about your own enthusiasm, I think that this pattern has much more connections with the team aspect.

The pattern does briefly go over this, but if you’re anything like me, it might have flown over your head, but I believe that this key fact is very important to processing the pattern. Mainly, if team morale is low, or if they aren’t as accepting, there are other ways to unleash your enthusiasm without compromising the team dynamic! I believe that out of the few patterns I’ve gone over so far, this pattern is the most grey! There is no definite answer to each and every team that you might join in, because there is just no ‘correct’ way to deal with people as a whole! It is very important to adjust your own standards, and thus, adjust your own enthusiasm on a case by case basis! Some people might be more receptive, while others might not be as receptive, but either way, it is important to find out beneficial ways to unleash your enthusiasm.

The pattern has a small action portion, but I believe that there are much more ways to show your enthusiasm! I think that if your team is not as receptive, you can show your enthusiasm by finding peers, or other like-minded communities! And if your team does welcome it, then there is no harm in showing the interest you have! Being able to find healthy ways to channel your enthusiasm will benefit not just yourself, but the whole team! As it even states, unleashing your enthusiasm will ensure that new perspectives aren’t missed, and with plenty of questions, everyone will grow! Staying silent would only be a detriment, because if you spot something that others might not, or if you keep questions to yourself, you won’t be able to reinforce ideas and also actively prevent yourself from learning! 

From the blog CS@Worcester – Bored Coding by iisbor and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The people we know as masters don’t devote themselvesto their particular skill just to get better at it. The truth is,they love to practice—and because of this they do getbetter. And then to complete the circle, the better they get the more they enjoy performing the basic moves over andover again.—George Leonard, Mastery Each one … Continue reading Apprenticeship Pattern Review #6: Practice, Practice, Practice →

From the blog CS@Worcester – Shams's Bits and Bytes by Shams Al Farees and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.