For this blog post I will be discussing the Practice, Practice, Practice pattern. This pattern essentially says that you should practice, obviously. The goal is to get better and better and to build concrete skills in new areas. Looking back on all that I have learned I noticed that there was one thing that I nearly could have always done more of and that was practice. The initial blurb in this pattern says ” The people we know as masters don’t devote themselves to their particular skill just to get better at it. The truth is, they love to practice—and because of this they do get better. And then to complete the circle, the better they get the more they enjoy performing the basic moves over and over again.”(Apprenticeship Patterns) From this valuable quote I have learned that those that are truly skilled have put in a lot of time devoted to practicing. Within this year if I want to do anything, that is practice everything that I have learned at WSU. From basic java skills to git workflows. I see that with open-source software this may be a good opportunity to do such things. WSU has provided the resources and has made becoming a master in computers that much more of a reality and a valuable one at that. By practicing on my own I can learn from my mistakes and give myself the comfort to save space and observe my own mistakes. Then, by looking to the provided resources I can look where to emulate a more masterful understanding of computers in whatever specific area that I may wish to practice in. I can even look back on where I can specifically improve based on grades and the hindsight of completing a course. In the context of this specific course, it is working on a large scale project that are maintained by large groups of people. I understand that the traditional way of getting a position at some type software developer job is a good way to get in that practice but with where I am at now and where I want to be I don’t think that would be an optimal environment for me, at least not yet. If I have learned anything, its that I can get by on a set structure that school provides, but where I find the most growth and improvement is in the setting in which I put myself in.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Sovibol's Glass Case by Sovibol Keo and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.