Category Archives: Week 13

Apprenticeship Patterns: Chapter 3 Part 3

A Different Road

You find yourself tired and bored of your work. You have some personal projects to advance your skills that keeps you busy, but you find yourself needing to take a break. To diverge from the road you are on to either just rest for a while or to just see where it goes. Your career as a software developer is not what ultimately defines you. A Different Road describes a scenario where the road you have been traveling on in your programming career is not the road you want to travel along anymore. You might wish to spend more time at home and with your family. You might desire to train for a marathon. You could buy a bit of land, build a barn and become a farmer.

The road of your software development career never truly ends until you decide to end it and even if you do, you can always start back on it again. Just like riding a bicycle you never really forget something that you practiced frequently. So, take the break that you need. Buy that farm and become a farmer. Your career is not what really defines you, and maybe whatever you try will need some kind of optimization that your skill-set can solve.

Ultimately this pattern speaks to the idea of breaking the stubborn mindset most people find themselves in. It’s this mindset of having a path and having no other choice. The path paid your bills and you enjoy it to a degree. It’s hard to accept the idea that this thing you have been spending your time on isn’t right for you. To align with the road analogy, the road you have been traveling has been well paved and barely has any traffic. As you travel further and further you might find it gets even easier and has even more lanes and less traffic. You might also find that this road has potholes and traffic has only gotten worse and worse.

Recognizing when that road isn’t worth traveling on is easy to think about, but harder to act on even when it’s right in front of you. But unlike the road analogy, your skills and motivation are not a car. You can’t sell it and lose it, it can’t be stolen from you, and even if you don’t use it for a while it doesn’t mean it can’t start back up again. The thing to take to heart is do what you want to do, but also stop doing the thing you don’t want to do just because it’s your career.

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.

CS 448 Post #6

I finished the patterns I wanted to write about from chapter 4 and moved on to chapter 5, Perpetual Learning. Like the last few chapters, I to post about the first pattern of the chapter and then one of the last ones, so this post will be about Expand your Bandwidth. The focus of the chapter is on the topic of the lifelong journey of learning that is taken when you are an apprentice transitioning into a journeyman, which is a concept that was brought up in the first chapter.

The first pattern is an effective start to the chapter, as it is about how you can move on from lower level problems to higher level ones, and how you can expand your learning ability. The solution given to the problem is to find different ways to learn more than you may not have been using before, such as blogs, books, and other online resources. Because of how much technology there is in the world today, there are plenty of ways to find information online, and use different avenues of learning. I have found a lot of information online by either looking things up when I had questions or issues, or just by reading blogs and articles. I have looked online plenty of times when I needed help on something, especially computer science projects. I would search based on the error codes I was getting and try different sites to see if I could find a solution that worked for me. Using online resources have been very helpful to me for my work related to computer science, along with some other courses and activities.

I agree with the last paragraph of the solution that talks about deciding when you should start expanding, because while it is good to have all this information to learn from, you still want time to put that learning to use at software craftsmanship. You want to make time to continue working and improving yourself so that everything you are reading about and learning is beneficial to your work. I like that this problem brought more attention to the topic of this being a lifelong journey with continuous learning and development, while pointing out potential problems with obsessing over learning.

From the blog Jeffery Neal's Blog by jneal44 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The Long Road

For this week’s additional blog post, I have decided to look at the apprenticeship pattern “The Long Road”. In this chapter you, are aspiring to become a master software developer. However, your aspiration conflicts with what people expect from you. Conventional wisdom tells you to take the highest-paying job and the first promotion you can get your hands on, to stop programming and get onto more important work rather than slowly building up your skills. In this chapter it is advised that you should focus on the long-term. Value learning and long-term growth opportunities over salary and traditional notions of leadership. No one is so far ahead that you can’t match their skill level given the decades you will have to hone your craft. No business or technical domain is closed to you. According to Dave H. Hoover & Adewale Oshineye, the authors of the book, they say on this,

“This pattern is not for people aspiring to become CIOs or project managers, or filthy rich. Along the way, it is not unlikely that you will take on roles of power and responsibility or find yourself quite wealthy. However, these roles and benefits are not the main motivation of the successful apprentice—they are merely by-products of a lifelong journey. And rather than counting the days to retirement, the craftsman will willingly and joyfully work into her final decades. We don’t want to give the impression that everyone must follow a single road (see Draw Your Own Map) or that this is the right road for every software developer (see A Different Road). Some people leave development permanently and become executives, testers, salespeople, or project managers”. (Dave H. Hoover & Adewale Oshineye).

This chapter was an interesting one to read. I liked how it talked about how this is a unique profession, and you will be doing it for some time if the passion is there. I also liked how it talked about how you shouldn’t jump ship right away if there is an opportunity away from software development. I don’t think that this chapter will stick with me out in the real world, however. I feel as though this chapter is geared towards people with a mind set of already leaving this profession.

From the blog CS@worcester – Michale Friedrich by mikefriedrich1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Find Mentor

There is always a good teacher behind a good student and a good engineer needs a good mentor who will help sharpen the skills and knowledge of that person. There is a saying “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. Together with the mentorship, the engineer will become skilled at his job and has solid fundamental knowledge in this field.

By learning from the best, we learn how to become one of them. The apprenticeship will be supervised by a series of mentors who possess varying degrees of mastery. Every master used to be a student and no one is perfect. So keeping in mind that a master must be perfect is a misconception. It can be tempting to feel that way because they know so much more than we do. We must resist the temptation because we would not want to disillusion our mentor’s inevitable weaknesses.

The story about Dave finding his mentor shows us his journey. By sending out a random email to his mentor, Wyatt, he initially did not expect Wyatt’s response however Wyatt did. The effort was a payoff and he earned himself a mentor. What we could learn from this story is that we should not afraid to ask for help because sometimes what the other is waiting for is us asking.

Good mentors are not easy to find and not everyone is willing to open their arms and welcome us as amateurs. Plus, reaching out to someone that we do not know feels intimidating. However, the risk of being rejected is low but the payoff would be huge. Even though that person does not want to become our master but if we are consistent enough, what we could get back is a good friend. Besides taking in, passing along what we have learned from our mentors is one of the ways in which we can begin the transition to journeyman status.

How could we do that? One must wonder

Choose a tool, library, or community that has an active mailing list. Start small by signing up for the list but do not post any messages yet. Gradually, we will understand the values of the community and learn which of the subscribers are patient teachers. Seek out the members of this list the next time we see them and ask if they would be interested in providing us with some advice about the lesson they have learned. As I said above, we might get rejected but the valuable gift that one might earn is a good friend.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Hung Nguyen by hpnguyen27 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The White Belt

Summary:

The white belt pattern is about learning new things. We have mastered one language or area, now it is time to learn another because being an expert in one language or area does not allow us to grow and widen our capabilities. Pattern recognizes that sometimes despite working hard and giving our 100%, it does not lead to success. We need to recognize that different areas require different methods and approaches which may be drastically different than what we already know. Solution that pattern provides for us is that sometimes we need to clear our minds and start from zero.

Why this pattern?

Ever since freshman year I have been learning Java. First, we did intro to programming, then data structure and then testing in Java using Junit. Along the way I did a little bit of C, python for data analysis, and JavaScript, CSS, etc. for projects last semester and capstone. While working on this stuff I realized I kept using concepts from Java and messing up the code. Even while using mocha and chai testing framework, I kept using testing concepts of Junit. Due to this almost every time I had to revert the code, go read the proper documentation, come back and redo the code.

White belt pattern teaches us to re-assess our knowledge. It teaches us that as computer science students there is always knowledge out there, we can learn and help ourselves grow. As Elon Musk said, “Biggest mistake smart people make is believing that they are smart.” And to learn or acquire new knowledge and skills we need to start from square one. We cannot build a skyscraper on top of another skyscraper. We need to start below the earth, lay down a good foundation and then build on it.

White belt pattern also teaches us to be brave. I personally get nervous and anxious nowadays when it comes to learning a new language like python or JavaScript, software like docker or Kubernetes, services like Gitlab or AWS, etc. Pattern recognizes that sometimes it is painful to start from the bottom but tremendously crucial in accelerating the learning process. Mastering the new language or area is far more important than the short-term loss of productivity.

Where I disagree:

I might be nitpicking with the technicality of the word ‘unlearn’ but I do not think we need to unlearn what we know to learn new things. We do not need tear down a building to build another one.

From the blog CS@worcester – Towards Tech by murtazan and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Retreat Into Competence

For this week’s blog post, I have decided to look at the apprenticeship pattern “retreat into competence”. The idea of this chapter is that you, a software developer, are beginning to realize how little you know, or that you have taken on a new challenge that is not working well in your favor, or your having problems with both. Due to you realizing how little you know you begin to get overwhelmed with your ignorance. The solution to this is to pull back and launch yourself like a stone from a catapult. You need to retreat or take some time away from your task to re collect yourself so you can come back to the task stronger than before. According to Dave H. Hoover & Adewale Oshineye, the authors of the book, they say on this,

“An apprenticeship is a roller-coaster ride. You will experience the thrill of learning new technologies, leveraging your knowledge and creativity to deliver value to your customers. But you will also experience the heart-in-your-throat terror of perceiving just how little you know compared to the craftsmen and experts you meet along the way. It can be overwhelming, particularly when a deadline is looming or when you’re dealing with production issues.” (Dave H. Hoover & Adewle Oshineye).

This pattern is most relevant to people who have stretched themselves to far thin to be able to concentrate on the task in front of them anymore. However, by pulling back you do have the chance to launch more forward than you have been able to before. Note however this pattern does come with risks as if you forget to launch back forward or don’t have the desire to there can be repercussions. I liked this chapter as I am a person who can get stretched thin very quickly and am not able to bring myself to walk away for a bit to recollect myself. I liked that this chapter talked about both the pros and the cons of using the pattern. This will be something that will stick with me while I’m in the field because I am prone to being stretched thin and will sit there and still try to figure out the problem for hours. By walking away for a bit, I will be able to launch forward.   

From the blog CS@worcester – Michale Friedrich by mikefriedrich1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Apprenticeship Pattern: Expand Your Bandwidth

Christian Shadis

In the apprenticeship pattern Expand Your Bandwidth, Hoover and Oshineye explore the importance of learning as much new information as possible as a new developer. They talk about how many developers have relatively low understanding of programming concepts when they enter the workforce, and how these new programmers can take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available for consumption. They make the analogy of drinking out of a straw versus out of a firehose – increase the volume of information you consume as much as possible.

This pattern particularly resonated with me. I feel as though I have a very solid low-level understanding of several different concepts in the world of software development and data analytics. I lack that high-level expertise in all the subjects I have studied in the past three years. I have attempted to emulate this pattern before learning about it: I have a shelf stuffed with books about everything from CS basics to networking to Machine Learning, and I do my best to read as much as possible about the subject.

As mentioned in my previous post, I entered the Computer Science world far later than I would have preferred and faced the difficulty of entering a vast industry filled with passionate, lifelong learners as a programmer with absolutely no knowledge of anything related to computer science. I believe I have spent my time wisely, learning lots of information about several different subjects, and managed to build up a solid toolkit before graduating.

I hope to use this pattern throughout my career, but especially so over this coming summer. I will be seeking employment as a software developer or engineer, and I feel as though some gaps in my knowledge should be plugged up as soon as possible. I plan to do a deep dive on full-stack development and connecting the frontend and backend of a system and use my newfound knowledge to do a complete rebuild of my website (ctshadis.github.io) with a proper full stack and domain name. I believe this will require learning lots of new information and applying it immediately in a way that will make me more qualified for any full-stack development jobs I apply for.

Reference: Hoover, D. H., & Oshineye, A. (2010). Perpetual Learning. In Apprenticeship patterns: Guidance for the aspiring software craftsman. O’Reilly.

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

Share What You Learn

To avoid frustration, I try to keep myself motivated by thinking about the feeling when I complete my task. Along with the feeling of completion, sharing information among people is some sort of motivation that I want to show off every time I learn something useful.

In my view, I am not a beginner applying this method introduced in Dave Hoover’s book since I am not feeling strange when I explain to my mates what I have learnt, instead, I actually like doing it because it is not only a way to help my mates understand the part that I have been working on but also a great opportunity to test my understanding over subject and enhance my memorization onto it.

I started feeling the benefits of sharing information with other people since high school. Back then, I mostly helped my friends when they didn’t understand some math problems in class, and every time I do it, I remember that issue much longer, and I feel more comfortable with the technique used to solve that problem. The more I “teach” them, the better my “teaching” skill and my sense of learning improves as well. As they started counting on me in these difficult tasks, I would perceive the sense of motivation to push my learning into the higher level.

We are afraid of having a conversation about a topic that we do not really comprehend. In both math and code, exchanging information, in my opinion, is an infamous problem since I have encountered lots of people who suffer from it. Coding and mathematics have a similar concept (it is like a feeling, but I cannot think of a more specific word to describe it) that once you understand the flow, solving their problems is utterly attractive. Therefore, besides the benefit of improving my apprehension, I also want to help my friends be able to comfortably debate when it comes to specialized topics.

As we grow, we have less confidence to ask other people, searching for problems online is therefore becoming a more popular approach. Hence, publishing blog posts to share my learning will be my next path to maintain my motivation and improve my understanding. Stay tuned!!

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

Find Mentors

Many apprentices in this craft are inexperienced and have little knowledge of what’s next in store for them or how to prepare for what’s to come. Luckily, most apprentices, are not the first person to walk down the same path, and there are many people who are experienced and knowledgeable who could provide help and guidance when needed. This apprenticeship pattern is about finding these people and having them mentor you in your journey to becoming a master craftsman.

Mentors can be quite hard to find. It may be easy to locate authors of books on the craft, accomplished conference speakers, committers on popular open-source projects, and developers of successful websites. However, it is difficult to convince them to mentor you. They may not be interested, or they feel intimidated by the request. One should expect rejection as a risk. However, the risk of being rejected by a mentor is fairly low, while the payoff is massive. The key when searching for mentors is to be tenacious and appreciative.

One thing to keep in mind when searching for mentors is that it’s important to understand that mentors are also going through their own journeys towards becoming master craftsmen and that no one person knows everything. It’s tempting to want your mentor to be a master because of their vast and deep knowledge of the craft. However, such temptations should always be resisted. You shouldn’t dismiss mentors by over-focusing on their inevitable weaknesses or blind spots, these mentors still have a lot to offer.

Although this apprenticeship pattern discusses a simple concept, it is extremely important. Finding people to guide you in your journey is invaluable. Mentors can help you make the right decisions for you, they can teach you new techniques, they can give you tips about the craft, and they can give insight into what you can expect. Every apprentice should actively look for mentors and learn as much as they can from them. By the same token, it’s important to realize that just as you are looking for mentorship from people ahead of you, there are also people who are behind you who seek mentorship from you. Being able to pass on your knowledge and experience is one of the ways where an apprentice can begin to transition into a journeyman.

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

Find Mentors

Programming alone can be difficult with unclear paths to take with lots of uncertainty about which approach will be the best. Without someone who can give you guidance, it makes it difficult to move forward alone. It is necessary to find a mentor who will be there to guide you in times of uncertainty. The mentor you find does not need to be someone who knows all, but someone who has more knowledge and experience than you in a particular programming area. Finding a mentor requires a lot of searching because they may be hard to find, especially finding someone who is willing to spend the time to help. However, when you find one, they will provide a world of experience.

I found it interesting the author himself found a mentor after a few years of already being a programmer. It shows that it is never too late to find someone who knows more than you and to ask for help. This practice relates back to a previous pattern about exposing your ignorance. You must be willing to do this in order to get the proper guidance.

This pattern focuses on the theme of approaching programming as a craft where you must start as an apprentice. This reminds me of my grandfather who was a carpenter. When he was young, he started small jobs without much knowledge. He learned from the other men on the job who were eager to teach him what they knew. Eventually, he learned as much as they did and in his later years went on to share his knowledge with those who were younger just learning their craft.

After reading this far into the book, I have reshaped the way I view the development landscape. I feel that it requires the perspective of apprenticeship and the need for finding others to help you develop your craft. I think it is possible that at the same time you are being mentored, you can also be mentoring someone else. There are no areas in this pattern where I disagree with the author. I find that his recommendations and personal experience are well thought out and are great advice.

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