Hello and thanks for stopping by to read another round of Comfy Blog. This week, I read up on the apprenticeship pattern “Draw Your Own Map.” I was interested in this pattern immediately once I read the title since I myself am not sure how to walk the long road down the computer science path. For a short summary, this pattern emphasizes the importance of creating your own career path as a software developer and having an understanding that others are not supposed to hold your hand down the path. 

In this pattern, the first step is the most important step, since it is the one that creates all the momentum to your career goals. But what exactly is the first step? Is taking computer science courses in university the first step? Or does the first step skip university classes and is just apply for jobs you are interested in? For me, the first step was realizing my passion for computer science. That passion led me to taking classes in university, and led me to today, my capstone class here at Worcester State University.

Another element that this apprenticeship pattern emphasizes is to set small goals for yourself, rather than set high-level goals and expectations. I think many people’s goals would be to be an employee of a large computer science based company, such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft. But working there as an apprentice is highly unlikely since you would lack the experience you need. Instead, set small goals and use those small goals as a plan and road map for your career. A small goal would be for example to work at a startup company and develop skills there. Then, maybe move onto a new company down the road that is slightly bigger since you have more skills. There is not a set path that every apprentice should take. Everyone’s path will be different. It is important to note, however, that your small goals roadmap may change as new opportunities open up. My roadmap that I will eventually make may need to constantly change and I may need to go into unfamiliar territory in order to progress.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello and thanks for stopping by to read another round of Comfy Blog. This week, I read up on the apprenticeship pattern “Draw Your Own Map.” I was interested in this pattern immediately once I read the title since I myself am not sure how to walk the long road down the computer science path. For a short summary, this pattern emphasizes the importance of creating your own career path as a software developer and having an understanding that others are not supposed to hold your hand down the path. 

In this pattern, the first step is the most important step, since it is the one that creates all the momentum to your career goals. But what exactly is the first step? Is taking computer science courses in university the first step? Or does the first step skip university classes and is just apply for jobs you are interested in? For me, the first step was realizing my passion for computer science. That passion led me to taking classes in university, and led me to today, my capstone class here at Worcester State University.

Another element that this apprenticeship pattern emphasizes is to set small goals for yourself, rather than set high-level goals and expectations. I think many people’s goals would be to be an employee of a large computer science based company, such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft. But working there as an apprentice is highly unlikely since you would lack the experience you need. Instead, set small goals and use those small goals as a plan and road map for your career. A small goal would be for example to work at a startup company and develop skills there. Then, maybe move onto a new company down the road that is slightly bigger since you have more skills. There is not a set path that every apprentice should take. Everyone’s path will be different. It is important to note, however, that your small goals roadmap may change as new opportunities open up. My roadmap that I will eventually make may need to constantly change and I may need to go into unfamiliar territory in order to progress.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello and thanks for stopping by to read another round of Comfy Blog. This week, I read up on the apprenticeship pattern “Draw Your Own Map.” I was interested in this pattern immediately once I read the title since I myself am not sure how to walk the long road down the computer science path. For a short summary, this pattern emphasizes the importance of creating your own career path as a software developer and having an understanding that others are not supposed to hold your hand down the path. 

In this pattern, the first step is the most important step, since it is the one that creates all the momentum to your career goals. But what exactly is the first step? Is taking computer science courses in university the first step? Or does the first step skip university classes and is just apply for jobs you are interested in? For me, the first step was realizing my passion for computer science. That passion led me to taking classes in university, and led me to today, my capstone class here at Worcester State University.

Another element that this apprenticeship pattern emphasizes is to set small goals for yourself, rather than set high-level goals and expectations. I think many people’s goals would be to be an employee of a large computer science based company, such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft. But working there as an apprentice is highly unlikely since you would lack the experience you need. Instead, set small goals and use those small goals as a plan and road map for your career. A small goal would be for example to work at a startup company and develop skills there. Then, maybe move onto a new company down the road that is slightly bigger since you have more skills. There is not a set path that every apprentice should take. Everyone’s path will be different. It is important to note, however, that your small goals roadmap may change as new opportunities open up. My roadmap that I will eventually make may need to constantly change and I may need to go into unfamiliar territory in order to progress.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello and thanks for stopping by to read another round of Comfy Blog. This week, I read up on the apprenticeship pattern “Draw Your Own Map.” I was interested in this pattern immediately once I read the title since I myself am not sure how to walk the long road down the computer science path. For a short summary, this pattern emphasizes the importance of creating your own career path as a software developer and having an understanding that others are not supposed to hold your hand down the path. 

In this pattern, the first step is the most important step, since it is the one that creates all the momentum to your career goals. But what exactly is the first step? Is taking computer science courses in university the first step? Or does the first step skip university classes and is just apply for jobs you are interested in? For me, the first step was realizing my passion for computer science. That passion led me to taking classes in university, and led me to today, my capstone class here at Worcester State University.

Another element that this apprenticeship pattern emphasizes is to set small goals for yourself, rather than set high-level goals and expectations. I think many people’s goals would be to be an employee of a large computer science based company, such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft. But working there as an apprentice is highly unlikely since you would lack the experience you need. Instead, set small goals and use those small goals as a plan and road map for your career. A small goal would be for example to work at a startup company and develop skills there. Then, maybe move onto a new company down the road that is slightly bigger since you have more skills. There is not a set path that every apprentice should take. Everyone’s path will be different. It is important to note, however, that your small goals roadmap may change as new opportunities open up. My roadmap that I will eventually make may need to constantly change and I may need to go into unfamiliar territory in order to progress.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello and thanks for stopping by to read another round of Comfy Blog. This week, I read up on the apprenticeship pattern “Draw Your Own Map.” I was interested in this pattern immediately once I read the title since I myself am not sure how to walk the long road down the computer science path. For a short summary, this pattern emphasizes the importance of creating your own career path as a software developer and having an understanding that others are not supposed to hold your hand down the path. 

In this pattern, the first step is the most important step, since it is the one that creates all the momentum to your career goals. But what exactly is the first step? Is taking computer science courses in university the first step? Or does the first step skip university classes and is just apply for jobs you are interested in? For me, the first step was realizing my passion for computer science. That passion led me to taking classes in university, and led me to today, my capstone class here at Worcester State University.

Another element that this apprenticeship pattern emphasizes is to set small goals for yourself, rather than set high-level goals and expectations. I think many people’s goals would be to be an employee of a large computer science based company, such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft. But working there as an apprentice is highly unlikely since you would lack the experience you need. Instead, set small goals and use those small goals as a plan and road map for your career. A small goal would be for example to work at a startup company and develop skills there. Then, maybe move onto a new company down the road that is slightly bigger since you have more skills. There is not a set path that every apprentice should take. Everyone’s path will be different. It is important to note, however, that your small goals roadmap may change as new opportunities open up. My roadmap that I will eventually make may need to constantly change and I may need to go into unfamiliar territory in order to progress.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello and thanks for stopping by to read another round of Comfy Blog. This week, I read up on the apprenticeship pattern “Draw Your Own Map.” I was interested in this pattern immediately once I read the title since I myself am not sure how to walk the long road down the computer science path. For a short summary, this pattern emphasizes the importance of creating your own career path as a software developer and having an understanding that others are not supposed to hold your hand down the path. 

In this pattern, the first step is the most important step, since it is the one that creates all the momentum to your career goals. But what exactly is the first step? Is taking computer science courses in university the first step? Or does the first step skip university classes and is just apply for jobs you are interested in? For me, the first step was realizing my passion for computer science. That passion led me to taking classes in university, and led me to today, my capstone class here at Worcester State University.

Another element that this apprenticeship pattern emphasizes is to set small goals for yourself, rather than set high-level goals and expectations. I think many people’s goals would be to be an employee of a large computer science based company, such as Google, Facebook, or Microsoft. But working there as an apprentice is highly unlikely since you would lack the experience you need. Instead, set small goals and use those small goals as a plan and road map for your career. A small goal would be for example to work at a startup company and develop skills there. Then, maybe move onto a new company down the road that is slightly bigger since you have more skills. There is not a set path that every apprentice should take. Everyone’s path will be different. It is important to note, however, that your small goals roadmap may change as new opportunities open up. My roadmap that I will eventually make may need to constantly change and I may need to go into unfamiliar territory in order to progress.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello!

Welcome back to the blog. This week I am discussing the Craft Over Art pattern from “Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman” by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye.

The context of this pattern is that you are being paid to make something to solve a problem for a customer. The problem is that there is already a solution for how to fix that problem, but you would be able to come up with something creative to address the problem that would impress your coworkers. 

The pattern discusses that being a craftsman is impacted by relationships we build with others–we should work to build strong connections with customers, making sure we deliver to them something of quality. We shouldn’t aim to focus on our own interests. You should be working to the best of your ability but also keeping the customer’s best interests in mind. Part of our growth is being able to give up the opportunity to make something beautiful and instead create something useful when needed.

The pattern advises that in the next 24 hours you work on something to be useful rather than beautiful, and to think about what you should be focusing on while you make the decision on making something useful. You should also reflect on your past experiences where you tried to do something creative rather than follow an already-made path for solving a problem and the result of it, and what would have happened if you chose to use a previously established solution.

I thought that this pattern was an interesting read. Throughout the patterns, I’ve been seeing that we should work to hone our skills and not get too comfortable with certain activities–try to branch out some more or we may get stuck. And this pattern is saying that although we should exercise our skills, we need to find a balance between creating something ingenious and creating something based on an already existing solution. I think this is important to think about when doing work. Of course, I think it would be great if you could figure out new ways to do things. But it’s also important to deliver products to the customer in a timely manner, and it may be too resource consuming to create something from scratch as the pattern mentions. I don’t have any disagreements with this pattern. It would be great to develop the ability to know when to sacrifice utility vs beauty and it would definitely be on my mind when I need to solve a problem in the future. I usually tend to look for any known solutions and make slight adjustments to the solutions when necessary.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS With Sarah by Sarah T and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week I am jumping to chapter 6 of Apprenticeship Patterns. The pattern I read was called Reading List. The context of this chapter is now that you have become proficient in your first language, you start to see the massive amount of information you still need to learn. The problem with this is there is more information that you need to learn than you can keep up with.

The solution for this is to track the books and other sources you plan to read and remember which ones you have already gone through. This pattern mentions it might be a good idea to store it in a place that will allow other people to benefit from it. Not only is this pattern used to manage books you are reading but it also helps with reflecting on your past reading habits. One of the most valuable things you can get out of a book is finding other books in the bibliographies that will be good information.

The action plan given to help with the problem is to create a text file and put in all the books you are currently reading. The text file will be your reading list and make sure you keep it up to date. 

I chose this pattern because I thought it would be good to know what to do after I have really mastered my first language and am ready to move on to new things. This will probably be a little while before I am ready for these next steps but being prepared will help with the transition. I will make sure to try out the solution for this pattern but use more than just books. Books are useful but there are plenty of other good resources that I can learn a lot from such as articles, videos, and blog posts, as well as learning from other people. A takeaway I get from this chapter is there will always be more to learn so having a solution to track what you are doing will be a big help with getting through as much as possible.

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

“Emptying the cup” is one of the most important and interesting chapters of the book “Apprenticeship Patterns” by Dave Hoover. This chapter is a call to all aspiring software developers to unlearn their preconceived notions, beliefs, and biases that may have been learned from past experiences, learning other programming languages, or etc. and become open to new perspectives. In the context of software development, the phrase “emptying the cup” means being open to new ideas, technologies, and practices. It means being willing to unlearn old habits and ways of thinking that might be blocking your growth as a developer. New software developers should be aware of the importance of curiosity and a willingness to learn from others so that they can grow into exceptional software developers.

This apprenticeship pattern revolves around clearing your mind of everything you know and opening yourself to new and different approaches to the problem. Clearing the mind of previous knowledge would get rid of old habits that the programmer may have picked up on while coding in the past. What works in one language might not necessarily work in another language, and there may be more efficient solutions to a problem in another language that may be the most efficient in the original language. What I found interesting is that emptying the cup is much like the metaphor “thinking outside the box.” Rather than using traditional or old habits to solve a problem, you should drop the old habits and think differently and incorporate new perspectives to solve the problem. Most people may fall back on a traditional or the most popular method to solve problems they may encounter while programming because it has shown to work in similar situations. But when programmers solve problems by thinking outside the box, they try to find untraditional ways to solve problems, or find unintended ways to solve them. Thinking outside the box and emptying the cup are similar since they both require the programmer to deviate from the usual methods of problem solving that programmers do and find a more creative way to come up with solutions.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

“Emptying the cup” is one of the most important and interesting chapters of the book “Apprenticeship Patterns” by Dave Hoover. This chapter is a call to all aspiring software developers to unlearn their preconceived notions, beliefs, and biases that may have been learned from past experiences, learning other programming languages, or etc. and become open to new perspectives. In the context of software development, the phrase “emptying the cup” means being open to new ideas, technologies, and practices. It means being willing to unlearn old habits and ways of thinking that might be blocking your growth as a developer. New software developers should be aware of the importance of curiosity and a willingness to learn from others so that they can grow into exceptional software developers.

This apprenticeship pattern revolves around clearing your mind of everything you know and opening yourself to new and different approaches to the problem. Clearing the mind of previous knowledge would get rid of old habits that the programmer may have picked up on while coding in the past. What works in one language might not necessarily work in another language, and there may be more efficient solutions to a problem in another language that may be the most efficient in the original language. What I found interesting is that emptying the cup is much like the metaphor “thinking outside the box.” Rather than using traditional or old habits to solve a problem, you should drop the old habits and think differently and incorporate new perspectives to solve the problem. Most people may fall back on a traditional or the most popular method to solve problems they may encounter while programming because it has shown to work in similar situations. But when programmers solve problems by thinking outside the box, they try to find untraditional ways to solve problems, or find unintended ways to solve them. Thinking outside the box and emptying the cup are similar since they both require the programmer to deviate from the usual methods of problem solving that programmers do and find a more creative way to come up with solutions.

From the blog Comfy Blog by Angus Cheng and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.