This week I read chapter 1 and the introductions of chapters 2 through 6 of Apprenticeship Patterns by David H. Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. I thought the reading was filled with many interesting things and gave me new ideas and ways of thinking.

The first thing I found interesting was Dave’s story. David shared the story of how he started learning to program when he was 12 years old but did not really grasp programming until he was 26. Dave shares how he struggled to program over the years until he found a mentor. I found Dave’s story to be inspiring. Programming can be very difficult sometimes and I have run into roadblocks before but Dave’s story showed me that even if you struggle you can still succeed if you keep trying. All it might take is the right mentor or a different way of thinking to understand and conquer your problems.

Another thing I found interesting about this book is the idea that it is not a rule book to follow about programming but it aims to give programmers the ability to come up with their own ideas and drive the discipline of software development forward. The authors interviewed many highly skilled individuals for this book to gather a range of values to help achieve this.

I also found the sections on what it means to be an apprentice, journeymen, and master to be interesting. I always just thought those were just titles for how skilled you are but in this case they are more than that. An apprentice is at the start of their journey and at this stage they are learning to learn and absorbing as much information as possible from others. A journeyman’s new focus is to create connections between others and communicate more in the industry, A master’s job is to move the industry forward. Even after becoming a journeyman or a master you still retain the attributes from the previous stages. I liked how each stage not only had its own new responsibilities but after moving on you still keep doing what you were when you started so you keep improving.

After reading the introductions for the chapters they have me excited to dive into them more. Just from the introductions I feel like reading through them will be very helpful for me and my career as a programmer. I think the chapters that stood out to me the most were chapter five, Perpetual Learning and chapter three, Walking the Long Road. Both these chapters look like they could be interesting reads and I look forward to diving deeper into them for my later blog post.

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.

While reading Apprenticeships Patterns, I began to realize that it’s easy to get a little too ahead of myself when it comes to software development. What I mean is that my journey in becoming a good software developer never really ends, and while reading the first chapter of Apprentice Patterns, I am more of an apprentice right now then anything- I never considered myself anything more before, but while the book described what an apprentice is I felt that I met the criteria very well, despite this being one of my last semesters in university. The software development craft is always moving forward thus there is always new things to learn even passed university. This in one hand scares me and the book makes it very clear that tenure doesn’t level you up in the software development world. Many developers will be developing for years and still be considered an “apprentice” which is very discouraging to read out load. The importance of developing good software craftmanship is what levels that person up from being an “apprentice”. I also find it interesting that the book doesn’t like to make a big emphasis of being an apprentice, journeyman, and master because it is a cliché and is misconstrued in the software making world. It’s interesting to read about the different definitions of these ranks in context of software craftmanship. It made me expand my knowledge of the different cycles of becoming a good software developer.  Now, I absolutely adore the comparison of medieval Europe with roles such as the apprentice, the journeyman, and the master. The responsibilities and ideas that these roles take up when talking about the software development world juxtapose the traditional-medieval definitions of these roles. The roles when discussed in the medieval way are a lot more strict and confined while in terms of software development, these roles are used more loosely. But it gives more context of what responsibilities and better yet, the stage I’m at when it comes to software development that I would be working on.  While reading the introductions of each chapter made me realize that this book is nothing like anything I’ve read before. The author seems to speak from experience when explaining how one can deliver good software craftmanship which I enjoy quite deeply and nothing I’ve read so far has made me feel any distaste toward messages that the authors are trying to send. One of my favorite allegories is probably the master and the young philosopher. Without going into summary, it’s interesting to me that a full cup could be sometimes seen as a bad thing when it comes to learning to be better at your craft.

Sources:

Hoover, Dave H., and Adewale Oshineye. Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman. O’Reilly, 2010.

From the blog CS@Worcester – FindKelvin by Kelvin Nina and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week I read Chapter 1 of Apprenticeship Patterns as well as the introductions for chapter 2-6. One thing that interested me greatly about the first chapter was learning about what it truly means to be an apprentice. I always thought apprentice’s were like sidekicks, and did not matter, but the first chapter really changed my view. It made me appreciate apprentices as people who always think they can get better, and I really relate to that. I never think I did something perfect, and I always want to strive to better myself every day. The introduction to Chapter 2 was really interesting. The part that interested me the most was the story of the master and the apprentice. The master’s quote about coming to him with a glass already full is spot on. You need an openness to learn more so you can get better. Nobody knows everything, and you have to understand that to truly get better. The introduction to Chapter 3 showed me that even when you become a master at your field, you will still be an apprentice. You can always get better, and there will always be somebody better than you. The introduction to Chapter 4 had a very important lesson that you should never get too full of yourself. I agree with this because once you become comfortable with where you are, that is when people seek to improve less. There are always higher levels that can be reached, and you must never be complacent. The introduction to Chapter 5 goes over important knowledge that I must get better at. It goes over how you must not get distracted and stay focused on the goal. I see myself getting distracted and sidetracked many times in work, so I must focus on doing more to erase that distraction time. The introduction to Chapter 6 also goes into a problem that I feel like I have at times too. It goes over how people must be more focused on knowledge than the grade. I always get stressed and worked up over the grade that it becomes more important to me than learning the information. I feel like I have been getting better at it during college though, and I strive to continue doing better. The introductions to these chapters have really gotten me excited to get to read all of them!

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

From the outset, Apprenticeship Patterns by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye demands that you interpret its abstractions. Apprentices are to be seen as those who are learning a craft but not yet spreading it or responsible for the success of their workshop. Craftsmanship is not participation in the historical guild system, but engaging with shared values of self-reliance and free information.

This vague framing of the process of learning to write software is a bit off-putting, but a brief skim of the early content of the book shows why it is necessary for this to be an adhesive work. The language is that of self help books and MBTI questionnaires because that is the vocabulary that exists to describe an infinitely vague process of self-directed improvement, and the variety of technologies to learn and career paths to take in software can be so varied that no one book can describe them in concrete terms. This one book can be forgiven for trying to describe them all in the terms that remain.

The introductions of Patterns‘ early chapters pose a category of situations in which all learners will find themselves. From a need to destroy the habits preventing an exploration into the field in chapter 2, to chapter 6 presenting the challenge of selecting from a near-infinite pool of available learning resources. These problems are all sufficiently broad that any dedicated learner either will face them in the near future or has adapted to each at some point in the past. The structure seems compelling: with respect to the pseudoscience identity assessment parallel, everyone can identify with one or two of the patterns presented in each chapter. I hope that readers think more about the solutions to problems not yet solved than about the solutions that they are most proud of using in the past.

Overall, I’m surprised by how easily I’m drawn in by the book. Every section headlined by ‘Context’ is a generous platitude unwrapped from a self-centric fortune cookie. Each ‘Problem’ a horoscope personalized for any human on the planet. But I want to read about me, and what challenges I am already facing, and the strategies I can use to optimize my learning. Maybe all together that is worse advice than just ‘keep making new things in new ways,’ but Apprenticeship Patterns knows the power of framing information around the reader.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Tasteful Glues by tastefulglues and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

With the start of the semester, it is once again time to start up my blog post again! This semester will be filled with mostly patters from “Apprenticeship Patterns – Guidance for the apprising software craftsman”

In particular, I have read over the first chapter as well as the introductions for the remaining chapters, and I was honestly surprised by how abstract it was. Fully expecting a more concrete, “Here is how you do things,” I was instead met with philosophical concepts and an exceptional push to strive forward that reminds me, or more aptly, is identical to improvements within the various artforms. These chapters and introductions were starkly reminiscent of the advice I received when I started to learn how to write and draw, and right away, I realized that coding allows the same avenue of creativity and expression that painting or writing a story allows.

It fully changed my outlook on coding and programming! For one reason or another, it is much easier to hand wave programming as “work” or even something that needs to be done, but now I understand that is now the case. The break up into apprentice, journeyman, and master was something that resonated quickly. It almost seems obvious after the fact, and it makes complete sense. Along with the break up, I really enjoyed the short story of the Zen master and the young philosopher. It was very similar to something that I have encountered before.

When I was first learning how to draw, it was very easy for me to question everything because of my curiosity and thirst for improvement, but in doing so, I would slow things down. Rather than focusing on the true task of drawing, I would instead procrastinate by searching for more references, or other things that I “needed.” By the time I was really ready to start drawing and actually improving, an hour would have passed and I’d maybe get only a handful of lines on my paper. If I had pushed ahead and tried to fill up my paper, I’d have done so much more, but I instead wasted my time with unnecessary things.

This isn’t identical to the story of the Zen Master and the Young Philosopher, but to me, it I get the same thoughts reading it. The Young Philosopher was never properly able to learn from the Zen Master since he was blinded by his own ideas, and in the same vein, I never truly improved since I was so busy preparing things that I “needed.”

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

The introductions of the chapters gave a really nice and simple outline in the different ways to expand your learning and tools that are available to be a better apprentice. It also defines what it means to be an apprentice, or journeyman or master, and where the origins of the listed apprenticeship patterns originate from. The most useful section I found was the section explaining that without discipline, we would let ourselves be constantly distracted by different things in our environments so that we would avoid work. I felt this applied heavily to myself, as when I do work from home I find myself easily distracted by different things. My cats jump on the desk and want attention or Discord notifications ringing in my ear. After reading the section, I realized that I do not actively attempt to get away from those distractions and will end up spending time giving attention to my cats or responding to my friends on Discord. I need to attempt to disengage from these distractions when I am trying to work so that I can produce quality work, and not something that when I look back upon it I will be disappointed. Another introduction that I found heavily applying to myself was the section regarding self assessments. The reading notes; “You must be willing to let go of your perceived competence and allow yourself to recognize that you have traveled only a short distance on The Long Road.” I feel that I can get lost in my abelites and my limitations, and I will either take on too much work at once or not enough work, or that I will become too confident in myself, not realizing that I have only scratched the surface of a certain topic or skill. Reading this made me realize that I need to constantly be aware of what I can and can’t do, and if that I am ahead of my fellow apprentices that I need to not become over-confident, and maybe help guide them along the way so that they can accomplish certain tasks as well. All of these apprenticeships patterns will create a better teamwork environment.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Noelan Chabot's Blog by nchabot1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.