1 Down, 13 to go
Let's do this.
The first week of Iron Yard is completed.
It's already been full of adventures. For those of you who know me well, you know: I don't sports. But let's enjoy the play-by-play of some of the bigger highlights for my week.
Monday
Wednesday
Mid-week, I'd moved to:
1. Waking up on the second day to realize I did not submit my homework.
2. Freaking out about the lack of submittal.
3. Realizing Chris had sent a message to us, and submitted it right then.
4. Reviving myself from a minor heart-attack
I'm so set on doing my best in this course and getting the most out of every bit of knowledge I can, that my biggest fear is waking up late or forgetting to turn in my homework due to working late the night before.
Friday
By that morning...well. It's official. I was coding in my sleep the night before.
Coursework
The coursework is outlined in a way that could be perceived as 'geeky'. I have two responses for that.
1. Yeah. And? (I'm learning coding for goodness sake. Of course it's geeky. I'm more than OK with this.)
2. I actually find it WAY easier to push myself.
How is the coursework outlined, you ask? The main homework goals - i.e. the goals for the assignment that are required to understand the content - are listed as "Normal mode". Extra work beyond this is listed as "Hard mode". Work that requires additional research on your own and will take quite a bit of struggle to accomplish is listed as "Nightmare mode".
...I don't know about you, but if every assignment in school was listed this way throughout my life, I'd be viewing every assignment as:
It may seem silly, but I think it's genius. I mean, c'mon! Who doesn't want to say they beat their homework on "Nightmare mode"?!
This also pairs perfectly with the mindset that is at the core of Iron Yard. To truly succeed in this line of work (or any, really) you need to have a growth mindset. If you have the time, definitely read the article for that link. I'm blessed to have already been leaning towards this type of thinking as a result of my time in the landscape architecture dept. at Ball State, but I don't think I had truly thought about it as a complete mindset. Reading through the research behind it was very eye-opening and brought a fair amount of self-reflection and (already some) personal growth.
Week one coursework covered:
If/else statements
lipsum generators
Arrays and hashes
Utilizing classes and methods
Utilizing CSV files
Manipulation & integration of the above
Troubleshooting
Dealing with your frustration
Enjoying the small successes
Realizing the small successes to frustration ratio might be 1:372
Frustration
Throughout the week, I've learned a few things - both about the work and myself.
The work can be infuriating at times - as computers are dumb. They're only going to do what you tell them, and they're only going to do EXACTLY what you tell them. One missing character or missed keystroke, and it all goes to hell in a hand basket.
And things have done so. A lot. Chris jokes that coding is mostly about generating error messages and interpreting what the hell happened.
For me: I'm well aware that I can fall into a trap of getting so frustrated with something that I need to just walk away for a minute. I think everyone gets that way. But there was quite a bit of extra pressure on me this week, as I knew I only had until the end of class time to complete the assignment, as I was working nearly every day after class, and I knew I wouldn't be able to process this stuff at 12:30 at night.
There were many times I was ready for the image above to be a part of downtown Indy. Luckily, I'm not quite ready to do this with my new Macbook Pro that cost me an arm and a leg. (Imagine doing this work one handed, in a wheelchair - which you totally could, I suppose.)
My frustration did teach me to be pretty resourceful with getting answers in an efficient manner.
...but that brings up an excellent point...
Work
Meaning not Iron Yard coursework
I'm currently working at HopCat in Broad Ripple while taking my course with Iron Yard. Through college I worked at a brewhouse in town for four years, managing by the end of my stint. I'm told no one (that Chris knows of) has managed to have a job for the entire duration of the course AND graduate from the program. I've been told one or the other is ended. ...having worked 40+ hours a week at various times while getting my degree, I know it can be done. Is it fun? No. Will I have a life? No. Do I need to be HIGHLY conscious of my time? Yes.
For the first week of Iron Yard, I was finishing my training (as I had just started - a way to pay the bills), and I ended the week with 30 hours clocked.
Overall
I'm excited. I'm pumped. I'm tired as hell!
But you know when you're so excited about something that you don't really mind how tired you are? That's where I'm at. (We'll talk around week 8 and see how I feel then...)
I'm also excited to get into week two, as we're going to be building text-based games! As someone who remembers playing versions of these - This. is. so. cool!
I know it's light years of difference, but I'm telling myself these are the stepping stones that lead to what game designers and developers do when creating the next PS4 or Xbox game. (Which would be one of the best jobs I can imagine.)
ONWARD!
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