Week 6 Recap

Week 6: Completed

I've completed half the Iron Yard course. ...wait. What?

What does this mean? How do I feel? 

Well, if you would have asked me how I felt mid-week, I might have said 'still lost'. ...Now, I'd probably say 'still lost. ...but I'm getting there!'

This past week, I had multiple chats with Chris about how I felt as though I was just not getting something. It was like there was a piece that I was completely omitting in my mind to link a lot of these concepts together. Chris assured me I knew more than I thought I did. I was not so sure.

We were paired up for a project this past week, to build a version of Twitter. I was paired with a young lady in our class (let's call her 'Lauren'). Lauren and I had learned already that we do not communicate the same way. At various points in the course already, we had attempted to ask each other questions for assistance in assignments, only to find we could not convey the concept to the other, but we always ended up finding out own solutions through the process of trying to get the other person to see what we were talking about.
Chris was glad he paired us together when he found this out.

But through having to communicate with someone who sees things differently, we both found we do, in fact, know more than we think. I had a serious "ah HA!" moment while explaining something, as I realized not only was what I was saying making sense to me, I was also solving a road-block error we had come across. It was one of those moments where everything 'clicked'. The feeling you get when you've been pushing and pushing to understand what the heck is going on, then getting that "eureka" moment is a little rush, a small high, and a driving factor to the work we're doing. (Because I already feel like I'm learning to become a wizard, but when this wizardry makes sense it. is. awesome.)

What a corny reference.

Course Timeclock

This past week:

Iron Yard - 52 hours

HopCat - 27 hours

Coursework

As previously mentioned, we're currently working on building a twitter clone. The version Lauren and I are working on has been affectionately dubbed "Rage Rant" - the place you can vent your frustration in 170 characters or less. 

The end of the week was crunching out as much on this as possible, as I knew my weekend would consist of pretty much nothing but time at HopCat.

Learning through ineptitude 

The feeling of being lost is something I'm beginning to accept. (Emphasis on 'beginning to'...) But Chris explained the philosophy behind the course structure - the method behind the madness, if you will.

Imagine there is a circle that represents everything you know, you know that you know, and you're comfortable with. The area outside this circle is varying degrees of things you don't know, ranging from "hey this is kinda new" to "What. the. fuck. is this shit?!" - depending on how far you wander out from that circle of knowledge. The course is designed to take place, almost exclusively, in that zone of varying bewilderment.

The effect: I'm learning, but in a completely different way than what I've become accustomed to through my schooling. This process is causing me to live in a learn-to-survive style that, while a bit frustrating, is rewarding me with a rapid amount of growth, and moments where things which seem completely Greek suddenly 'click'.  This process is one that I hope and feel I will continue with moving forward - in this course, in my own educational pursuits, and in life.

In completing week 6, I feel empowered. I feel driven. And I'm fueled for more.

Let's do this.