Doing something like Makers Academy is a commitment to change. For me it’s about changing career — a path towards a future where writing software is the core of my working life. I still don’t really know what that will look like, but I realise that I had quite firm ideas about how I would get there, and when I started to struggle it was disorientating, I was losing control over the narrative, and it’s taken me a couple of weeks to re-orientate myself.
Here are my struggles:
Taught sessions.
I had such a positive first week, that when I had one taught session that didn’t meet the pedestal I had personally place Makers on, I basically couldn’t cope and it led to a bit of a spiral. Makers continually tell us that we are responsible for our learning and path — but I had delegated all that responsibility to the teaching. And teaching is hard — I know, I’ve done some — it is never going to suit all the people all of the time. I reflected on this with the lead coach, with my peer group and with the coach in question, and I also reflected on it personally and I realise that it has brought up much for me. Yes there is responsibility on Makers and the coaches — and I will stress that in discussing this I was left in no question of this — it was instantly palpable and I was able to feedback properly with no defensiveness on their part. But there is also responsibility on me. Coding is a career of learning — and I need to know how I learn and what I need in order that I can succeed and continue to succeed.
Working with others
I have come from a career as a full time artist and musician. I am not in any way used to working with others in the way that we are on this course, nor am I used to routine and boundaried work in this way. I have to say I have loved pairing and really believe in it, but also, working closely with other people is hard. It’s hard because of me and it’s hard because of them. We’re all complex human beings with good and bad days and it hasn’t always been easy. I’ve come to realise that this is perhaps one of the greatest things about this course. Learning while in a structure that mirrors the profession. To be able to have positive, negative and indifferent experiences of working with others while scaffolded in a safe environment is frankly priceless. I am going to be working in teams and sometimes I will get it wrong and I will be working in teams and sometimes someone else will get it wrong. To be able to model this, learn from it and gain that experience is so powerful. Hard, but powerful — and my cohort are, frankly, incredible — so if it’s not always easy with them, then any skills I can learn now will really help me out in the wild.
Managing my own learning
In many ways this is similar to most of the course — learning how to manage your own learning is as much a personal journey as all of it. Ideally we have to work out who we are and what works for us. Finally I think I’m getting it. There is a broadly signposted journey that we are all on together, but we should be exploring and finding our own ways there. Sometimes this looks like being taught, sometimes this looks like pairing, sometimes this looks like a conversation and sometimes this looks like working on our own. There is no right way. Am I learning? Am I having fun? Am I a better developer than yesterday? My blockers are weird and uniquely mine. A childhood confusion with grammar led to me feeling completely lost with diagramming for more than a week until I paired with a friend and we edged forward. This unblocked me. And then someone else suggested a less linear approach and suddenly I’m flying. The other week I took the weekend challenge off on a totally tangential route — got very little of the actual task done, but had loads of fun and learnt a lot. This experience is rooted in learning — not in curriculum.
So I find myself challenged and changed. The course remains incredible, but I am growing in areas I didn’t know I needed to — and that feels unfamiliar, but also wonderful. The path I am on will only be laid when I reach the end, and frankly, I hope I never do.
To learning…