Today has been a lesson in the application of process in the face of adversity. I started the day absolutely floored by a problem — I was confused and quickly found it difficult to focus. I was able to gain a bit of perspective and apply a couple of things I had been told the day before. Firstly I messaged my peer group to let them know what I was working on, and second I tried to put into practice the practical problem solving steps. The steps definitely helped me to move out of total freeze, but it was when another member of my group came over in person and offered to pair that things really changed. Just being with someone else facing the same problem changed how I felt, and therefore how I thought — how ready and able I was to bring my best. We shared our insights and were both frankly blown away at the progress we made. I think we had solved it in the time that I had previously spent staring. And the shared sense of achievement was so real — we took a walk in the sunshine to celebrate with another of the cohort and even managed to find some incredible pair cooked falafel.
Genius is nothing but a tired patriarchal myth.
Coming back we both then helped another member of our peer group with the same problem, trying to stay with the “coaching” rather than “teaching” style. While this helped the person we were working with, I was really struck by how much I benefited from this, the deepening of my understanding of what was really going on. We’re building on these blocks, it pays to invest in them.
This has got me thinking that this course is really about experiencing how to learn. I think I have been assuming there’s some giant library worth of knowledge that I need to consume and retain and then I can call myself a developer. I mean the truth is, even if this were true, we could never learn it in 3 months anyway. And it would be out of date. And chances are the thing we actually need to be wouldn’t be covered. So I need to relax a bit about the lists and contents and indexes. Knowledge will come — it is coming. Much more important is practicing how to find the path and do it with others.
The afternoon was more pairing — and I had the best time. I felt seen and valued. I felt affirmed in my strengths and my weaknesses. I felt challenged. And we really learnt and we really achieved. I was struck by how, at the end my brain hurt in a way that was familiar after an intense code, but that I also felt different — physically lighter — my shoulders not clenched, my eyes not popping.
School produces learners when it should be training thinkers.
I had fallen for the urban myth of the lone genius. Of the sole working coder solving problems no one else can. I really love to code, but I don’t like working alone, so that’s a really good outcome for me. And anyway, who needs that kind of pressure on their shoulders anyway?
Today has been a good day because of the people I have worked with and the practice in working together. This is day 2 — what a thing to learn to take forward into the coming days and weeks.