Weekly Essay (28/09/20-04/10/2020)
This week has been a good complement to the previous activities and I have noticed how an identity is beginning to be built. Although at first it seems that none of this has to do with the development world, I got that it’s the beginning of the way (the fundamentals), in other words, I need walking before running.
I don’t feel like a person with good communication skills, in fact this topic scares me and makes me feel uncomfortable. I really admire people who are good at this , but for the above reasons I don’t identify myself with those kinds of people. Inside of me I really want to become a great communicator, I have weird feelings about these abilities because I want to have them but the process to get it scares me a lot.
“When I meet someone, I learn so much more if I ask about their life”. This quote written in the book How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes represents my life this moment. Growing more by listening than talking, it’s true and that’s why I think I’m able to learn about any technology, but when I get stuck and need help, I find it very difficult to express that help and I end up at a point where I don’t know what I’m looking for and what help I’m asking for.
How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes How I said, read it was uncomfortable for me but interesting at the same time because in this quarantine I found a brief analogy that kept in my mind. Prepare your “Elevator pitch” which consists of transmitting your idea in 20 seconds (what an elevator usually takes from the first floor to the last) to the right person (imagine sharing the lift with Elon Musk ), and when he gets to his floor, he invites you to his office to talk about it (It’s the goal of “Elevator pitch”). I want to be able to achieve this.
One of the most important things that I learned was how to change the programming mindset especially from the way that I used to develop to a real way of how to develop. To clarify all this, I must refer to the reading “What are the most profound life lessons from Stanford Professor John Ousterhout?” and my very short professional career. This reading says something important to me “the primary design criterion for software should be simplicity, not speed” and boom! That phrase and reading really changed my mind, but Why? In the university I used to develop my projects with the premise that the website (or whatever) must be fast and elegant and the rest doesn’t matter. Currently I’m working on a microservices project and I still have that thinking.
I had not seen it that way, the project would be simplicity, it must to work and after that If is necessary, optimize it. In LeetCode (A website where you can solve random problems) I used to get frustrated because my solution was going 1 ms slower, and I spent more time to ‘fix it’ when I was able to solve another problem in that time. All this reading was a boom for me.
Ideas without execution don’t matter; execution matters. We believe that ideas are the most important in a process, but they are not. In fact, the process begins when the idea is executed.
When you catch this knowledge everything changes and more in the development world (Who has not had an idea of an app that will make you a millionaire?). Even though this concept can be transported in my process as an Academy, I had the idea of joining Encora since May, but It was only an idea, the difference was when I applied. If it had just been an idea , I would not be here and nothing would have changed.
Changing the subject, Using the shell puts you in full control of your computer and your workflow, and I highly recommend using it whenever possible. Throughout my whole university career the linux bash (even windows powershell) was something that always scared me and tried to avoid. I never understood the people who used linux, I was always a pro windows (not a professional, just someone in favor of this OS). The “missing semester” class has a lot of power in his name because I never had a subject-matter or workshop of Linux shell in my college (for me it was better at that time), but this class was the class that I missed. The teacher said something important “you can do whatever you want on your system” (with the right permissions) , when you know that it is easy to change your work way and adopt the linux shell as another tool (a powerful tool). Currently with my short experience with linux and this speech I want to change my OS right now because in fact I’m using more linux OS than windows.
Evolution, Creative Thinking, Progress and Mastering
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” and the main works toward a common goal. This doesn’t mean you’re losing your self-transcendence, it means that working for a common intention, you’re working yourself too. I have learned about this topic seen from the development side, because when your intentions are compatible with others, the combination of all of this end with a project that meets everyone’s needs or goals. For example, the Academy will get more experience in real projects (my case), the leader will deliver the promised system and the client is going to solve their problems or requirements with the help of the system. In other examples, I can say that It’s easier and better to take a bus as a group (a common goal)to my destination than walking alone.
Some of the most important things I learned this week is about creativity. The idea that people are born creative is absolutely wrong, when you know (you need to believe it) that to be creative is just an activity like running. That means that you become more powerful because like any activity, anyone who is willing can do it.
And if you see everything as an activity and not as an attribute, you can achieve whatever you want. When I was in my first semester at my University, I was terrible at programming and I realized how some of my classmates were geniuses. Then, I became a disciplined student (I studied what I wanted to learn. I was consistent and organized with that ) and eventually two years later I was the best programmer of my generation. Now I feel like I can learn and make whatever I want. “The way you make change happen is based on culture”.
Why is it so difficult to progress or advance in life? Why is it so difficult to make these decisions? That you know they will get you better but they scare you. I have experienced that moving forward hurts is uncomfortable, right now I’m living in my hometown (my comfort zone) where my friends and my family live and that’s awesome. However, I cannot grow up in my career here and the easiest way is working in Guadalajara where I have other friends. For me, taking this opportunity in Encora (I would move to Merida)is to get out of my comfort zone and see what happens (my experience could be excellent or bad) after all I know that I’m going to learn. Progress is a painful and scary act because you are literally killing an older version of yourself. Starting the Academy is awkward and intimidating (At the beginning I felt uncomfortable) but doesn’t matter because I know that in the end the prize (the experience) will justify the way.
“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”. You advance having these conversations, leaving your job is not easy and neither broking your relationship with another person. But doing it is progress in your life because If not, you’re going to feel bound, “I can’t take this excellent job because I have this other” or “I can’t take this exchange to Spain because I have a relationship”.
Every week these readings empower me more.
Something that I loved and got this week is noticed how the most of the readings and videos are connected towards a goal, I could say that the goal of all this is to become an excellent programmer but it’s not. For me it’s abstract, this will help me to become whatever I want. If I want to be a good programmer, I’ll do it. If I really like to be a good dancer or business man I’ll do it. Because the process is the same but you only change the input (What you consume and learn). In the end, you have to have good habits and that will make you disciplined, take the next step and progress. (Become a master in this)
At this point I’m able to become and do whatever I want.
