Week 1 Reflection

So I have finally taken some time to unpack and reflect on how my first week at makers has gone. Man this week has been a journey and this is only the start!

Why reflect?

First of all, I just want to note why it's important to take time to reflect when endeavoring on a learning journey. Allowing yourself the time to reflect gives you the ability to assess what is going well, what's not going well and how we can address our weaknesses.

So first what has gone well for me in the past week? I feel in the last week alone I have grown so much as a junior software developer and it feels great. I have implemented TDD (Test-driven development) to a whole new level and had several very productive pair programming sessions with my new friends at Makers. I have a good understanding of Ruby’s TDD tool RSpec and by this point written somewhere around 100 tests in just one week.

I'm please to say joining Makers has been probably the best decision I have made in years judging how I feel at present. As much as I wish I could say everything is sunshine and rainbows these positives have not been easy to achieve and I like all people have had my fair share of pitfalls.

So where in the past week have I gone wrong? Over the past week, I have not only become very conscious of my positive steps but also the negatives of my workflow. Some have been hard for me to address, but being conscious of your negative attributes is essential in life otherwise you’ll never take the steps you need to move in the right direction.

First of all, I need to reassess how I address my shortcomings, it really is true when people say you are your own worst critic. I feel I need to be a bit kinder to myself when it takes a little longer for me to get a grasp on something. If I am constantly beating myself down I will never make the strides I need to.

So I’m going to kindly remind myself what skills I haven't fully grasped from the last week, why I feel I need to work on them and how I’m going to address them.

TDD (Test-driven development)

I am an eager person and very much a doer, despite now having a vast array of knowledge on the subject of TDD, I feel I need to slow myself down and follow the process. I have energetically jumped in and written code before testing a number of times this week, this has a number of times resulted in me losing my place or even writing the test after the fact. I need to monitor myself and follow the process off TDD (remember Test-driven development, not Development driven tests). I feel writing user stories in a constructive manner and creating a visual domain model may help me follow this process better, possibly even writing a draft shell of the program following this so I have something to guide myself through the process.

Personal health and wellbeing

Due to the unfortunate epidemic of the Corona Virus I have found myself over the past few weeks with a serious case of cabin fever. I don't sleep well as is, I haven't been eating great and I haven't always been the kindest to myself either. I need to change this and I plan to make these changes in a few different ways.

• Establish a solid sleeping routine best I can
• Ensure I am eating healthy to sustain myself
• Leave the house once a day, even if it’s just a walk given the current situation.
• Being kinder to myself, allowing positive growth to happen in a nonaggressive manner.
• Meditate

Specific coding concepts

Throughout the week I have taken many, many notes and I feel writing these into blogs would be useful. I find writing mini-tutorials to myself can often help my understanding of concepts and a positive by-product of this it forces me to explain things in an articulated manner.

List of blogs to cover

• Stack tracing
• RSpec and doubles
• Breaking down problems with inputs and outputs
• TDD Examples
• Personal projects

Thanks for checking in, keep being kind to yourself and each other in these tough times.