Day 3: Andela Boot camp Experience
Wow, it’s day three of the marathon as I call it. 60 hours since the beginning of this extraordinary marathon that has turned my brain into an expanded computing environment enabling me to project my capabilities that I would have never known were within my reach.
It’s within this mind that my mind is really acknowledging its power as an organic computer that is able to take in data in terms of challenges, analyze that data and then give output in terms of solutions. Just like any computer known to man, the mind sometimes needs to be taught how to compute some new challenges that get me stuck in a loop of try and error. I am able to achieve this through collaboration with my Facilitator and fellow boot campers.
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.”
- Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
By evaluating myself right now I realize that the rate at which am learning new things is very high compared to the rate I used to learn before I joined Andela. Having deadlines for tasks to guide you is something you should opt for. Deadlines keep you on your track and at the optimal speed to accomplish objectives.
For this short period I have been programming with Andela, I have noticed that coding is similar to speaking. A speech can either be a poor speech, a normal speech or quality speech. In programming, we have a poor code, a normal code, and a quality code.
“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.”
- Martin Golding
When somebody speaks and his intended message is misunderstood it’s similar to a programmer who writes code and the code does the inverse of the expected purpose.When my code does the inverse I surely go back to reference to relearn the skill of writing code that does what I need it to do.For speaking, people who are positive will apply this and relearn the communication skills in order to pass the right message next time when they communicate with people.
Normal code
I have also noticed that growth mindset extends even into coding. You need to have a growth mindset to write code. You can write code which does exactly what you need it to do but that’s still normal code. Have your code to run through tests of different inputs to ascertain your code is good enough. Rewrite your code to meet all the test requirements. Don’t imagine that the end user is not going to give you an input that you least expect. If you apply tests on your code you will be surprised by how you will write code better than you thought you could.
Quality Code
Programming is not all about you and your computer, it also requires you in your normal human being state. By this I mean you should collaborate and interact with the human world. This helps you learn to write code that will be “easy” on the humans.
“Good design adds value faster than it adds cost.”
- Thomas C. Gale
