Week Six: Bonefish
Here’s the rub: I’m exhausted. All the nonstop work, work, work, work, work, work of the past week has taken a toll on my energy. And now that the wave has subsided, I was planning on taking a break from the blog post for this week. But it looks like you’re just in luck! After having a delicious dinner and jogging around the neighborhood, I have decided otherwise. Behold the wonders of the human mind.
So, appropriately I’ve started up Animal Collective’s delirious masterpiece Strawberry Jam and got to typing…
What did you do this past week?
I don’t know how it happened, but I completed all bazillion things I needed to do on time this week. Yes, the heaps of the scheduled schoolwork, recruiting events, and personal project milestones — all done. There are several deadlines coming down the pipeline, but I would opt to take my victories when I have the chance. Call it what you want… to me this was a necessary miracle in a treacherous time.
Oh yeah, that also means that IDB Phase I is done. It is a more unwieldy beast to lasso than meets the eye.
What’s in your way?
Nothing is in my way. I got this.
What will you do next week?
Lots of things, it seems.
- Phase II, d’oh! Front-end is easier this time around, but it’s good to get started as soon as possible and work in incremental chunks.
- Wrapping up a large project I’ve worked on for last summer’s internship.
- Implementing the Guest bootloader and kernel code for a virtual machine.
- Learning about computer vision.
- Doing the Russian Mazurka Quadrille.
What did you think of Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?
An upsetting but unsurprising read. The article was posted in early 2017 (pre-Weinstein allegations), so I hope that sexual harassment has since been taken more seriously in the workplace. Many products that come from Silicon Valley empower progressive movements, so it’s even more disappointing to discover that the people behind these products don’t practice what they preach. The women who succeed in Silicon Valley are the ones who’ve learned to be adept at maintaining their assertiveness when navigating relationships in a male-dominated industry, beyond mere technical skills. There’s always room to improve, and I can’t imagine fields in the Beltway or Wall Street being any better. At the bottom line, I think it’s essential for men to be more empathetic to the experiences of women.
What was your experience of iterators, reduce(), and tuple?
I have prior experience with all three. The opportunity to “implement” our own tuple was pretty cool, and if I had to guess, the upcoming exam will be similar to this.
What’s it like working in a group?
Working in a group is usually an enjoyable and eye-opening experience. This time was no different. My group members for the IDB project are all very supportive of each other’s roles.
What was your experience of the team contract?
Team contracts are important. Maintaining good relationships with the team members is always fruitful for teams (and essential for small ones), but there’s no doubt that when difficult interpersonal conflicts occur, the team contract helps by acting as a source of authority that binds everyone in the team together.
What was your experience of the peer review?
The peer review is honestly more important than the team contract. Don’t get me wrong, team contracts are the go-to document for emergency crises; but it is with peer reviews that team members get a chance to be self reflective, and as a result more productive. It helps people by allowing them to focus on their own actions and how they’ve affected the group, consider others’ perceptions of their own actions, and other people’s work. Being self-conscious of one’s own contributions and role to the team dynamic is invaluable.
What made you happy this week?
That I made it to the other end. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is now! Adios, Phase I.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My recommendation this week is simply to remind everyone to catch those Z’s! Most scientists agree that young adults should be aiming for 7 to 9 hours every day. It should go without saying that getting enough sleep is good for your health. And even though I know that many fellow Computer Science students are night owls, adjusting your sleep schedule such that you minimize artificially induced disturbances to the circadian rhythm is one of the best ways to be a more productive person. And on that note, see you all later. Good night!
More to come next week. Bet.
