As is typical for my self-directed coding sessions, I began by playing around with a few old code bases before settling on starting a new project, one I've had in the back of my mind for a long time. Of course, as soon as I had created the rails project and went to edit it, my usual text editor crashed. I decided to return to using vim, a tool I had developed some proficiency with in my last job. Curious about how to use vim as a full IDE, I went looking for resources and found Janus. As I was reading the documentation, I decided to complete vim's built-in tutorial (which can be reached by typing vimtutor in the terminal). Previously, any skills I'd picked up had been as needed and through specific Googling, but it was nice to run through a structured set of commands, and I was shocked by what vim could do. Since then I've begun working on my personal project with MacVim and enjoyed the process, even though there's some adjustment. This blog post was helpful in outlining some of what I'd learned on my own, and pointing me in the direction of new plugins to install. I highly recommend Vim, even if just so you can get the reaction I did once at a code sprint ("You use vim?!?")...though not sure if that was really compliment.
After starting to teach myself Ruby, I decided to quit my job as a mental health social worker and go to a programming bootcamp in California. I started this blog to share my thoughts along the way, in case anyone was curious what it's like to be a social worker getting into coding.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Editor Practice
The last year of my life has been one of major transition. I've just moved out of the city I've lived longest of anywhere in my life (seven years!). I didn't move far but making that decision felt huge. Within the past six months, I got married and promptly convinced my husband to adopt the world's cutest cat, changed jobs, and then decided to buy this house. It's no wonder that my attention to coding has slipped. (Even now, our cat Dolly is perched in my lap, occasionally scrambling to block my keyboard). However, using the philosophy that got me to learn to code in the first place, this week I remembered that it's never too late to start again.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Like Myself
It’s been a long time since I posted anything to this blog, so I doubt anyone is reading it (if they ever were). However, I woke up early this morning, and found myself re-reading old entries. Since my last post, I’ve received some criticism that made me afraid to return to writing, but I actually found myself proud of my old posts. Yes, they were a little cheesy, but one thing I learned as a social worker is that there’s a real place for cheesiness, especially when you mean it. And I did mean every word I wrote in those posts.
I could recap the last year, but instead I’ll just say that I have no regrets about the choices I made. While I loved the people I worked with in my past career, I believe I made the right choice for myself and for them to leave. I can support myself and others so much better now that I make choices to do work that makes me happy. While of course there are still time where work is tedious or people frustrate me, I love what I do. The moment when a complex problem becomes clear feels just as good as it did when I first learning. And I’ve found a new joy in taking complex and difficult to understand code, and re-writing it to be easier to update and fix.
Recently, bootcamps like the one I did have become more popular and accessible, so a lot of people ask me if they should do one. Rather than give advice, I usually ask: do you like to code? Because if you don’t enjoy coding, don’t do a bootcamp.
More importantly, only do it if you really want a job as a developer. If you don’t , find something you do love and find a way to balance your love of it with making money. That’s certainly not very easy, but it’s a lot easier than trying to make money doing something you hate. I am so much happier doing work that fits my personality than trying to make my personality fit my work. But the really hard part is that it means I have to show people my personality, and know what that is. And that’s terrifying.
It is funny though the little ways people surprise you when you tell the truth. A couple months ago, I went to coffee with one of the owners of my company, Social Driver. He asked me what I missed most about being a social worker. I told him about the white board I used to have in my office where I posted weekly inspirational quotes, and how much they meant to me and to some of my clients. The next day at our all staff meeting there was a package in the corner. During the time in our meeting that we call Victory Lap, where we acknowledge special effort over the last week, the owner mentioned me and said how much my story had touched him, and then presented me with a white board! I almost cried.
I recently posted this quote:
I could recap the last year, but instead I’ll just say that I have no regrets about the choices I made. While I loved the people I worked with in my past career, I believe I made the right choice for myself and for them to leave. I can support myself and others so much better now that I make choices to do work that makes me happy. While of course there are still time where work is tedious or people frustrate me, I love what I do. The moment when a complex problem becomes clear feels just as good as it did when I first learning. And I’ve found a new joy in taking complex and difficult to understand code, and re-writing it to be easier to update and fix.
Recently, bootcamps like the one I did have become more popular and accessible, so a lot of people ask me if they should do one. Rather than give advice, I usually ask: do you like to code? Because if you don’t enjoy coding, don’t do a bootcamp.
More importantly, only do it if you really want a job as a developer. If you don’t , find something you do love and find a way to balance your love of it with making money. That’s certainly not very easy, but it’s a lot easier than trying to make money doing something you hate. I am so much happier doing work that fits my personality than trying to make my personality fit my work. But the really hard part is that it means I have to show people my personality, and know what that is. And that’s terrifying.
It is funny though the little ways people surprise you when you tell the truth. A couple months ago, I went to coffee with one of the owners of my company, Social Driver. He asked me what I missed most about being a social worker. I told him about the white board I used to have in my office where I posted weekly inspirational quotes, and how much they meant to me and to some of my clients. The next day at our all staff meeting there was a package in the corner. During the time in our meeting that we call Victory Lap, where we acknowledge special effort over the last week, the owner mentioned me and said how much my story had touched him, and then presented me with a white board! I almost cried.
I recently posted this quote:
I feel like it sums up what I'm working on now.
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