Never assume malice

 "Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice. Never assume stupidity when ignorance will suffice. Never assume ignorance when forgivable error will suffice. Never assume error when information you hadn't adequately accounted for will suffice." - rwallace expanding on Hanlons Razor

I asked someone if they had forgotten to push the second part to the repo, because it has been 14hrs. 1) Always check that you pushed all the parts. 2) If you have gone down that list and not checked off any of those as being the reason things are wrong, you have big problems. Praise them in public, criticize/coach them in private. And expect the same from others.

Coding Pool Party

 I'll admit that having Java in one folder, JavaScript in another, and MySQL next door, all happily communicating back and forth is pretty nice, but also not 100% clicking in my brain.

I get that they both can send messages to the database, it is the part where the JavaScript frontend says "Hey, can you throw me a beer?", and Java says "Let me grab it out of the db cooler"...

Wait, I think that is how it works... They are just yelling at everyone, and everyone who can do that does it, and if you can't do it, you just ignore it.

And now all my code is getting hammered, sunburned, and falling in the pool.

The Postman always Bings twice

 I spent way too long yesterday failing to spot that I was missing a comma. A combination of never having used Postman before, and the font in Postman being tiny. 

A quick search told me how to make the font bigger... which Postman does by making everything bigger as it is a zoom. Different. 

Now that I've used it for a bit I can see it is going to be something I use often. Noticed they have a Trello API which falls in line with a project I want to put together someday. 

Meeting tonight with the group, hoping to nail some more of the ideas, concepts, and designs to the wall. Also really hoping that the TA puts up the repo that they told us would be up 2 days ago. 

Still trying to figure out how I seem to be the leader of the group. People keep coming to me for what is it going to do, how will it do it, and what should it look like. An inventory system wasn't my idea. But I will admit that a Yelp-type app for dispensaries might have been more than we could handle in the time we have. But we could have gotten a MVP up, and then expanded it later. Who knows, maybe I'll put it together, drag in some friends who code, make it an Android app, and try to figure out how to make some money off it. Seems like there would be a market for such. 

Pretty Doesn't Return Value

 Our instructor told us on Monday that pretty doesn't return value.

Last night's session on wireframes was a perfect example of that.

Every minute of the TA putting something in place was followed by 5 minutes of making it pretty. The hour was around 10 minutes of putting stuff in place and 50 minutes of moving stuff around... They would do something and then 10 minutes later have to touch the same things again because they wanted more room, and it was all made more difficult because they didn't attach the lines to the shapes, because "I don't like how it looks".

Get all the parts together, then arrange them as you want to see them, and let the system handle the lines.

All we students wanted was to be sure we were doing wireframes right. We wanted to get a handle on some of the thinking that went with how they are made.

What we got was frustrated & annoyed.

Inventory Management System & the minutes of our lives

We decided to build an inventory management system as our group project. It is not the most exciting thing, but it will do what it is supposed to do... show that we can work as part of a team, build something from the ground up, while they teach us about Agile, we pick up some new skills, learn more about communication, goal setting, and practice things we covered in class. 

I am a little frustrated as I got spoiled. I spent 20+ yrs working with someone who annoyed me by making us follow all of these steps with meetings, yet over time I saw how those things saved us over and over. 

Simple things like having someone write down what people agree to, then reading that off at the end of the meeting so if there are any questions or misunderstandings we can deal with it at that time, and then emailing that list to everyone involved so we all are on the same page. 

It reminded me of what I was supposed to do, but also told me who to bother about the information I was waiting on. 

This stuff became even more important to me as more and more meetings became conference calls and virtual meetings, and I no longer had memories like "They were sitting at the left end of the table, and that was A, B, & C... and B was the only Account Manager over there". 

So yeah, I learned that extra couple of minutes was not wasted time. Maybe that is why they are called Meeting Minutes? (I looked it up... meeting minutes are based on taking minute (my-newt) notes. People read it as minute (min-utes) so that is what we call them now)

Since I am the one having the issue, I guess it means I am going to need to take my own minutes. And since I want to help keep us on the same page, I'll post them where all of us can see them. 

Be the solution to your own problems. 

Helping others helps me

Today I went to Code & Coffee hoping some of my group would show up so we could discuss our group project. None of them showed, so instead I helped some folks with a couple of things that seemed very basic to me. 15 minutes later they brought over someone that needed a hand with something, and we quickly squared that away for them. 

It made me realize just how much I've learned, but also how much I enjoy helping others. 

Now I just need to keep this in mind next time I am wondering if I have a clue about what I am doing. 

We can't do that here

I remember years ago looking over a book, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, and thinking how this would be so useful at work. Half of my job was filling out the equivalent of form letters. All the information was in our database, and the Excel spreadsheets we used because the database was all but useless for considering more than 1 project at a time. But we could only get that information by copy-pasting it.

I went to my boss and asked about the possibility of installing Python on my work computer, explained what I wanted to do with it, and that it was something I would work on when I wasn't on the clock, as it was a chance for me to learn and play with Python on something that would make the department more productive, and my job more interesting.

"We can't do that here".

I tried asking if there was someone we could talk to, and explained that Python isn't some video game, and that the folks making and dealing with our database would all know what it is I am talking about.

Insert image of a plane going down in flames.

It wasn't just my plan crashing, it was also my dream of getting a foot into the tech world.

A while later, new boss. I try again, pushing the idea of some other tech thing I think I can build. Picture Wile E Coyote smacking into the painted-over cliff wall.

Over and over, boss after boss.

In between bosses, I'd be looking at internal job listings, hoping there was some kind of entry-level thing. "Entry Level Position - Requires 2yrs experience in the field, Comp Sci Associates". So close. Only missing both the requirements. And why are 2 yrs of experience and 2 yrs of training considered entry-level? 

People not in my department, and customers I'd help deal with some tech issue: "You should be in tech".

So one day, burnt out, and tired of dealing with doing the same thing for decades, I quit. And now here I am, making the leap into tech, no safety net, no ropes. Just tired of waiting for someone else to give me permission.

It's a brand new day

 Finished the technical part of LaunchCode's coding boot camp, and started the next phase: Polishing up the "get a job" skills, and building a project with a group.

I've never really had to get a job before. Not that I didn't work, but that my jobs were they type you walk in, fill out an application, and start the next Monday. I didn't have a resume, interviews were a 10-15 minute conversation with the boss. Places where you are gone in 2 weeks, unable/willing to do the work, or you are there for years.

Even my first step into the corporate world was through a temp agency, so no one needed to see my resume. Just show up, prove you could do it, and keep coming back.

I spent 23 years showing up, proving I could do it, and coming back. Same job title, same small department. Eventually, I burnt out.

I am looking forward to doing something new, while still showing up, proving I can do it, and coming back.

Learning's what it's all about

 Spending the morning with a React tutorial, as I wait to find out what our group project will be.

I am seeing why people like React... even if I did just spend an hour trying to make it see a file. It was a BCAK (between chair and keyboard) issue, as I was missing the second period in an import.
But, having made that mistake, I'll recognize it next time, and solve the issue faster.
::: to the tune of hokey pokey ::: "Learning's what it's all about"