Coding Bootcamp: Day 5

My Fifth Day

Well, I've finished the first week, so only seven more to go (eight if you count the final and ninth week, which is hiring week). And so far, there's the tiniest little glimmer of things starting to come together, but I'm still feeling pretty in the dark about, oh, everything

A few years ago, I was taking second-year logic in the summer, which made it a fairly fast-paced and intensive six-week course. I showed up to the lectures and tutorials, did my assignments, and felt pretty good about things. I was getting logic! And I felt pretty confident that I'd be turning into Spock any day now.

After a couple of weeks came the midterm, and I sat down and breezed through it. "Hey," I thought. "This is pretty cool — I'm staying on top of my work and I'm right where I want to be." That feeling last until I got my mark back — it was a 43. When I saw that fail number, my stomach dropped. Not only did I quite obviously not understand the material, but I also didn't know what I didn't know, which worried me more. So, swallowing my pride, I went to the prof and said, "I need help with everything.

She and I met twice a week in her office before class where I would show her my work, the work that I pored over every day. On non-class days, I would — and I kid you not — work on just logic for 10+ hours each day, sometimes up to 13h a day. I'd put on a pot of coffee, set my papers up at the table, and fill my stomach with Skittles as I did every single problem over and over and over again until I bloody well could do it in my sleep.

And you know what? On the final exam, I nearly doubled my mark to 84. As a sidenote, I finished with a C+ in the course, but I didn't care. That letter meant nothing to me because I knew I understood everything inside and out, and it was one of the few times in my life I was happy with how much effort I'd put into it. There are very few things in my life I'm truly proud of, but the latter half of that class is one of them.

I'm sort of in the same boat right now with Ruby. It's serendipitous that I studied linguistics and philosophy and logic in university because elements of it are all being drawn upon here, which leaves the mindless repetition and driving my instructors crazy as I steal hours of their time having them explain things to me.

And you know what the kicker is? The other students, they see me on my laptop outside, reading, and think I'm understanding this stuff.

I'm not, but I will be.

And just to feel better, here's my favourite picture of my gerbils.