I truly understand why DBC is considered more of a bootcamp learning style than a traditional one. I don’t know why time seems to be going so fast. Is it because I am enjoying my time here? Or is it because I am so busy with work, trying to catch up to the current material? Either way, I find it interesting that I am not burned out at all!
This week, there is a massive shift in the way students are supposed to think about programming. The shift went from procedural programming to object oriented programming. In addition, DBC is making the students focus a lot on making the code the students write cleaner and more easy to read: DRY (don’t repeat yourself).
On Monday, my partner and I spent the whole day going through the morning and afternoon challenges. More than completing all the given challenges for the day, my partner and I spent most of the allotted time discussing what the challenges were subtly supposed to teach us. For example, for a lot of the challenges, we are supposed to define to_s. However, I didn’t know why we were supposed to do so. In addition, I didn’t know that to_s only refers to puts. So if you did a p, you would have to define inspect.
On Tuesday, a different partner and I spent the day practicing object oriented programming; an example of what we did is we created an OrangeTree class, defined different, multiple methods that each contained only one responsibility, and then created an instance of an OrangeTree. We did similar activities with a Hospital class and an Animal class.
The days are going by way too fast for me to organize my thoughts as coherently as I want to for these blog posts. Hopefully, I will find the time to organize all my posts and make them more fun by adding pictures and adding separate technical blog posts about what I am learning.
I am definitely milking DBC for what it’s worth, but that’s not all that I want to do for the next 8 weeks. I definitely want to give back to the community somehow. I tried to kill two birds with one stone by assisting other students with topics they are having trouble with. Not only do I help the other students solidify their understanding of the material, but it definitely helps me understand the material as well by leaving no stone unturned.
Last week was definitely more overwhelming than this week. I think that maybe the reason why DBC did that was to battle imposter syndrome. However, I am scolding myself for getting too comfortable. I should really use this time to solidify my learning and start reading Sandi Metz’s book POODR.
Physically, I definitely feel like I’m gaining weight. I eat out everyday, and I sit in front of the computer for hours at a time. Yoga definitely helps on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I should definitely be more wary of my body. An unhealthy body definitely leads to an unhealthy mind. I am still struggling to find a good balance between the two.
Despite all the work I have for DBC, I am trying hard to find time to relax and spend time with family.