Outbox EDU Prep-ix.
At the start of this year, I promised I’d actively put myself out there; do more to develop my brain muscle in trying to beat the brain development biological clock. I read a book that claimed the existence of a final brain growth spurt in the early twenties and I figured I could make up for all those years of mindless television with this year.
You can now guess how excited I was to jump onto the programming wagon when Outbox EDU presented the opportunity. Nothing points to “neuron development overdrive” more than launching into the deep that is machine language. I can’t even quite remember how I got onto the Outbox mailing list, but there I was, with a course being rolled out right when I thought my university was declaring the semester indefinitely suspended by their absence of communication. It couldn’t have been a more perfect opportunity. I told every ear that came into range.
I have always admired techies. I say techies to lump together everyone: from the ones that just know the controls to turn your laptop to tablet mode to google programmers. I am in awe of the possibilities that lie in coding. I find the best perk to be the gateway to acceptable isolation that it provides. With the big headphones and the unintelligible languages on the computer screen that discourage conversation, it is the introvert’s dream.
(Disclaimer: The writer is not averse to conversation or people. On the contrary, people are a constant favorite for her.)
Fast-forward to the program. 5 weeks of front-end web development. I think I will break it down into easy to follow sub-headings for those hoping to start programming next year.
Community. I couldn’t have been more fortunate in this aspect to start out with Outbox. They have the most patient and open facilitators I have had the opportunity to learn from. One very important thing I took from them was how open programming is. No one has monopoly on knowledge and how to do things. [Shout out to Roland Sankara who was our main instructor for the 5 weeks and Matthew Murungi, who was there for tech-support.]
The community is not just the facilitators but the participants and alumni that could always be reached for assistance and encouragement. While programming conjures images of loners in grey-hoodies, seated on stiff backed chairs in dark rooms with the only light source being the computer screen, it is actually very interactive. Albeit the interactions are virtual via GitHub, Pivotal Tracker, Slack etc., they are there still.
You are never alone when you code.
Code. There wasn’t a day that I wasn’t fascinated by the material and the knowledge coming at us. I think on principle that learning the how’s and why’s of the things that we take delight in is very rewarding. Prep-ix was my first ever web development experience so everything was very new and dizzying at least until the facilitator started to break it down. I think my encouragement to anyone starting out is that they shouldn’t be discouraged by how strange everything appears.
Like Advanced Mathematics, it is not natural so do not be turned off if you don’t grasp it at first read or try. Even the most proficient programmers understand how crazy it is to start out and that is why there are so many resources free on the internet to assist anyone that is trying to learn. Resources like Free Code Camp and tonnes of YouTube tutorials show how much assistance is out there so you have all the help you need to understand.
I think code is written line by line for a reason, to remind us that achievement is incremental, you can’t get it all in a day.
Consistency. I didn’t intend for the subheadings to all be C’s so I run out at the previous one so I’ll throw in consistency just to sign off. Like everything, coding takes time, continued effort and discipline. Remember the thing we said about it being a bit strange because it is machine language. It is not easy for the mind to maintain information on it right away because it is on a whole other plane from what we do daily. I learnt this the hard way when I had to juggle university online classes, traveling and the Prep-ix sessions. I read an article that said coding classes required you to significantly free up your schedule so as to have the best experience. That was the one piece of advice I shouldn’t have ignored. As you start out on your programming journey, make sure you can dedicate whatever time it will require. But then again, if you dare, consider taking a walk on the wild side like I am. (#doitAll) That being said, to stick with coding, it needs to be grafted into your schedule daily so that the basics take root to lay foundation for the more complicated and fun stuff.
The more you do it, the more accommodating it feels and you’ll be well on your way to making friends with the machines so you are given colleague status when they take over the world.(ha-ha)
Thank you coming to my end of year unpacking(or is it packing)session. We’ll just put this box away and move to the next event.
All love.
