Category Archives: Software Craftsmanship

There’s something I haven’t been telling you.

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There’s something I haven’t been telling you in these posts. A few weeks ago, my dad got laid off from his employer of 30+ years.

Since I graduated in May, I’ve been dependent on my parents for housing, food, and money while I experimented with alternative sources of income. While I was still financially unstable, my dad’s losing his job was always financially the worst-case scenario in my mind. There are a lot of people dependent on my dad, and he worked 7 days a week to support us. I’m proud of him for his work ethic and for how well he’s taken the lay-off, immediately working with me to apply to new jobs online. At 56, he’s as ready and willing to work to support us as he was thirty years ago.

Last week, I was accepted into Code Academy, the academy for learning Ruby on Rails and web development. I see it as an incredible opportunity to learn with and meet people in Chicago’s blossoming startup community. It’s my dream. It’s what I should have done instead of amassing debt in college. More than just a dream, though, it’s a practical career choice – RoR developers are in high demand. But is it worth $6,000 right now, when it could go to the mortgage instead?

I asked them over and over and this was their answer: “Don’t worry about it. Go to Code Academy.” They can lend me the first $3,000, for sure. The second $3,000 is unsure – with employers still getting back to my dad, we don’t know what our situation is going to be like.

I have been unfairly blessed with parents who have been more generous and understanding than I can ever repay. Someone asked me what emotion I would ideally react to this with, and my response is: Determination. I need to come up with at least $3,000 in a month, but preferably more for my parents’ sakes.

Your help would mean a lot to me. I would appreciate any effort:

Apprenticeship

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“How long will it take to master aikido?” a prospective student asks. “How long do you expect to live?” is the only respectable response.
-George Leonard, Mastery

Week 4, last week, was about Apprenticeship. In short: Never stop learning. This book was about useful methods (design patterns) the authors found for learning. While they were primarily talking about software development, the patterns can be applied to any pursuit. Wherever I look, whether it’s software craftsmanship, movement arts, or writing, the Long Road is daunting. I found the problem statement for Retreat into Competence to be very fitting:

“Problem: As you are introduced to the vast reaches of your ignorance you are overwhelmed.”

I became obsessed with the idea of software development apprenticeships, so I compiled a list of apprenticeships that I found online. I drew my own map by reading all the blogs of all the Code Cadets (Code Academy students) that I could find and scouring them for Ruby and Ruby on Rails resources. You can find them here.

I highly recommend reading Mike Ebert’s blog, which chronicles his 12 weeks at Code Academy as he goes from zero development experience to “adhering to Agile standards” in authentic, captivating prose.

I worked my way through Chris Pine’s Learn to Program and did some more Ruby Koans and Project Euler problems. Anxious to work through Beginning Ruby by Peter Cooper and finish the Rails Tutorial, this time for Rails 3.2.

I applied to Code Academy and my fingers are crossed, but I think I’ve started off with a good foundation – whether I’m accepted this year shouldn’t matter in the long run.

This week: Tranquility.