PART A) Pre-Contemplation: Your thoughts about the given task and its context.
These internal thoughts will be displayed in part 1 and describe how you
take the task and get the solution, as well as the key practices and
things you notice in the task context. You will also include the following:
- Any assumptions you make about the task and the context.
- Thoughts about how to approach the task
- Things to consider about the context of the task that may affect the solution
- How to solve the task
I probably need to be more diligent in working on the feasible. I think my default is to assume everything must be optimized, and not that everything could just ‘be done’.
I have been meditating for a few years now and recently decided to start building some custom meditations into my routine. I had a meditation for when I get out of the shower that helps me reflect on the day ahead. One that I listen to before work to let me put down distractions and think about what I want to accomplish today. Then I have one for after work to help me relax and separate my work mind from my home mind. I created these with the help of ChatGPT, and an AI TTS, and audacity to put it all together. I could have voiced it myself, but I found that it distracts me from the meditation when I think about my own voice.
As a 21 yr old, 3 years into my computer science degree, I (for the most part) agree.
If I were just following the course material I wouldn’t expect too much from what you can learn from course work.
I have even become slightly addicted to learning everything I can about building software. From reading (3 of Robert C. Martins books, and a few other popular ones from hacker news’ top 100 reads) and taking Udemy courses[0] in my free time.
I also have been working at a small teacher resource website for the past few years, to get some on the job knowledge.
Even then I still don’t feel like I’ve got the best understanding of SQL, networking or concurrency. I spent most of my time learning specific languages and practices and principles like Agile and spec docs. I’m working on building my own web app and have been creating a dev log for it[1], as well as building an arguably crappy personal website[2].
Thanks, I mostly wanted to illustrate that there are some who fall into the age and education range mentioned that also spend time to teach themselves outside of class. My main point being that its difficult to attribute knowledge directly to an age and time spent in a degree path. However, I also fall in the subset that just seem to enjoy this type of learning, with probably too much time on their hands.
The value of book learning/straight ordinary education is underrated in software.
Software engineers consistently overvalue the benefits of "I need to be a crazy outlier," and consistently undervalue getting to bed on time, using a visual debugger, and "normal work habits."
I am all for the use of goals, and I think I hit mine goal to learn with these projects. Now I'm in the weird goal-less limbo after achieving the original goal where I can re-evaluate and decide whether or not I want to keep going down this route. This is where I'm a little stuck.
I think that part of it is the opportunity cost of working on a passion project. I have more than one of these types of projects, and I have to weigh them against one another. For example, I could work on these projects and building them out, or at more features to my personal website, or build something new.
So at any given moment, work on the project that strikes your fancy? There's no upper bound on passion projects dormant/active/etc, where the Project Police will come hassle you for having too many.
I think that's what I'm starting to fall into now. I've finished the workable versions of them, and now I'm starting to scope out features that might make them too complex. I use most of these programs every day, and the challenge I'm striking is whether or not I need to create the ultimate, or if I should just stop where I am at.
I cycle back and forth between “what would the magnum opus in this space?” and “how little can I get away with here?”
After doing some fantasizing about the former, it helps me to switch frames and build the fastest, shittiest version of it. I have a TODO.txt file with what might come later, but I also have something working that I can learn from and/or get utility from. (For me, the alternative is constant anxiety about “what else could I brainstorm here?” (which is fun) and little in the “what did I accomplish?” (which is rewarding in a different way, but isn’t strictly as ‘fun’).
Is your goal to have fun building it? Or is your goal to ship it?
I know plenty of projects that will never ship because the author can think of new things faster than he can code. Coding is fun. Shipping, selling and supporting is work. Hence the (subconscious?) goal of never actually shipping.
Which is perfectly OK. But being self-aware enough to know this is happening is both useful and liberating.
Alternatively if your goal is to ship, then ship it already...
This idea is really interesting. I’ve been using Copilot since it became publicly available for personal side projects. Recently, I ran out of google drive space and had to use something other than google docs to write my essay for school. I booted up a text document and started writing, and then copilot started writing with me. I ran it through a plagiarism checker, and it turned out to be clean, which surprised me.
Can’t say that what it generated was particularly insightful, however it was helpful to reach an obituary word count.
I'm pretty sure you meant "obligatory" word count. But "obituary" is an awesome accident. Like Copilot is waiting, happy to sum up your life in a tidy paragraph, when the time comes.
PART A) Pre-Contemplation: Your thoughts about the given task and its context. These internal thoughts will be displayed in part 1 and describe how you take the task and get the solution, as well as the key practices and things you notice in the task context. You will also include the following: - Any assumptions you make about the task and the context. - Thoughts about how to approach the task - Things to consider about the context of the task that may affect the solution - How to solve the task
PART B) The Solution: the answer to the task.
I’ve been keeping track od my prompt stuff here: https://christianadleta.com/prompts