#100DaysOfCode: Day 2
The Road So Far
Day 2 of the challenge! I wanted to take today to reflect on how far I have come. I am in Module 3 of 4 at Turing. So far I am super proud of how far I have come.
Less than 6 months ago, I knew next to nothing about programming. I had a little background in HTML/CSS. Back in the days of Myspace, I would spend hours as a bored teenager making profile overlays. The one redeeming quality about Myspace was the ability to customize your profile how you wished if you knew some basic HTML/CSS. I learned Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I expressed myself, my teenage angst, and my love for graphic design through creating these profiles. My interest in UX/UI got me curious about programming.
In High School, we were required to complete a self-directed project to continue into the second portion of the IB program. For my project, I created a multipage information website about snowboarding using only HTML/CSS. Although I was getting to know HTML/CSS on a deeper level, it still didn’t feel like I was programming.
In college, I decided to revisit programming. In my freshman year of college, I switched from being a Philosophy major to a Computer Science major. My previous interest in UX/UI had me curious if CS would be the right career path for me. When I switched to that major, all my fears were quickly realized. The 2010 CS program at CU Boulder was rough. It seemed intentionally designed to weed out those who were on the fence about CS, such as myself. CS majors were required to complete Calculus 3. I was okay at math. Not great but definitely not a math wiz. Calculus 1 almost broke me trying to jump into it after a whole year of not taking math my senior year in high school. My first programming class was C++. The mission for our first project was to use trigonometry to make 3 triangles spin in a circle. It was way over my head. I knew nothing about the topic. And with very little support system being at a new school, I felt my first experience of developer anguish. It’s a familiar feeling for me now. But at the time it seemed unmanageable, unbearable. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I didn’t know how to problem-solve or reach out for help to ask the questions that needed to be asked. I felt hopeless. This feeling didn’t subside the entire semester and I felt out of place. The following semester I switched into a new major and left coding behind.
I was nervous about deciding to come to Turing. I was scared I was going to have a similar experience as I did in college. I thought I wasn’t good enough or smart enough to be a developer. I believed I wasn’t smart enough for a technical career. I was scared of proving my imposter syndrome correct as I did in the past. But I felt compelled to give this path another shot. For some reason, the problem-solving / troubleshooting aspect of the job is appealing to me. I enjoy puzzles and the feeling that comes with solving a difficult challenge.
This is a screenshot of my first project at Turing. Most of the project is on 1 JS file (HA)! We had a week to create a webpage that generates self-affirming mantras upon a button click. I remember first getting this project. The same stress I felt back in college came rushing back. Can I do this? Can I make this work in a seemingly impossible language to understand? But something was different this time. I was able to reach out to my peers to ask the questions I needed to ask. I was able to articulate what I didn’t know so I could research that further. This program is only two small functions but at the time — finishing this project seemed like Mount Everest!
The above image is a screenshot from my last project from module 2! Looking at this image in mod1 would have blown my mind! I’m sure it would look like a foreign language to me at that point. But now I can confidently make my way around arrays and objects like it’s nobody’s business. I know all about iterator methods and incorporating API calls! I am slowly starting to feel like a real developer. I am starting to understand things I never thought I could and that is a very empowering feeling!
This entry is a bit reflection heavy but I think it’s important to reflect on how far I have come. It can be easy to get down on myself when something isn’t going exactly how I want it to. It’s important to remember that I can achieve what I put my mind to. That will help when my career inevitably gets more challenging down the line.
User Stories
Today in class we learned about user stories. A user story is the description of a single user flow in an application. They can be written like
As a <type of user>, I want to <execute some goal> so that <some reason>
Or
As a(n) [user type]
In order to [extract business value]
When I [take some action]
(and [take some other action])
Then I [observe an outcome]
(and I [observe another outcome])
User stories are usually handed to devs to explain the desired functionality that needs to be built. They typically represent half a day of work, so it’s important the user story only covers only 1 aspect of the user story.
Why are user stories important?
- Most professional dev teams which use agile practices use project boards filled with user stories to build an application
- Clear user stories will help you begin to estimate the speed of your own work
- Reflecting on your user stories can help expose the biases you may have about your imagined users
- Strong user stories can help clarify and define what you need to test
My goal tomorrow is to build user stories for each aspect of my partner project. We will see how it goes. Okay, that’s enough for today!
