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jacob-wazydrag · 4 years

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Being in a coding bootcamp can be stressful! What are you doing to not just survive, but to flourish?

Agatha Christie, a world famous writer known for a multitude of detective novels, short stories, and plays and in one in particular a star actor being Mr. Hercule Poirot.

Hercule was extremely intuitive, insanely intelligent, and truly cerebral. They way he would solve crimes was like watching an artist complete a masterpiece. During the course of each investigation, as more clues would be uncovered, Hercule would ask questions, deduce, draw conclusions, go back to the drawing board, ask more questions. All in an effort to sincerely enact justice.

During his process other detectives, the police, and sometimes federal agents would assist him, want things from him, challenge him, and whenever Hercule did a long string of perceived work, his assistant Hastings, would keep ask just one question too many at which point Hercule Poirot the world famous detective would say:

Not now Hastings, I must let the little gray cells rest!

Wow that was a bit harsh! But, there is a wisdom to this. Throughout the entire 30 years this show was on the air, this world famous belgium detective references how he must take care of his little gray cells, let them rest, and knows when they are working.

We all know what it feels like when, nothing else can fit in there, when we are “in the zone” or it a “flow state”, or being distracted by irrelevant things.

Just like we have best practices for defining methods, creating routes/helper routes, shortcuts on our code editors, and the myriad of things that make coding life easier, why not for the process of learning, retaining, and executing on things we have to do in this bootcamp.

I personally have found that instead of cramming that last lab, re-watching that 15 minutes of lecture, or writing some notes down, I go for a walk, talk with my partner, or just close my eyes and let those “little gray cells”, rest.

It’s when we rest your brain has a chance to cement everything, crystalize it, and make some sense of it. Then come back, refreshed and knock out that finicky method, routing problem, or display issues. If Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) has taught the world anything, is that sometimes rest is more important than eating, doing more work, or stressing out. Just put everything on hold, let what you have taken in already settle, and be ready to execute when you’ve rested.

#coding #bootcamp #software #softwaredev #software development #engineering #javascript #reactJS #ruby on rails developer #flatiron #school #rest #peace #selfcare #programming #lifehack #calm #graycells #poirot

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jacob-wazydrag · 4 years

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From Building Homes, to Building Apps

My new pursuit and how a persevering mindset makes poison into medicine at every turn.

August 2001, the story begins when my father fell from the roof of his work and left my mother raise me (8), my brother (2), and sister (12), and my now quadriplegic father. My mother being that tank she was, continued to work hard at her job, all us kids eventually got jobs when we got older, and everyone pitched in going as far as learning how to clean my fathers trachea and turning him every hour to avoid bedsores.

After things settled back down and we got into our rhythm, we were all able to pursuit our dreams and get educated. Three college degrees and two masters later, we can say that we truly turned poison into medicine.

While helping my family I worked as a waiter getting my first job at age 13. I waited tables until I turned 19 and decided to pursuit higher education. I enrolled into a community college where I spent 2 years getting prerequisite done. It’s during this time I got a job as a Carpenter to help fund my dream. While framing luxury houses all over Chicago and Chicagoland area, I made it through another 4 years at a university and obtained a Bachelors of Science in Business Management. Through those years working 50hrs/week and going to school I was able to purchase my first home and own a rental property!

After graduating, I promptly left my job and got my first job out of college at an entry level position in a Fortune 500 company doing customer service. I was working my way up the ladder and was promoted within a year. During the covid-19 pandemic, my hours were severely cut and found that Codecademy was offering their services for free! I jumped on in hopes that I could improve skills and take my career to new heights.

I found after diving into ruby, ruby on rails, and javascript on Codecademy, that I loved it, and that tech was in every facet of business. I looked around and asked people about coding bootcamps and found Flatiron. Now 3 weeks in I am grateful for all the obstacles in my life because the perseverance I learned really helped me manage well during a fast based bootcamp like Flatiron. I hope to show people that no matter what your circumstances, you have the power to turn poison into medicine, overcome, and build a future you want.

#flatiron #code #programming #codingbootcamp #rubyonrails #javasacript #fortune500 #construction #perseverence #carpenter #chicago #illinois #college #makingit #victory #covid

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