Typically, I do not participate in challenges. Between helping grow a code school, several community projects, mentoring students, and raising two Australian Shepherds my day to day life is challenging enough and it can be difficult to find the time. My first inclination when being tagged in the South Florida Entrepreneur Club’s 10 for 10 writing challenge (whereby participants write 10 articles in 10 days) was a firm “no”.
However, as I sat with my phone in my hands trying to think of the polite way to decline the invitation, I kept reading over the terms. It’s only 500 words, I can write about whatever I want, and I can share it wherever I like. The team at Boca Code had also graduated our first cohort of software engineering students that day so I actually was coming into some open space in my calendar that I could fill with anything... like for instance, ten 500-word articles. So instead of coming up with a sorry excuse to bail, I said, "Omg I love it -- perfect timing too."
Later that day, I quickly jotted down 10 article ideas that I knew I could punch out really quickly. If you know me, you know I have opinions. I planned on dumping my thoughts into my text editor and getting all of these articles I’ve been wanting to write out in the open. Just before committing to this plan, I managed to come up with something much more complicated and time consuming (exactly what I wanted!)
When I began learning how to code, I jumped straight into a Computer Science degree and then was hired by an energy company a year before graduation. I worked there for nearly three years before going to Boca Code and picking up client projects alongside teaching students. I realized after five years of software development, I had 0.00 personal projects to my name. Absolutely none. Everything I’ve ever built is either under lockdown due to academic integrity stipulations or an NDA. So now, suddenly, I really wanted something of my own and the 10 for 10 challenge was the vehicle I was going to use to get me there.
In my last career (and my first degree), I was in the art industry. Being in a humanities-focused field felt fulfilling to my soul. Speaking honestly, the work had serious pain points, but the people, discussions, gatherings, studies, and literature were incredibly influential on the way I see the world today. The kind of intimacy, trust, and understanding that artists open up space for when they create their works offered me perspectives and experiences rarely found elsewhere.
Even though I loved coding, entering the tech world was unfortunately much colder, distant, and isolated. While a new generation of developers enter the workforce and the industry starts to soften it’s hard edges, there is still a long way to go. I’ve yet to understand a reason why computing needs to be so militaristic and exclusive, but since I still haven’t heard a good argument, I figured I would join those rounding down the corners.
“Coding With” is a collection of code-essays and my contribution to pulling our humanity into software. Each day of this challenge I intend to write a tiny program that honors an emotion or characteristic in the interest of using code to elicit a uniquely lived feeling.
On day one, I begin by “Coding with Intention”, and for my first contribution, I built a new website to house my programs and articles each day of this challenge. Recognizing the purpose of intention and the intention of this project, I’ve set up a space for each of the daily themes. Some days my goals will be harder to hit than others, but hopefully with keeping the code base small and simply meditating on the motif while programming, I will be able to get through all 10 days.
That’s the plan, at least.
This is amazing, I can't wait for tomorrows!