My greatest strength is my desire to be of use to people. This is a trait that is often mutually beneficial, as I derive personal satisfaction from it and, by definition, it is useful to others. I know this because I can see measurable positive impact on the environments I exist in, and because it is able to be confirmed by people other than myself. It is also useful because it can help motivate me to accomplish things that would otherwise be daunting.
I work best when working on something that is of interest to me outside of for the sake of doing it. Other factors that help me do my best are: relatively quiet workspaces, small group collaborations, not being hungry (seriously, being hungry is so distracting!), and taking breaks periodically. It's also helpful to have resources available for reference in case I hit a roadblock that I have trouble chipping away at on my own. This can come in the form of collaborators, teachers, or (as is often the case) google.
My greatest areas of improvement are consistenly reliable focus and consistenly reliable organization. These are both things that I have been working on over the years, and I think they will continue to get better with time and practice. I'm looking forward to seeing other students ways of organization and maybe talking with them to get a sense for how they put themselves in a deeply focused mindset for the long hours of Turing. I recently read Deep Work by Cal Newport and Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck and I think they both have really great ideas that can help keep me on track for focusing well and not being discouraged.
I hope to maximize my strengths for a career in software development by practicing them while at Turing, as well as by trying new ways of implementing them and seeking feedback. I think Turing might also be a good place to forge new strengths, due to the increased pressure and support. Having a consistent goal of growing as a person and placing an emphasis on successful interpersonal interactions, I think that I will continue to evolve my abilities to complement what a career in software development requires of me.
Knowing about my strengths and working preferences is a generally useful thing in life because then I can lean into the things that work for me, and I know where to focus my learning. In terms of how it will benefit me as a software developer, I get the impression that being able to work in teams is quite important in the tech world. My desire to be of use should be very useful to team work, and my interest in positive interpersonal relationships should help foster that among my peers. I think being able to be open about strengths (and weaknesses) and working preferences with your colleagues is very important, as it can head off many problems before they appear, and it gives everyone the chance to work in an open and supportive envirnment.
What efforts do you make to manage your learning process? Are these efforts successful? What challenges have inhibited your ability to manage your learning process effectively?
Most of my learning process has been directly music related. I generally managed learning new music by making a practice plan, which could range from simply having a few dates written down that I needed to have certain sections done by to daily practice sheets listing exactly what to do and for how long with what intention. I've found that a moderately flexible plan with many small goals works best for me, as things generally change along the way and it is easier to keep up momentum when I have "achievement unlocked" moments that I can progress forward from. The challenge with the plans I've made are: underestimating necessary time spent, being too rigid when things change, becoming overwhelmed by the amount of work necessary.
I particularly appreciated Kathy Sierra's idea of breaking achievements down into smaller sizes to move them forward faster than if they were part of a larger whole. While I utilize smaller achievements, I haven't used the mindset of a smaller achievement being complete before it's whole is complete. I think this could really help with becoming overwhelmed by the amount of work necessary to learn a new and difficult thing. I also appreciated Sierra's acknowlegments of humans having limited resources and the importance of unconscious pattern recognition. I think she is right that humans generally just asks more and more of other humans without factoring in that we may not have the unlimited mental resources to complete the things we are tasked with in the time asked. This is something that worries me about Turing, but I think will be helped by the support system I personally have, as well as the comraderie that the school encourages. Hearing someone talk about the research behind unconscious pattern recognition was excellent. I identify highly with the feeling of knowing something without really knowing how I know it. I think this will be a subject I dig deeper into to really understand what's going on subconsciously. Coate's article felt more anecdotal, which piques my interest slightly less on topics of learning. However, I do appreciate the acknowledgement that learning is not a one shot and you've got it type of thing. Consistent effort doesn't necessarily mean that you will feel like you've gotten it down. In music, a way to get around this feeling of "not making progress" is to take a recording of yourself when you started and then take recording along the way to compare it too. I'm not entirely sure what the coding equivalent would be, but I imagine there is one.
What role does your emotional state of mind play in your learning? How do your successes and failures at learning affect your emotional state?
I think my emotional state can get in the way of my learning, and being pregnant could at times make that more challenging to overcome. This is something I've been working on for a while, and as with the focus/organiztion from earlier, I think it will get better with time and practice. I would like to continue working towards being more even keeled in my reactions to both successes and failures. I plan to do this by practicing self-reflection after successes/failures, and utilizing the counseling services available. I also think that talking to my support system if I feel a failure is overly impacting my ability to learn will be helpful.
I think the various pre-work is super helpful for setting up a foundation of realistic expectations and intentions. I've also been reading books about learning how to learn, utilizing better mindsets, and maintaining balance in stressful situations. My main preparation has been talking to people around me to get support and ideas for maintaining a positive impetus during the program. I'm also ramping up my daily work and scheduling so it's not as much of a shock to the system when the program starts. I think taking advantage of this time before Mod 1 to intentionally change my daily habits to be more compatible with the future workload will be extremely beneficial to my chances of success.