Week 9 — in Retrospect

For the past eight weeks I’ve been writing about my experience learning fullstack software development — my goal is to be good enough to land a SWE internship next summer.

This post covers the latest week (Oct. 25 ~ 31).

What went well:

• Learning in public, pt. 2: As a result of my publicising my efforts (in this case, via my network, not necessarily online), I was asked to build out the frontend for a startup that a couple friends are running. I said yes, and despite being out of my depth, I’m sanguine.
• Thoughtfulness: I strongly believe that there are significant returns to thoughtfulness. When asked to build out the frontend, my initial urge was to simply get cracking, and I indulged for a few hours before realising how harebrained it is to just start. I won’t dither, but asking a smart friend helps, especially as a greenhorn. I don’t know React devs, so I reached out to my network and asked them to put me in touch with frontend devs they know. A couple of those leads have helped me significantly refine my approach, and I shudder to think of how this would’ve panned out had I just started. Part of the aforementioned optimism stems from the clarity I have now that I didn’t have a few days ago.
• Communication: I update the startup guys pretty much every day. I think this helps build goodwill, allays nerves, and leads to useful ideas.

What went poorly:

• Not fully routinized (again): Didn’t wrestle back my routine of working on this first thing in the morning as much as I’d like. On a good streak (again) so I’m getting there.

What I’ve built:

No code this week. Instead focussed on mapping out the application, as advised by one of the devs in my network. I should actually be coding within the next week.

Github: https://github.com/anirudhkannan9

Going forward:

Up the hours. I spent 14 hours on this in the past week, out of a planned 20. Trajectory is in the right direction, so I’m confident I can get there if I push myself.

Keep up the emphasis on deliberation and communication.