Forem: blaquebeardcoder

What I Learned This Week #1

blaquebeardcoder — Sun, 16 May 2021 19:04:03 +0000

What I Learned This Week #1

WILTW

By. Jahaziel Israel

So, it’s taken me 6 weeks to actually muster up the mental fortitude and the discipline to get into this new habit of blogging about my latest journey into the world of java programming -- mainly because I’ve been on this seemingly never-ending refinement of finding an optimal distraction free work-life balance in this post COVID world.

In all honesty, I prefer to have the option of co-working in public spaces where there are peripheral distractions ( you know, like pretentious hipster parents gently scolding their rambunctious sugar-filled toddlers over their overpriced iced lattes), asking other human beings to keep their eyes on my laptop while I run to the bodega to buy more reasonably priced food than the cafe, (I still can’t justify $15 for a slice of avocado toast?) - I find that when I’m in the solitude of my “cozy” studio apartment, that I find myself surrounded by a litany of distractions disguised as multi-tasking or busy work, which essentially means that I get nothing done.

After working on my last React and React Native collaborative project called Tsundoku, which is the Japanese word meaning “buying books and not reading them; letting books pile up unread on shelves or floors or nightstands”, I’ve lowkey become obsessed with Japanese philosophy, culture and literature, and have since completed the memoir and first 2 works of the iconic Japanese fiction author Haruki Murukami.

This led me to discover the Japanese mysterious concept of Ikigai, which translates roughly as “the happiness of always being busy”, and is the source that explains the extraordinary longevity of the Japanese, especially on the island of Okinawa. I’m currently reading “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” by Hector Garcia and Fransec Miralles” and here are some great gems that I’ve taken and applied to optimize my current dilemma of achieving flow while studying and learning programming remotely, during a global pandemic;

In Chapter IV: Find flow in everything you do “How to turn work and free time into spaces for growth”, there are some key principles discussed from researcher Owen Schaffer of DePaul University;

The Seven Conditions for Achieving Flow

Knowing what to do
Knowing how to do it
Knowing how well you are doing
Knowing where to go (where navigation is involved)
Perceiving significant challenges
Perceiving significant skills
Being free from distractions

As I shared earlier, I have been experiencing self-imposed writers block for the past 6 weeks, and according to some of the strategies I’ve read about, had I just taken out a blank Google Doc and got the first few words going (like I’m currently doing), I would get over my mental block and achieve a pleasant flow, or ikigai.

Strategy 1: Reflect on what we hope to achieve before starting study/work
Before we begin each day, we should ask ourselves questions such as;

What is my objective for today’s session in the studio?
How many words am I going to write today for the article coming out next week?
What is my team’s mission?
How fast will I set the metronome tomorrow in order to play that sonata at an allegro tempo by the end of the week?

I’ve found that when I take the time to be intentional about how I’m going to spend my time during the day, that I get more sh*t done and I’m more productive -- and for me, this list has to be analog (handwritten in a planner… yeah I’m still old school like that!).

Strategy 2: Concentrate on a Single Task

Now, this has been one of the biggest challenges for me during the pandemic working remotely from home while public spaces and indoor dining in coffee shops and cafes is severely limited or non-existent. From watching Treehouse tutorials on 1.5x the speed while simultaneously streaming lo-fi music, and toggling through (VERY DENSE) Java documentation… to then Googling more simplified explanations or videos of the very dense Java documentation, and being distracted with mobile notifications, Amazon and Uber Eats deliveries and never-ending zoom calls >> lol.. It’s amazing that I’ve been able to keep up.

The authors write that “concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.” Studies show that working on several things at once lowers our productivity by at least 60% and our IQ by more than 10 points. In order to focus on a single task we need:

To be in a distraction-free environment
To have control over what we are doing at every moment

Here are some tips that I’ve implemented in the book that have actually helped my significantly in being more focused on my learning during this “pandemonium”;

Don’t look at any kind of screen the first hour that I’m awake and the last hour before I go to sleep. I spend that time writing gratitude, journaling and reading.
Turn my phone on DND and mute all notifications before beginning work.
Time blocking tasks like checking emails, social media, calling friends, etc…
Pomodoro Technique has been helpful >> and watching YouTubers who make pomodoro study with me videos. (I’ll be creating some of these soon!)
Work in a space where you will not be distracted. For me, I can’t do this at home, so I have to go to a library or cafe and look for several weeks until I found the right place.

TECHY STUFF
There is a whole litany of other more technical topics that I learned this week, including;

How to construct objects and create instances of Objects in Java
Managing state with getters and setters
Arrays > Array literals, multi-dimensional arrays and ArrayLists
Java Lists & Maps
Strings are actually objects
IntelliJ is becoming less scary the more I use it… lol

Whew… I finally got all that out!

✌🏾 ya next week.

Thoughts on (reluctantly) participating in (and winning) my first hackathon.

blaquebeardcoder — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 15:38:20 +0000

Let's be honest, I've only seen depictions of hackathons in pop culture shows and movies like "The Social Network", where hundreds of privileged 'prepsters' geeked up on Redbull and Adderall are confined in a lowly lit hall, furiously developing and programming for seemingly endless days, as they are cheered on by their peers as they pitch their groundbreaking ideas.

From an event management perspective (my previous career), it certainly appeals to me, however I can't say that I honestly envisioned MYSELF participating in one of those kinds of competitive events, let alone attaining the technical skills and knowledge required to even 'make the cut' for a team worthy of placing in the top percentile of competing teams.

Just a week earlier, I witnessed (for the first time) several of my brilliant classmates compete and place second in the Valtech Social Impact Hackathon and something deep inside of me came to a new realization that this seemingly unreachable achievement, is now a possibility.

I did some deductive reasoning. So if of the studies that confirm that we are the average of the 5 people that we spend the most time around, then if the past 18 weeks I've been investing my nights, (late nights and early mornings) and weekends with these hungry, scrappy, gritty and brilliantly minded Black x Brown data scientists, engineers, career pivoters and immigrant dreamers who are putting in the hard work -- that I am very likely to succeed if I do not give up.

💎:"The people we surround ourselves with are the biggest influence on our behavior, attitudes and results. Who you are around — what they’ve got you thinking, saying, doing and becoming — sets the course of your life."

So when we were strongly encouraged (...actually, we were volun-told) by one of the staffers at The Knowledge House to enter and compete in the Citi Technology x Virtual Hackathon, I decided in that moment that I would register for this hackathon, even though I had no clue what the outcome would be.

Days leading up to the hackathon, I reluctantly reached out to one (of the many) admirable fellows in the program, "Hax", and basically poured my heart out, being upfront with him that my technical programming skills are sketchy at best (lol🤷🏾‍♂️), but there are a myriad of other technical design and project management skills that I could contribute to the project. And to my relief, he replies "Sure, let's do it!"

Well that was easy... a little too easy, and so the bouts of "stinking-thinking" starts percolating in my mind. All of these doubts, these (irrational) fears that "I'll be discovered as a fraud" or that my (small pseudo-technical) contributions viewed as not up to par started to flood my mind, and the pressure of being on a team with such technically skilled engineers started to "make me feel some type-a-way". I tried to backout.

💎: "Nothing great is ever accomplished in your comfort zone."

All of the excuses that I had tried to use to convince myself that I "didn't have the time" or that I "was not worthy" of being on this hackathon team, or that "I was not qualified" or that my programming skills are not "good enough" were not adding up -- and my teammates were NOT trying to hear ANY of that.

It's the day of the hackathon, the Slack message attempting to backout was already sent, yet I still passively logged in the opening statements from the Citibank Team and I felt this self-imposed rejection like I was back in grade school again... standing on the sidelines spectating because I wasn't "good enough" to play Basketball like the other more athletic boys.

I had well wishes for the team, and tried to go about my day finishing homework assignments and trying to avoid dealing with my quitting, when I get this message from Ayman, one of the most persistent problem solvers I know.

💎: "Those 5 simple words changed my whole day, my whole weekend, and my whole outlook on what I believe about myself."

That night, the majority of the frontend and backend had already been built, the team possibly had already invested 8 or so hours in meticulously building, tinkering, debugging, pushing, problem solving... and I was seamlessly ushered into all of it with excitement and warmth (and a little jest from the guys).

Shafee, whose work and humble can-do spirit I admire, got me up to speed on all of the UI-UX, and immediately gave me creative reign to update the Figma wireframes to match his CSS updates to the site.

It was such a delight to work under the leadership of Leesel, whose very calm, listening and soothing voice created a safe-inclusive virtual space for all of us to do our absolute best work in.

And just like that, I was back on the team, back in the fold, as if that Slack message was deleted, as if those fears in my mind didn't exist-- this was the first time I felt like I belonged on a technical team -- like I was a part of something BIGGER than myself, and that even though I was contributing mainly documentation, wireframes and all of the visual assets and communication, (and of course some awesome lo-fi playlists and the occasional positive affirmation) that I was still an integral and vital part of the team, and that my contributions mattered.

Winning a pair of earbuds, a digital certificate and a little recognition to add to my resume was not my "why" or the prize or even a "win" for me.

What I synthesized from this experience was on a much deeper level.

💎: It's the "overcoming my internalized self-doubt" for me.
💎: It's the "getting out of my head" for me.
💎: It's the "crushing imposter syndrome to the ground" for me.
💎: It's the "realization that I'm surrounded by winners" for me.
💎: It's the "I can be my authentic-self in tech" for me.
💎: It's the "accountability from my peers to be the best version of myself" for me.
💎: It's the "I'm a UX Engineer because my skills say so" for me.

Final Project...Do It Scared.

blaquebeardcoder — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 19:21:43 +0000

I completed the first phase of a nine-month web development fellowship, and though my technical skills are not nearly as sharp as I envision them to be in my brilliantly creative mind, I am quite proud of what I've been able to learn, understand and accomplish under such a short period of time. (Ask me 3 months ago to explain what Big O Notation and recursion is, and I would have looked at you like you were loca!)

💎: Even though there are days where I feel like I'm in over my head, I do it scared.

As one of the ~~older~~ 'life-seasoned' fellows in my bootcamp cohort who is pivoting from a non-technical career in event management in my mid-thirties, during a global pandemic, one could imagine the amount of effort it takes to drive this pervasive "imposter syndrome" out of my mind. It is my mission to share nuggets of widsom, lessons learned and the wins of overcoming adversity while I navigate this career transition.

During our final week of this phase, we were grouped in pairs and tasked to build a mobile-responsive web application using Vanilla JavaScript, HTML and CSS, and utilizing four endpoints from an API of our choice. We chose QuoteGarden API.

I was lowkey mortified that I would be paired with someone who would completely uncover my fear of being a fraud, but thankfully that was NOT the case.

💎: Sometimes you have to quiet the fears in your mind, and let them instead, inspire you.

👨🏾‍💻Phase 1 Project

Quotivate is a thought provoking mobile responsive web app that encourages users to explore through more than 75,000 motivational quotes in a visually appealing manner.

Whether it's classic historical philosophers and leaders, or modern day entrepreneurs, pop icons and influencers, we feature quotes from the most brilliant minds in motivation, sports, philosophy, and everything in between.

🤓Inspiration

We noticed that there is a lack of visually appealing motivational quote websites and apps on the Internet, and for this project we were inspired by the beautifully designed Google Chrome Extension Momentum.

Here is our final presentation and demo:

🏢Structure

We had only 2 short weeks to ideate, test our API, wireframe and build this web application, and so we decided on a simple MVP that would allow users to 4 methods of searching for quotes.
To keep us on task, I created an Agile Trello Board to keep track of our progress during the project build.

👨🏾‍🎨UI/UX

Since my graphic and visual design skills are much stronger than my technical programming skills, I researched and designed a visually appealing UI and branding for our project using Figma and Canva.

Here are the first iteration wireframes in Figma;

Here is a mockup of the landing page;

👿Challenges

The day before final presentations, my coding partner realized our deployed site was no longer connecting to the API. Upon further investigation, we realized that the developer of the API, who is based in India, was actively updating to a new version and pushing changes the exact same weekend! After many frantic tweets, DM's and emails to the developer to figure out how to refactor our code, we were able to get it to work in the nick of time.
We wanted to use a framework for CSS to style the site and cards, but found that Tailwind CSS had a bit of a high learning curve for us in such a small amount of time, so we used Bootstrap instead.
Battling major imposter syndrome as my JavaScript and coding skills were not as strong as was needed, and I was not technically able to contribute as much as I would have liked in coding out the components for this project.

🧠Thought Process and Lessons Learned

This project helped me to gain more knowledge in accessing Rest API endpoints and testing using tools like Insomnia and PostMan, as well as practice with ES6 syntax, and using CSS Bootstrap to make the wireframes come to life.

While I was battling my own internal imposter syndrome and dilemma of feeling like "I could be doing more", my coding partner was vital in building my self-confidence in my existing creative abilities and contributions, and in our peer coding, thoroughly explained the formatting and structure of the codebase as we were building it.

🚀Deployment && Future Plans

We have successfully deployed our project via Netlify, and it can be accessed via our Github Repo
Shnaeem / Quotivate
QUOTIVATE

🤷🏾‍♂️What is Quotivate?:

Quotivate is a thought proviking mobile responsonsive web app that encourages users to explore through more than 75,000 motivational quotes. Users can discover new and exciting quotes randomly by pressing the "Surprise Me" button on the main page, or they can do a search by various parameters. The quotes are displayed on beautiful mobile responsive cards, and include the quote text and the author.

📲Features:
- User will see a Quote of the day on the home page
- User will be able to search/generate a random quote
- User will be able to search by genre
- User will be able to search by keyword
- Responsive layout
💻Live Demo Instructions:

Instructions/steps to use the web application,
- Step 1: Click "Surprise Me" to generate a random quote card on the homepage.
- Step 2: Select any options on the navbar to search for quotes.
- Step 3: Click on the…
View on GitHub
This is our MVP version built in Vanilla JS, however we are currently learning React JS and React Native, and will likely rebuild the entire project using React hooks, stylized components, and Tailwind CSS.
We also have some great ideas about expanding on features by offering language options, and making the quotes social media friendly.

In conclusion, I want to encourage others at the beginning of their coding journey to "do it scared anyway".

I will keep it 💯 with y'all that working on building this project, there were many days and many moving pieces that I did not know what to do or how I was going to get it done, but with an excellent partner, and a supportive learning community of peers and instructors, we were able to build a beautiful final project.

💎: Start before you feel ready... otherwise you'll always be waiting because you'll never feel ready.

✌🏾👨🏾‍💻

Feeling like VAR in a LET (it go) kinda world.

blaquebeardcoder — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 14:55:05 +0000

I've just scraped by Week 3 of web dev coding bootcamp, and it feels like the moment that I set my intention on embarking on this new learning journey, the Universe has been sending a whole slew of new hurdles and distractions along my pathway.

From the tumultuous experience of moving into my first NYC studio apartment while simultaneously juggling acclimating to a new environment and attempting to set healthy routines, to navigating the conflicting internal emotions of an unexpected loss and being physically and emotionally available for family and loved ones -- I can assert that the past 4 weeks have been the most eventful in this post-COVID world. (I've finally dusted off my mainly unused 2020 planner and flipped through all of the blank template pages to October!)

Last week, we learned about conditionals and debugging in JS, as well as loop iterations using for and while.

While learning about the dark perils of endless debugging, I found it interesting that many peers and my instructor in the cohort were discussing the 80/20 rule of debugging, which states that "Coding is 80% Google Search, and 20% knowledge".

While this may be true, I also learned that you must also know WHAT information to search for and use on Google, as I learned this sobering lesson from my coding instructor via our team #slack channel;

"I will no longer be accepting assignments that use `VAR`. We need to `LET` go of `VAR` and use `LET` and `CONST`."#

Now this unsettled me for a bit, because a large amount of the online resources that I've been practicing with, including FreeCodeCamp, posts I've referenced and copied on StackOverflow, and physical books (yes, I'm still old-school and prefer real tangible books over digital devices.) that I've purchased on JavaScript, all use VAR.

I was confounded... How is it that I've just started and the information that I've been learning from, is already out of date?

My instructor shared with us that languages are always evolving, and although physical books may be helpful for a season, it's important to get in the habit of referencing digital documentation and digital living textbooks.

I now understand that let can be used for global and local variables, and const can be used for variables that are not going to be manipulated or changed (i.e. const pi = 3.14159;)

It got me thinking on a broader scope of my life in general, I have a choice. I can either be bitter and complain about new technology and be stuck in my ways, or I can be flexible, open and adapt to the ever evolving and changing climate of tech.

I decided... it's time to LET it go.

Daily/Morning Routine while in Bootcamp-- any tips?

blaquebeardcoder — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 03:54:12 +0000

const greeting = prompt("What's good world!?");

Well if you couldn't tell from the first line of code, I'm already 2 weeks into a virtual 12-month part-time Web Development Fellowship, and I've already started to dream (or are they nightmares?...yeah, I think they're nightmares!) in JavaScript.

Excuse me for the tardiness in posting the excitement of being accepted into the 2020 cohort, but my mind and schedule has been in a constant flurry of trying to catch up to the immense amount of demands of my time, attention and mental fortitude that are required to be a just barely satisfactory participant in this program.

(Can you believe, there are already bootcamp veterans and ES6 coding wizzes complaining about being "bored of vanilla JS" while I'm thinking "although I want chocolate chip cookie dough, I need this VANILLA... and it needs to go a whole lot slower!.. haha)

Although the lecture instruction and virtual class interaction is "part-time" (4 hours in the evenings), I am quickly coming to the sobering realization that a great deal of the early parts of my day (and pretty much ALL of my weekends) must be allocated to studying, reading ahead, practicing algorithms and JavaScript tutorials, debugging, and struggling through assignments and projects with varying deadlines and deliverables... and to be honest, the last 6 months of laid-back-quarantine-life have completely disrupted my daily routines and set me up for self-sabotage. I need some insight and suggestions!

Here are my goals for this week that I'd like some insight on:

1. Go to bed on-time (by 10:00PM)

Classes are in the evenings from 5:30pm - 9:30pm, but sometimes I'll stay up past midnight working on assignments. I'm torn between staying up late or tabling the work for the next day.

2. Wake up early

Preferably between 5:00 - 6:00 AM

3. Create a simple morning routine (Meditation, journaling, etc..)

That doesn't exceed 2 hours

4. Pick ONE or TWO JavaScript resources for practice, and sticking to it.

I'm overwhelmed with so many links and resources that classmates share, and what I find on the internet that don't know what to stick with-- I just need one or two solid foundational recommendations.

5. Making a daily study/work/routine schedule.

I realize I have to start blocking off time on my Google calendar for various studying, assignments, tutors, etc..

I figure I'd start with these, and journal about what works and what doesn't.

I'm curious to know from the dev community, especially those who've completed bootcamps,

"What daily routines did you find to be successful to manage your time, get work done, and still have a little free time to enjoy for friends, family, hobbies?"

Until we meet again...

Is it just me or...

blaquebeardcoder — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 22:55:14 +0000

Is it just me, or does the beginning of the new journey towards coding and development feel like a futile uphill battle, where you never quite feel comfortable with anything you're doing?? (AHHHRRGGHHH!!)

Over the past 2 weeks, I've been tasked with undertaking a series of coding challenges, including selecting three small "fun" project builds in Javascript for the vestibule training program I am hoping to become a fellow of in the Fall.

The projects I've selected all use vanilla JS, HTML and CSS; (all of which I am a complete novice)

I'm not gonna lie, even though coding along with the tutorials is seemingly "simple", and the content is excellent and the instructors are like lightening fast ninjas, I'm just so flustered at the amount of concepts, terminology and deep understanding that I am just unaware and aloof to.

And I notice these tutorials are deceptively succinct, but because there are so many concepts that are new and unfamiliar to me, they definitely take 2-3x's the amount of time to complete.

I suppose that this is just a part of the process-- and that it is normal to feel completely oblivious and insecure... it's just difficult to accept that there is no shortcut-- only time and practice and working on projects that will hopefully increase my knowledge and confidence on this journey.

Well... to another week of grinding away at this coding, even through the uncertainty and discomfort.

2020 Coding Newbie

blaquebeardcoder — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 02:09:08 +0000

Hello World!

I'm Jahaziel, a creative professional with a background in event management. After years of working in meetings and events, and with the current state of the world pandemic completely turning the live events industry on its head, I've decided to take this time to re-skill and embark on a journey of web development.

Thankfully I have a pretty good start for a tech support team, my brother, who is currently working professionally as a developer with a Fortune 500 company, introduced me to this dev community and has inspired my journey into the vast world of technology.

I've been accepted into the vestibule of a local tech program called the Innovation Fellowship by a local non-profit called The Knowledge House, which promotes technology-based career opportunities for NYC residents in the areas of web development, data science, and design.

This isn't my first rodeo-- I've attempted a coding bootcamp back in 2017, but the timing wasn't right. This time, with all of the social-distancing, remote working and underemployment in the live events industry, I feel is the right time for me to continue this journey towards becoming a developer.

I'll admit, that it's humbling and challenging to start a whole new career path in my mid-30's -- but with the abundance of resources and information available freely on the Internet, and with the support of this dev community, I hope to share my journey, challenges and wins, as I embark on this new pathway.

Forem: blaquebeardcoder

What I Learned This Week #1

WILTW

Thoughts on (reluctantly) participating in (and winning) my first hackathon.

Final Project...Do It Scared.

👨🏾‍💻Phase 1 Project

🤓Inspiration

🏢Structure

👨🏾‍🎨UI/UX

👿Challenges

🧠Thought Process and Lessons Learned

🚀Deployment && Future Plans

Shnaeem / Quotivate

QUOTIVATE

🤷🏾‍♂️What is Quotivate?:

📲Features:

💻Live Demo Instructions:

Feeling like VAR in a LET (it go) kinda world.

"I will no longer be accepting assignments that use VAR. We need to LET go of VAR and use LET and CONST."#

Daily/Morning Routine while in Bootcamp-- any tips?

1. Go to bed on-time (by 10:00PM)

2. Wake up early

3. Create a simple morning routine (Meditation, journaling, etc..)

4. Pick ONE or TWO JavaScript resources for practice, and sticking to it.

5. Making a daily study/work/routine schedule.

"What daily routines did you find to be successful to manage your time, get work done, and still have a little free time to enjoy for friends, family, hobbies?"

Is it just me or...

2020 Coding Newbie

"I will no longer be accepting assignments that use `VAR`. We need to `LET` go of `VAR` and use `LET` and `CONST`."#