Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! First week of the new batch, Summer 1, 2015. RC batches overlap, which I think is pretty cool. So the first six weeks, half of the people here were from Spring 1, 2015, and then for the second six weeks, half of the people here are from Summer 1, 2015. Yay change!
The first half of the first day is devoted to introductions and orientation. One of my favorite parts is that the previous batch (the one half way through) gives advice to the incoming batch. The Spring 1 batch gave the following advice (stolen from notes taken by @lunacodess and @msapaydin):
- Be more open to pairing
- Make the most of the social side
- Get a planner
- Explore during the first two weeks. And then focus on bigger projects
- As you're doing projects, write challenges or things you encountered
- Don't finish projects just to finish - programming skills vs project management
- Set aside time to code every day, 1-2 hrs
- Reinstall your OS (don't do that)
- Stay healthy, eat well, etc
- Learn weird stuff
- Muji, is downstairs, Buy a nice notebook
- Keep a journal/blog - learn how you learn
- Don't be afraid to try something big/hard
- If you get stuck on a project, do something else that will make you happy
- There's a Thai place across the street
- Don't be too introverted/shy - get to know everyone
- Andrew's saturday parties
- Don't be intimidated if you're self-taught
- Don't sit down all day - go for walks
- Eat lunch with other ppl
- Don't give in to perfectionism
And then we gave the following advice to Summer 1:
- Walk every day
- Don't worry about productivity first 2-3 weeks
- You don't have to work on single project. Work on a lot of small ones.
- Pair a lot
- Healthy relationship with zulip
- Present every Thursday
- Don't compare yourself to anyone else. It's Apples and Oranges.
- It's Ok to feel overwhelmed and/or want to cry
- Don't be too distracted by trying to attend everything
- Don't miss Monday night Talks
- If you already know a language really well, consider learning a new one
- 80 people in the space can get overwhelming
- Talk to facilitators when nervous
- Come to social events
- Have Conversations with everyone
- Keep daily log. Ask for help
- There is no absolute best way to spend time
- Sit somewhere different every day
- Go to lunch with the group(s)
- Better to pick suboptimal path quickly, instead of spending a long time debating what the optimal way is
- Write every day (Code, Blog, Journal, Whatever)
- Take a break/walk
- Think of a goal for yourself. Short-term or long term goals are great & help you feel accomplished & plan better.
- Filter zulip aggressively after first two weeks
- Don't overeat
- Don't hesitate to ask for help. Just ask about anything
- Feel free to ignore advice that doesn't work. But think about things for a while. Don't ignore Community
I think all of this is great advice for surviving RC. People are in all places of life when they come to RC, so people need to be reminded of different things. For me, remembering to exercise, be social and still finish things is huge. Also, writing every day has been incredibly helpful. But other people have different needs, so figuring that out at the six week mark and passing it on to the new batch is a cool way to force people to think about the struggles they've faced.
One thing I learned was also in a tweet this morning:
Walt learned my Game a Week lessons way before I did pic.twitter.com/pngTLUlx8v
— Adriel Wallick (@MsMinotaur) May 27, 2015Anyways, after the morning of advice, I spent some time fixing some spelling, grammar and attribution issues on ruby.fm/about (I mean, geez who confuses Lil Wayne with Drake?).
In the afternoon I coded more for more RSS reader, Roughly Today. We took a break and went on a walk up to Washington Square Park around 15:30. In the evening there was pizza and game night. I played a long game of Munchkin with Becca, Betsy, John, Ken and Charlie which was a blast.
/Nat