my first attempt with a complete function
it actually happened earlier this week. During the Java-Kata exercises i was doing one called "flip flop". at fisrt i got stuck at the beginning where i was starting to build the function because i was not sure of the exact steps to take. I began to search the web for information and with the help of google and other sites i started to make progress. I made sure to takea few breaks to clear my head, i meditated and practised my breathing exercises and i even found out that i do the rubber ducky method without even knowing what it was. I like to talk to myself and explain what im doing out loud, i have found this to be helpful in the past for me therefore i have been doing this for a while.
Eventually i managed to finish the function, i was very proud as after a period of not knowing how it worked and progressing to being able to follow the steps. Somehow after finishing it was still saying that it was incorrect. This made me feel anxious and fustrated as i spent a good amount of time looking at the same code and i could not find why it was not considered correct. One of the facilitators reached out to me about it and encouraged me to post in the discord for help. i felt like i had tried my best and i was still stuck, it was obvious i needed help from my facilitators and peers so i seeked for help in discord.
Not long after posting, there was a few replies with helpful tips trying to help with my problem. One of the peers mentioned that i had started the function from scratch at the top of the page making the second and already existing fucntion redundant . In the first image you will see at the top i created the function and made sure it was correct, the only problem was that i was supposed to add it inside the export function. The second image shows the correct way, after i had fixed it with the help of my peers and facilitators.
my first attempt with a complete function
The correct way of doing it
Improving your process with reflection
I have been attempting to get better at this event though i try to reflect on my research and work most days.
i still believe that there is much more room for improvement, my confidence is not 100% here but i feel fairly confident with this technique.
Pseudocode
I am not used to Pseudocode just yet, the first few weeks i did not really use pseudocode , i am aware of it's benefits and i want to improve in this aspect fo problem solving,
as for the confidence , i cannot really say its low, pseudocode is really easy to do so i know i am more than capable.
improvement is needed in this area for sure and i am confident that i will see it through.
Asking your peers for help
this is something i am used to, i do not mind being the one that has to ask the dumb questions if it means others will benefit from it too.
I like to believe that i thrive in group work and team-work orientated activities. I am looking forward to the bootcamp where it will be more interactive,
I feel really confident in having to fall back on my peers.
Rubber ducky method
Without knowing that it was a term people used for problem solving, since my early university days i would like to talk to myself and pretend i am helping my brain figure it out or something.
I was shocked to see that something extremely similar was used for problem solving in the programming world. I definately plan to keep this up,
i find it helpful when i think out loud and go through the exercises while explaining the steps to myslef.
Fairly confident in this and plan to keep it going.
Asking coaches for help
I want to say that i am confident with this process, I am someone who wants to make sure to try everything before approaching the coaches.
That been said i feel extremely confident to so if needed as they have been very nice, welcoming and keen to help us.
I will make sure to approach them if i need to.
Googling
This is the technique that i have used the most, i feel extremely confident about this one, i like to ask very specific questions so that the AI can help me by taking me step by step in most cases.
When googling , i like to make sure that it is helping me rather than doing it for me.
I have used this process throughout the course so far and i intend to keep going with it.
there might be some things to improve on but even then i feel extremely confident with this technique.
Trying something
This is probably the method that i am least confident in , i have not really used it apart from when learning and researching it.
I would say i need to practise it quite a lot and improve this process as i believe it can be very helpful to me.
I need to make sure i acquire this technique for the near future.
Console.logging
Not my most confident filled technique out of the choices, i have used console.log a few times during exercises and challenges.
i personally while doing my own blogs and pages i have used it maybe once or twice.
I am aware that i need to improve this aspect and i need to practise it more regularly.
Reading error messages
I have used this quite a few times and i have found it very helpful the times that i have used it.
i want to make a habbit of making this more a default option for me whenever i am trying to solve an issue while coding.