Code Camp & other lessons in logic

Starting web dev bootcamp and it feels so right; the Embassy event that gave me confidence; how the slightest change of location makes a difference; combatting imposter syndrome by doing it anyway 😤

Happy October! I’m loving the season change and absolutely hyped to be in the US later this month to enjoy it American-style: hot apple cider, pumpkin patches, Halloween, football, everything. To top it off, we are now entering Scorpio season, which means I creep ever closer to my 31st birthday. Have to think of something creative this year – any ideas? Like the broken record that I am, I have the feeling I’ll end up at a karaoke bar…

Anyway, here is my weekly project recap! Little bits of progress on everything, so I'm 100% believing that slow but steady wins the race.

Lessons in Time Management & Working Environment

As I discussed last week, since I’m adding this webdev bootcamp into my schedule, I have to be on top of how I allocate my brain power and when. I’ve been using the pomodoro method, which is assigning tasks a number of 45-minute focus sessions per day, but one can not simply wildly fill their day with tasks and pomos. This week I experimented and learned my limits.

• Writing (not researching, but actually writing, like I did for my book this week): 4 pomo max / day

• I cannot write first thing in the morning; so no AM pomos for JFA (the book) or on days I work at the business school = only 2 weekdays and 1 weekend available

• Gym can also not happen first thing in the morning = it’s either after work or after thesis writing on Mon/Wed

• Heavy brainload stuff like studying and writing do not go well after around 4/5 pm = my working days are from 8:30 - 5pm max

• Bootcamp, which falls outside of those working hours and also all day on Saturday, has the benefit of me going to a new location and not learning at home, so I think I can still manage. Also my code brain works better in the evenings, because it’s darker outside

• I cannot go out for drinks or stay out late during the workweek. It ruins the morning schedule for the next day = soon, with bootcamp, Saturday will be my only “relax/stay out” option.

• Sundays I may try to squeeze in 2 writing pomos early, but I’m worried if it’ll be too much

And finally, I’ve realized the importance of changing my location, even if it’s just to the other table in my apartment, to give me more energy to work in between tasks. For example, as I’m usually tired as hell after writing, I don't think I’d have it in me to stay at the same place in my room to do another mentally draining task like working on my thesis. To keep the flow, I write for my book in the mornings then go to the library to work on my thesis.

Little things matter. I have to pay attention also to how bright it is in my room. When it gets all dark and wintry here in Berlin this won’t be much of an issue anymore (and I’ll likely complain about how not sunny it is), but I just cannot work on my computer in my room when it’s bright. So now that I have my new Macbook Pro (the 14’’ was a great decision), I’ve been doing my bootcamp prepwork on the other, more dimly-located counter in my apartment. It instantly feels like I’m somewhere else. I spend a lot of time in front of my computer so, being able to change my location even slightly, like to use this counter again or go to the library or Soho, to do work helps a ton.

Speaking of making time and changing location – what better way than to have a pasta dinner party with intelligent, amazing women like these! ❤️

Finally feeling secure about my Master’s Thesis idea

Last week I went to the US Embassy in Berlin viewing of a new (and must-see) documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust, where filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein were scheduled to be present and do a Q&A. In the end Ken Burns didn’t show, nor was the Q&A open to the audience (rather moderated by a prominent German historian author), but I still managed to meet the other two creators, ask them a question, and do a little networking. Never miss an opportunity!

A few fellow JFKI students and I remained afterwards for the reception and ended up speaking to a worker for the US Embassy. She asked us about our theses and so forth, and I ended up doing a little elevator pitch for mine. She didn’t seem to feign interest, but me just presenting it and doing so engagingly gave me much-needed confidence. I actually am quite terrified about the whole thesis-writing task.

Most of this new pitch version came from last Monday’s research so I’m glad my library sessions are actually producing results. It’s the benefit of the pomodoro method — even if the time isn’t be actively writing something, I have to be doing something related to the task during the whole pomo, which usually ends up with me finding unexpected new leads (this time being in business and behavioral science/medical journals).

Beginning Web Dev Bootcamp — Prep Week

I did the thing – I signed up for web dev bootcamp, sent my deposit, enrolled in the Slack, Github, and everything else. Now I’m doing prepwork before the course officially starts this upcoming Saturday. It goes over the basics of HTML, CSS, Javascript, Terminal, GitHub, Ruby, and Figma so that we know generally how they all work together by the time we start.

I’m impressed with the style in which these concepts are introduced. I’ve tried self-learning Javascript, for example, and always had the hardest time with it (which is why most of my web-dev dreams crumbled), but now I kinda get the concept. And I never thought I’d learn a language like Ruby because I had such issues with the syntax R in my stats class last semester. But I managed to remember some fundamentals (like what a variable is and how to manipulate one) and funnily enough, my recent Excel-learning spree rendered some expected perks. Somehow, both the Ruby commands and Javascript arguments are structured a lot like Excel formulas. Crazy, right?

Signing up for this camp was definitely the right decision. I can finally have the hard skills I’ve always wanted and be able to create somewhat workable mockups of the many, many ideas I’ve had churning in the back of my mind all this time. I think you really have to pay attention to how you feel about something and how and why you go back to it. For me, I’ve always loved code but thought I didn’t need to become a code “master,” and that it would to be too difficult for me. Just the ideas I had were enough, I thought.

But look at my apartment. I’ve got a souped up Mac Mini, multiple displays and apps for web dev, and notebooks full of website ideas. Why did I think I’d be fine relying on someone else to make them? Why was I avoiding the inevitable?

And if the underpinning belief of my Japanese book is that it isn’t about what you learn, it’s how you learn it, then why was I telling myself I couldn’t ever be great at making the websites I was dreaming up? And why did I keep waiting?

No excuses now. I’m going to f***king do it.

Italy Citizenship

Not much happening here at the moment; just waiting for Maryland to send my dad my mom’s birth certificate. The waiting makes me nervous, since not getting it means I can’t make the amendments on my own birth certificate, and that’s pretty much the only document left.

I’ve also been thinking about how crazy it is that I’ll be moving to Monza next year. For perhaps around six months! It’s starting to hit me, and I think it’s because I’ve been so happy here. For once I feel like settling somewhere, and then I have this actual big plan to move to another country less than a year away. But it’s for the right reasons. Citizenship means ultimate freedom for the rest of my life, so six months is nothing, and I’ll definitely make new connections there and learn Italian. No loss whatsoever! But still, I’m finding it hard to focus on the now.

Japanese for Anyone

I wrote two sections but I don’t know how I feel about them. I guess that’s what editing is for! Never accept a first draft; just have something on the page to work with later. And moreover – don’t stop moving into other sections!! Just write, damnit!

It’s a relief I spat something out although I can already feel the imposter’s syndrome creeping in. It happens every time has likely been the greatest impediment in getting this thing done. Nevertheless, I’ll keep the course and try to get out the remaining chapters of the opening section done this Monday and Wednesday. It’s slow progress because of the other commitments I have (and the whole brain-power-pomo-method I described before) but at least it’s consistent, and happening at all!

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Grazie mille for reading this week!

And thanks for the web links a few of you sent me last week, by the way :)

I need your input again for something — have any of you ever used HelloFresh or other meal-prep delivery services? My cooking/nutrition have been especially poor lately and will likely not sustain my brainpower with this schedule of mine, so someone suggested to me that I sign up for HelloFresh. But that can’t be the only service, right? And is it worth it?

If you have any pointers – please don’t suggest I get a cookbook, I need the ultimate non-cook-friendly alternatives – send them my way. Otherwise, I’m legit going to start paying some friends in my building to cook for me!