After a long delay – and some procrastination – all of the components for CS50 Week 1 have been submitted!
In short: This was a tough one.
A brief update on my progress and some things I’ve learnt so far:
1. I miss the Scratch program.
Those delightful visual block puzzles made learning fun and allowed me to enjoy the logic behind coding. In contrast, writing in C was learning to speak an overly technical new language – without getting to appreciate the beauty behind it. While working on the exercises I often felt like I was losing the rationale in the weeds.
2. Inertia is a powerful force.
This course has definitely been a reminder of this reality. In motion, consistency flows; once stopped, starting is all the harder.
3. Connecting with a virtual group is great, but it can be easily swayed away from its initial purpose.
The group of women I started this course with became a wonderful bi-weekly professional support network. Now, as those core members settle into new roles, we’ll need to adapt to better align with evolving participant needs.
With that said, I will explore options for better accountability moving forward.
4. Life happens.
Balance can be hard to maintain. Having some tasks that are flexible makes it easier to add and subtract from the load as needed. For me, this course is that.
On the bright side, I’ve got the generous timeline of nearly a full year to complete all the coursework – and I’m still on track for that!
Lesson unlocked: In future, I will lean in to in-person, structured learning.
This is definitely not my strongest skill set, but with help I’ll continue to move on to the next lesson.