I feel like I have a picture in my head about what tech companies are like but given most of my information is second-hand or from pop culture, it’s likely not that accurate. Since people seem to like it when I compare my experience working for legacy Bell Labs telecom defense contractors to the tech … Read more
Last week I discussed the database that powers my project measurement dashboard but since I was still working on the frontend style, I didn’t actually show what it looks like. This week I’m ready to give a tour! A Guided Tour Let’s pretend we’re the owners of The Cat Ranch and we want to forecast … Read more
The main project I’m working on at The Recurse Center is an interactive project measurement dashboard. This week I’ll talk about the current state of the design and construction. I’m actively working on rearranging the user interface so a second post some other week will be needed to cover that. Motivation My wife, Justine, uses … Read more
One benefit to immersing myself in a new space, software development, is being exposed to new tools and practices I’d like to apply to Mechanical Engineering. The biggest is Pair Programming which is pretty central to The Recurse Center. If you’re not familiar, the basic idea is two people look at one screen together (either … Read more
This week I figured I’d write about what I’ve been working on since I haven’t really talked about it so far. I’ve been learning web application development with a balanced amount of front end (what you see in your browser) and backend (the database and API that manages data). If you’re into specific framework names, … Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot during week 2 about similarities between building big electromechanical devices and big software projects. The former is something I’ve done for over 10 years and I feel pretty good about. I’m getting “dramatically better” with the latter and here are some things I’m noticing: Test early and often: It’s so … Read more
When I talked to a “never graduate” of The Recurse Center, they highly recommended writing a weekly reflection. So I’m here to do that. But they also recommended not worrying too much about style and form, so I’m also here to do that. I’m one week into the 12 week experience which is like 10%. … Read more