Today we were assigned our second capstone, the second major project of the cohort. Last time, we were tasked to make a Vending Machine. For this capstone, we are to make a registration system for the National Parks.
This might sound larger in scope, but the word on the street is that this is the easier of the two. For me, it will almost certainly be the easier of the two. We were again randomly assigned our partners and I drew Jack.
Jack is a 19 year old programmer who recently dropped out of college because it was going too slow for him. His knowledge is deep and effortless. Working with him today, it’s clear that he loves coding intensely and he’s psyched to have another capstone to work on.
This is the first time that my pair partner has been a much higher skill level than me and it’s a completely different experience. Whereas my goal in the past was to keep the project rolling forward and hope to finish on time, I found myself this afternoon making sure that I kept up, made myself useful, and understood all the code that was going into our registration system.
I was able to do this, I think. I wrote the methods that collected the campgrounds and their subsequent sites together and Jack tackled the much more complex business of the menu and its interface with the users. We worked well together. I tried to help out when he got stuck and was able to make a suggestion once or twice that helped him out. On the flip-side, every time I got stuck on syntax or a problem with scope, Jack was able to glance at my code for a few moments and point out my issue.
It was nice. Humbling, but nice.
We’re coming in early tomorrow to get a long day in before Friday, which will be shortened by a trip in the afternoon to Dick’s corporate headquarters. I’m looking forward to a day of coffee, coding, and teamwork.
From Retail to Programming 