Today was a wonderful day – day 2 of Hack Reactor. Felt refreshed and stoked this morning to have slept for 7+ hours, and walked into the office after a short 23 minute commute (already optimized from 33 minutes yesterday!). We had a series of town hall discussions today on closures and the keyword ‘this’, completed our Underbar.js rewrites in pairs, and listened to the most fantastic lecture from Marcus. I also decided that I would start blogging daily about my experience at HR, if only just highs, lows, and challenges, so that I may reflect later on what will be an intense thirteen weeks.
Day 2 Highs
- Marcus’ evening lecture ‘How to Succeed’ was inspiring. A few important points:
- Distinguished between being in the “top 1% in a good cohort” (say, smart peers at university) and in the “bottom 1% in a brilliant cohort” (think Einstein-level genius)
- The former scenario feels psychologically better, but the latter is objectively more favorable for individual growth. In the latter scenario, the key is that the individual must avoid the negativity that comes with being “less talented” than his peers; that is, the individual must avoid comparison and instead, cooperate and learn. The growth that will result from this environment will be greater than that growth from the lesser cohort.
- Takeaway: Put yourself in the best environment to succeed; once there, accept who and what you are.
- Everyone is going to be better, stronger, faster than you at something. Celebrate it!
- Elaborated on a list of traits that define a successful Hack Reactor student – some of my favorites were: positivity, likeability, work ethic, passion.
- Reminded me to be positive everyday and greet each challenge with a smile – as it is only through challenging yourself that you can grow!
- Students need a growth mindset – not a fixed one. We are dynamic individuals with the incredible opportunity to grow our intellectual and emotional capacities. This growth can only come through trying new things and failing. Said another way, failure does not reflect a problem of the self; rather it is the avenue for growth.
- Distinguished between being in the “top 1% in a good cohort” (say, smart peers at university) and in the “bottom 1% in a brilliant cohort” (think Einstein-level genius)
- Figuring out how _.some in Underscore.js works with Allen
- Getting enough sleep!
Day 2 Lows/Challenges
- Quite frustrating to not understand _.some for an hour during pair programming – but finally understood it after speaking with one of the instructors, Allen, during a break before lunch (so this was a high and a low!)
- Leaving Marcus’ lecture when it ended, rather than staying late to chat with the small group of 10 students. When inspired, I will definitely stick around (my gut feeling) rather than going straight back to code.
Day 1 of Hack Reactor: Sleepy
Day 1 Highs
- Realizing that I was not behind on recursion and having a good pair programming session rewriting getElementsbyClassName and JSON.stringify
Day 1 Lows
- Not getting enough sleep – was pretty tired most of the day
One Lovely Day 