I did not complete the task—not even close really, and what I did complete was essentially wrong…
So what were some of the factors that led me to be unsuccessful?
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First, I didn’t understand the scope of the assignment. I didn’t understand exactly what was being asked of me as it turns out, and to my surprise, I didn’t really know what a server was. I thought a server was something that we all just connected to—essentially a website—and told to do stuff and it returned what we told it to return.
** Not quite. A server is really a translator and a fetcher. One does not tell a server what to do. No no, one asks, or more appropriately, offers a “request” to the server. We request permission to connect. The server reads your request, then analyzes and translates your request, and then it creates a response using an algorithmic decision-maker, translates that response back into the language of the browser, and finally sends you the response back whether it be an acceptance or denial. I suppose even that description is still only the surface of what the request & response go through as the server’s base-station then must actually translate much deeper into computer language, but for the purpose of this blog, we’ll leave it at the level of programming language. -
Second, i didn’t understand the individual tests and what they were asking me to do. I thought everything had to happen through some type of server, but that wasn’t the case.
In fact, the first several tests should have been very easy to pass as they were merely strings printed to the command line.
- Third, I’m new to java and the whole object oriented structure, let alone HTTP. Sure, I’ve messed with java a couple times in my short history of becoming a programmer, but I’d only touched the surface. I’d never really used an interface before—although, I think i now understand the difference between implements & extends, so that’s pretty exciting, and while I’d seen exceptions thrown, I’d never really used them in anything and certainly had never written any. To be honest, i thought they were special magical things that told you the problem or fixed the problem for you.
Nope. Exceptions are simply just another Class. One that interrupts the runtime to go another way, but that can be caught within the program to handle it. SImply put, they are just more code. When i had to write one, I understood them more—imagine that: the act of doing forces you to understand!
- And of course the pressure, but i won’t use that as a reason that I didn’t finish. Sure the pressure caused me to rush, which probably actually slowed me down, and certainly made me feel like I didn’t have time to do it all right especially when I didn’t understand what I was doing, which in turn left me with a lot of tedious trial and error into the late hours of the nights and wee hours of the mornings. But, we all work under pressure at times. I mean, I came from a 24/7 chemical manufacturing plant that was expected to be running 100% with perfect quality. I can recall numerous times of getting calls at 2am because our environmental specs were beyond our internal levels or because a unit shut down or, my favorite, it’s raining (I’m not kidding, rain is always a hazard in a chemical plant that doesn’t have sufficient surge capacity for process water, which none of mine have had! My point is, we all work under pressure at times, and being under the gun is no reason to perform inadequately, irresponsibly, or negligently. We’ve all got jobs to do, and as professionals in any line of work, it is our responsibility to perform them with honestly, correctly, and completely.
What could I have done better to help me be successful?
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I should have asked for help sooner when I was stuck. This was a lesson i learned in one of my previous roles. I had a manager who used to tell me, “communicate early—as early as possible.” This was good advice until i was communicating every little hiccup, which led to a cry-wolf situation. But the message can still be utilized in the sense, that when there is a problem (maybe more than an hour or two of trial and error in this case), communicate and ask for help.
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I could have asked for more clarification on the task at hand. What do you want me to do specifically? What do these tests mean—or rather, what is the intent of this test? Please clarify.
A lot of my struggles arose from the fact that I thought i knew what the tests wanted, but when i thought that I had met the criteria, the tests still were not passing for one reason or another. In a couple cases, I actually got tests to pass only to realize that I had accidentally found a work around. Delete, delete, delete, and start over! This doesn’t count as my work would not have been honest, correct, or complete.
- I should have breathed. Whenever Rex is throwing a tantrum or really losing it, one of the first things I do is ask him if he needs a hug. 9 out of 10 times, his answer is an emphatic, desperate, overwhelmed, and defeated, “Yahesss!” I give him a hug, hold him, coach him to take a couple deep breaths and then talk about the problem to see if I can help him.
Each night I was working past say 8 or 9PM, my work was becoming unproductive and more trial and error. I’ve noticed this actually on several occasions once I’m getting close to having to pick up the boys from school. I start to rush an then get sloppy, and the lesson here is that nothing is ever finished or done well when you only have ten minutes to do it.
If that truly is the case where you have 6 hours of work to do and only ten minutes to do it, breathe, communicate, and remember that you’re not going to finish in those ten minutes and any work that you do put out is probably going to be crap that needs to be redone.
In conclusion, i literally have the best resources (in the world) within my reach for this endeavor. The only thing that could cause me to fail at this is me. If I need help, i need to learn to ask for it. I shouldn’t expect myself to do it all on my own.
Funny, i was trying to keep motherhood out of this blog, but I said the exact same thing just mentioned to two of my sister-in-laws in the past month. A mother can do it all—or it can appear that way, but doing so is at a high cost to herself. Further, a mother expects herself to do it all and not require help, and a mother will never ask for help—her kids are no one else’s problem. A mother will completely breakdown from exhaustion, stress, or frustration before she will ask for help, and she probably will transfer these expectations over into the rest of her life.
I expect myself to do it all and am persistent it doing so, but maybe, just maybe, at times I should humble myself to ask for help before I get to the point of exhaustion, incapacitating amounts of stress, or the feeling of utter defeat and inability. After all, a little sleep and mental stability never hurt anyone…