Day 2: December 1, 2020

Easy Peasy, Lemon No Squeeze-ie

I tried a different approach today. I was feeling a bit ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious. Why? Well, when learning to code and having great video lectures that shows you everything step by step; we tend to get a little ahead of our selves. Are we really understanding the concepts? Or are we just coping and pasting.

I wanted to put this to the test. It has been years since I coded something, but I must admit, I think I was in over my head when I thought the first day “easy peasy”. An epiphany is what I had. You know, when somethings too good to be true.

So yes, today I tried the “do it yourself” approach. Video Man asks “So what if I want to … “? I say “Pause the video! I can figure it out myself”!

Challenge: How do I update the Players position to not go out of bounds?

• Pause video* Time to do some thinking!

So how did it go?

I was close. Okay maybe a bit far off. Okay fine I was wrong. And I kept being wrong as I continue to guess what I should have did, all while watching the lecture. But with every guess, my answer was closer and closer. It gave me a deeper understand as I make the connections in my head. I even wrote in some notes and went over previous code to fully understand “why” and “what” certain functions do. My point here? Many times when learning to code, we get ahead of ourselves and “think” we know how the code flows. All because someone is showing us, and we forget to think.

This may have slowed down where I projected to be at with the lectures but I think the overall payoff is worth while. Plus it was nice to know I tried to Challenge myself before Video Man did.

So if you’re reading this, ask yourself, “Am I actually understanding what is going on”?

• Karissa