I began coding because...
I started college as a psychology major. While I was working in a cognitive science research lab, the graduate student who advised me asked me to analyze some data in MATLAB. I had never coded before, and I thought analyzing that data was super hard. I felt like I was bad at programming, and I hated being bad at it. So I decided to declare a computer science major. By the time I graduated, I was no longer bad at programming.
I'm currently hacking on...
Machine learning tools to improve healthcare (mostly built in Python).
I'm excited about...
- Machine Learning
- Programming
- Blogging
- Making more opportunities available to more people
- Mixing matcha and peanut butter
- One day having a pet llama
My advice for other women who code is...
Internalize the idea that you excel at what you do.
I was once speaking with a (young, white, male) colleague about programming, and he announced "I know that I am a great programmer. If I do not understand something, I just need to find someone else to explain it to me differently."
At this point, I had seen him create a number of coding disasters, so my first thought was, "What? You are?"
Then, I realized this was actually a great way to think. When I messed things up, I would think "Ugh, I messed that up again." But when he messed things up, he would think, "I'm great at this! I just messed that up because I'm learning."
So, please, go out into the world feeling like you are fantastic at what you do (no matter how many mistakes you've made today).
Oldest comments (0)