The latest articles on DEV Community by Deborah Hanus (@deborahhanus). https://dev.to/deborahhanus https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F9255%2Felephant.jpg https://dev.to/deborahhanus en Deborah Hanus Thu, 09 Mar 2017 03:38:00 +0000 https://dev.to/deborahhanus/nevertheless-deborah-hanus-coded https://dev.to/deborahhanus/nevertheless-deborah-hanus-coded <h2> I began coding because... </h2> <p>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. </p> <h2> I'm currently hacking on... </h2> <p>Machine learning tools to improve healthcare (mostly built in Python). </p> <h2> I'm excited about... </h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://wimlworkshop.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Machine Learning</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://github.com/dhanus" rel="noopener noreferrer">Programming</a> </li> <li><a href="https://dhanus.github.io" rel="noopener noreferrer">Blogging</a></li> <li>Making more opportunities available to more people</li> <li>Mixing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha" rel="noopener noreferrer">matcha</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter" rel="noopener noreferrer">peanut butter</a> </li> <li>One day having a pet llama</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/http%3A%2F%2Felelur.com%2Fdata_images%2Fmammals%2Fllama%2Fllama-01.jpg" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/http%3A%2F%2Felelur.com%2Fdata_images%2Fmammals%2Fllama%2Fllama-01.jpg" alt="Charming Llama" width="" height=""></a></p> <h2> My advice for other women who code is... </h2> <p><b>Internalize the idea that you excel at what you do.</b></p> <p>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." </p> <p>At this point, I had seen him create a number of coding disasters, so my first thought was, "What? You are?" </p> <p>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."</p> <p>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).</p> wecoded