DEV Community: DeVon

Human Language, Endocrinology, Learning Code and programming

DeVon — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 15:19:29 +0000

"Code is Not Magic"

That is my personal mantra, if there is a 'spell' or some trick that exists I'm open but even in the 'The Worst Witch' learning spells was an acquired skill(note that's the 1980's version and the updated one).

Having a non CS degree background, making sure that what I'm learning is making sense to me and finding the best pathway for that process has been a consistent search, 'a better way' but for individuals. My background is varied, at one point in my life I was 100% sure that I wanted to be a Medical Doctor. I declared my major as biology in undergrad and never second guessed it. Although before that, I had a lot of options in my high school education and I was able to explore the medical field academically for two years, taking human anatomy, sport medicine and medical terminology even. By the time that I received my undergraduate degree I had almost 6 years of consistent exposure to biology, biomedical sciences.

A lot of people would always praise me for majoring in biology, saying things like 'wow! that's a lot of math right!?' actually yes and no, I basically took enough math to probably move forward with CS minor with a couple of add on classes. The biology part? mostly basic computation and A lot, A lot of reading and information absorption.

Information absorption is where this blog post lives, it's what I'm comfortable with because of my background. I think information absorption is one of the more difficult things people struggle with in life, especially now with so much, education, work expectations, news, general life knowledge(which screw driver do I need to fix this door handle?). Growing up I took Spanish and I gravitated towards language, I always breezed through English classes. I took Spanish for 6 years starting in middle school and ended with Advanced Placement Spanish my senior year. I was almost fluent I felt, well fluent enough. Starting in high school there was this shift to information absorption, I was taking honors English, Human Anatomy, sports medicine, Spanish, I don't know what math lol(I really don't remember) but there was a focus on language and breaking down language is complex! I learned Spanish at a young age and so understanding the complex aspects of language became normal but I took Spanish I in college as a quick elective credit my Senior year and I saw how students with zero exposure to learning on that level struggled, not only to think outside their own language but understanding structures of language in general where they understood what they were saying in Spanish and why, that subject verb agreement was different, not why it is was different but just understanding it was.

A year before in college I took what is probably one of the most interesting classes I've taken thus far in my life. I took Endocrinology as an elective, note it was literally a medical school level course. My University(an Historically black college/University one of 100 in the U.S.) had an academic focus on Endocrinology(the study of glands and hormones) and the professor, I'll say her name Dr. Kelly Mack was and I'm 100% sure still is one of the most thorough teachers I've encountered and probably anybody would. None of the students stepping into that classroom on day 1 had ANY idea of what we were in for that semester.

For an entire semester we were medical students, Dr. Mack's class by design demanded that's what we were, nothing less. The book for the course was a medical school level Endocrinology book and we had one homework assignment every couple weeks, that assignment was a mock diagnosis of a 'patient' that corresponded to what we were studying. Diagnosing patients is NOT easy! Especially as a college junior taking one course but that's what it was, she gave us sheet with vital signs and symptoms and basically said 'figure it out', no fanfare, no instructions, we just had to state it, not written up paper, the entire class had the same 'patient' there were about 20 of us in the class. I remember one time about 5-6 of us were in the library pouring over books and searching online to figure out a diagnosis(she didn't say we couldn't team up, just figure it out, get it right). Oh! On top of that we had 4 test that semester where we had 4 essay questions, each question had literally HAD to be a page, hand written where in detail we had to write out entire biological pathways for diseases and how they related to specific glands and hormones. Oh! It had to be 100% correct or the whole answer was wrong. The first test we took the highest grade was a 55!!

She called in every student to discuss their test, I'm not sure if anybody dropped the course but it wasn't many. For some reason we all wanted to rise to her level. Also note, Dr. Mack is an alumnae of my alma mater so I definitely think that had something to do with her passion. Side note, when she called me in I got every pathway correct but mixed up the order, she asked me what happened!? I didn't want to tell her she was standing behind me the whole test and I was nervous AF.

Thank you for reading because there is a point to this story, don't worry I'm gonna 'bring it all home'. As I've consistently looked for the best way for me to learn code, I had a turning point literally last week. I had an interview, I was prepared as I could be, it was literally 'let's set up a talk'. I had gotten info that the interviewers wanted to talk about a project, it was late and I did what I thought was best. I wasn't nervous going into the interview and we spent literally 20-25 minutes going over almost every angle of the project(it was an app). I found myself stuck at certain points. Like many of us, I found myself replaying the situation, I wasn't happy with where I was, I recognized growth but I felt as though I was being held to a very high standard in that interview(it was not for a mid level or higher position). I re-grouped and was like ok moving forward I need to be better! Then I was watching the documentary Lenox Hill on Netflix, yeah medical interest is forever ingrained in me but watching the show I saw a doctor explaining a disease pathway and thought about how it pertains to code, the detail needed, I thought about my experience with Endocrinology and the level of detail needed.

When it has come to learning code, I have always fallen back on language, when thinking about how to create a feature I've found myself stuck, understanding what I want to do but literally thinking' I don't know the words aka code' on how to say it. So far in my code journey I've seen where there's a thought pattern that is seemingly required that honestly I don't have! I just don't, I've seen where math is less important and language takes over. I didn't study computer science, I wouldn't mind taking some courses after I get a job but I want to write code or work with it(tech support, other positions) and code is language, literally computer languages, writing instructions in a 'language'. Sure it's written largely by people with CS backgrounds but it's language based, it's not 1+3<=5+6 and that's all you're looking at, it's 'function{} this.state, if/else'.

For everybody out here struggling as I am, take things from your past, all of what I've said have been challenges, we've all had to overcome challenge and work through it, if you struggled with English, it was a challenge, we are not robots and do not think the same. Every Medical Doctor did not study biology, Medical school is training, for all the hype about learning to code its training! A mechanic is trained, teachers are trained. If learning to code is a tremendous challenge pull from other challenges in your life, figure out how to make it make sense to you.

I did not gravitate towards coding/programming as a life calling, I literally loved the life long learning aspect, 'something always new', something to learn, that's what made me want to do this, also for me I think it's the language aspect, the information. Whatever brought you on this path as well, lean on that but this is just like any job or career field on planet earth, it's an acquired skill and sure there are underline reasons why people choose what they do but again 'Code is Not magic' and even 'The worst witch' had to learn and became better.

Creating A Remote First Ecosystem(Startup's, Job seekers and Education)

DeVon — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 23:48:55 +0000

I'm truly passionate about remote work, where it's possible(some jobs you just can't do remotely) I have a significant amount of exposure and experience with the world of startup's. For those familiar the word ecosystem, it is associated with startup's. Although I want to broaden the term ecosystem to include a more well rounded view of ecosystem.

I know there are job boards, websites, social media accounts and newsletters that are only focused on remote work and everything surrounding it. The concept of this post is fairly recent, it came from a conversation just this weekend with a friend of mine on twitter, we were Dm'ing about remote work and I asked 'why isn't there a remote first ecosystem?' The closest I can think of right now is the E-residency program but I'm thinking in terms of being more expansive and even more free flowing like how ecosystems exists in actual cities. Are there remote first Venture Capital firms? Start up incubators?(I know of one, pioneer) there are meet ups and there are remote focused conferences. There are remote banks. This post is food for thought, please leave a comment or two, I would love to engage on this topic.

#The Long Read ...The Comfort Level of Remote Work Should Be the Goal

DeVon — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 23:19:40 +0000

When it comes to remote work, it's a topic that commands a flood of interaction. There are countless articles and even more conversations. It has seemingly become a market unto itself as well as being marketed. Everybody wants to 'work from home'(in corporate lingo). It is 2020 and people are still stuck in traffic and hustling to their workplaces on subway systems around the world. I've literally been in both situations, daydreaming of a 'better life' while being bumped by somebody standing 2cm from me on a packed subway. Also, I've wanted to rip the steering wheel from my car in the middle of traffic as I'm wondering why every day a certain portion of the road I traveled came to sudden stop like clock work 5 days a week at the exact same time. 'If only I could work from home' I would think to myself, 'that would solve ALL of my problems'.

As the saying goes 'it's about the journey not the destination', ohhh how true that statement can be.

So let's backtrack:

In 2008 I had the opportunity to travel to Heidelberg, Germany to visit family stationed in the military and while we were coming out a McDonald's(true story) I was speaking about some of my life plans with my cousin; frustrated with my day to day, I wanted to do 'more'. I had an idea for events aka 'throwing parties', I also wanted to blog. I wasn't going to quit my job, I was just bored. I wanted to do more and to have fun doing it which in my mind was starting a business(I know, starting a business for fun, follow along with me). My cousin was supportive, giving me advice, saying that I made the right decision to take the trip that international connections were important(hindsight what if I had packed up and moved to Germany hmmmm ).

Fast forward a few months and through a lot of Myspace hustling(gotta think in time machine terms) I jumped on an opportunity to write for an online magazine based in London, excited was an understatement.

To make it even better, the magazine was doing a whole series on the D.C. hip hop and soul music scene(this journey didn't start out tech based, it was music based) which was basically my backyard living in the Baltimore/D.C. metro area. Of course the only logical conclusion is to think 'it's a sign!' it's all aligning. Through contacts I had/still have I whipped up some articles for the series and got published. I wrote a few more articles for other online publications and eventually in 2011 started my own outlet.

Now we jump to January 2012:

While working a very demanding full job I had managed to create a whole other life for myself(all be it unpaid). I couldn't even call it part time, the digital aspect of my life had become integrated into my every day, I had contacts, people(many of whom I hadn't met in person and some I still haven't) who had become friends and mentors, I was answering emails through my blog specific gmail account on my phone, engaging in conversations and researching for more content while also managing my day to day, this wasn't a 'moonlighting' situation, it was a total life integration.

At the beginning of 2012, I wanted to 'take things up a notch', so viewing an opportunity and pulling from my trip to Germany I reached out to a DJ friend of mine on twitter with an idea to create an event in Germany with his friend who is Grammy award winning producer 9th Wonder. My friend agreed immediately and we began the process of making the event happen and 6 months later we had everything finalized and the two date DJ tour were sell out shows in Cologne and Stuttgart. Through that process I didn't meet nor actually see anyone, it was done through email and phone conversations. Later in 2012 I did meet 9th Wonder in a shoe store at a mall in Atlanta while attending a music festival which was cool because I got treated like a celebrity because he was truly gracious for making that happen for him.

This is a tech focused platform so where does the tech aspect come into the play, well we can insert that part in 2012 as well.

My career shift(I say shift because I view my whole career as until the day I retire) in tech happened because of the blog that I started, I was using WordPress and viewing source code to pull youtube and vimeo videos from other websites. I started to get comfortable clicking the source code and saying 'aha!' ok copy and paste but I also started to get frustrated with not being able to create the website that I wanted, all I had were templates. When it came to finding 'the right' look for my website I had educated myself on front end design, googling to see what the latest features were, what was 'en vogue' and what was not? Although the frustration of being stagnant in my own ability led me to learning how to code.

I first started with CS 50 from Harvard University through Edx.
There was an abundance of 'what I should do' but not exactly where to start. I was finishing up my MBA through a remote program at the University of Maryland Global Campus and the idea of going BACK to school wasn't really appealing. I have a good friend of mine who studied Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon(and also an excellent hip hop DJ), she told me that I could learn on my own, there was enough online to make my goals a reality. I'll be honest I wasn't sure about the process, the fog of finishing a Master's while working full time, all that had developed with my blog was a bit much, oh! going through the home buying process along the way, learning to code was there but definitely on the back burner. Besides, I figured Social Media could be my way 'in'.

I had become comfortable with social media marketing(or so I thought) and I saw that what developed organically was becoming real jobs with pay checks and benefits. My mindset changed in 2014 when I attended a day conference at the now defunct Livingsocial on an invite from my friend in who went to Carnegie Mellon. I saw how expansive Software Engineering could be and that I was really selling myself short just sticking to social media. I have a degree Biology and an MBA but I felt that Software Engineers were 'smarter' than me, there was something different in their background and that once I inched my way into tech(whatever it looked like) I could then slowly work my way into being a Software Engineer, for whatever the reason that logic went completely out the window that day at Livingsocial.

In the process of learning to code which I truly began in 2015, I realized that if I'm going to just work on a computer why did I need to commute into an office everyday(sure maybe sometimes)? I was working in biotech as a laboratory tech so going into work had to happen, that made sense but driving or catching the subway to an office just to sit at computer!? That felt honestly a bit silly to me. I transitioned into a Project Manager and it really started to click, my entire workload was managing projects remotely, I was either emailing or calling clients, even my lab work, it was for clients that I had never met in person. I knew the life in tech I wanted, I wanted to work remotely but I became passionate about it, one day I thought and thought all the way back to the beginning of my journey and realized I had been working remotely for years! That I was still working remotely, even if my company didn't see it that way nor most of the people working there. I realized that it wasn't just a dream but it was a comfort level, I was literally fluent in working remotely, communicating and functioning. Whether email, phone call, slack, twitter, linkedin and don't get me started on the first time I used Zoom and the control screen option! I was like THIS is ALL we need!

Working remotely is still viewed as a perk, so many people tout 'I get to work from on Friday's or whatever day'. People are literally clamoring to 'work from home'(full remote work is still very a tech aspect). It feels a bit like we're in the 1950's or 1960's and there is a Disney film or some educational film 'A vision of the future'.

There's a guy in a gray suit talking about 'In the year 2020, you will all be able to work from home' and then the film transitions to a wife cooking her husband breakfast and he goes into the home office and starts typing away, while she's vacuuming in the background.

Remote Work is still the destination but being comfortable with remote work should be the goal. As it stands now people are working remotely every day and I'm not sure they realize it which sadly can create for choppy communication and ineffective workflow. I think the more comfortable people are with remote work the more they will demand it in their own lives where possible, not just feeling like they need to exhale when they're not in the office on Monday or Friday and truly understanding how we've been working this way for a while and that the future happened at least a decade ago.