first chat

Reflecting on Week One at DBC
Saturday, March 21st, 2015

I consider myself to be an emotionally intelligent person. I work hard to put myself in other people’s shoes, and to listen well. I think I’ve really got the empathy thing nailed down. So when I was offered an interview with Dev Bootcamp, and the prep work included a video entitled “Emotional Intelligence (EQ),” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need this,” I thought, “but I’ll humor them.” I started the video expecting to hear stuff I already knew, and to be bored all the way through.

Thinking back, it sounds absurd, but a sense of… “calm” started to work it’s way into my brain. At first I thought, “Wow, this Karim guy has a nice voice, they need to get him reading audiobooks.” I attributed the calm feeling to that, as most of the concepts were things I had already heard of. But that sense of… “peace” stayed with me for a few hours after the video. I mean, I have to use quotes on those words; I don’t normally talk like that!

I prepped hard for my interview, and I was pushed forward by a drive to accomplish something. I love that feeling. I thought, “This is a selective program, I’ll have to work pretty hard to get in, and if I do, I’ll be stoked.” Then the interview came… and the coding challenges were easy. Too easy, almost. So when an acceptance letter showed up in my inbox a few hours later, the sense of accomplishment wasn’t really there. Now I thought, “Geez, I’m a real beginner, and that was easy. If I got in, they must take anyone.” And here I began to embrace almost all of the maladaptive thought-processes that Shereef described in his “Fireside Chat.”

As Phase 0 neared, I thought, “Well, here we go, at least there’s only nine weeks until the on-site portion. This bit should be a bore.” But at the first glimpse of the prep work, my mind managed to think two things at once. “The command prompt? Git? Setting up my system? How am I going to do all of this in a week?” How could I be both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the same time?

Yet, as I re-read some of the pre-Phase 0 prep work and EQ materials, that strange sense of calm came over me again. I still thought, “I don’t need it. I’m an emotionally intelligent person. People love me, and they tell me all the time how good I am with people.” So where was this feeling coming from? Then I came to one line that finally stopped me in my tracks. It essentially said, “You’ll be successful at Dev Bootcamp if you stick to the plan and admit to being human.” And I realized that, yeah, I listen, I’m patient and understanding, I try to interact with people in a way that makes them feel comfortable. I go pretty easy on other people. But I’m pretty hard on me.

. . .

In one week, Phase 0 has blown my mind, in content, structure, community, and emotional intelligence training. I don’t really believe in stuff like destiny, or words like that. But I sure am glad I ended up at Dev Bootcamp.

The prep work is perfect. I love learning, and I especially love learning coding. My only regret is not starting earlier in my life. Now that I’m in it, I devour information 24/7. And now I finally have structure. Some structure. When I get to a topic I don’t quite understand, I can take an hour to wander off course, then come back to my work. I can explore and have guided forward progress. We’ve started with the perfect basics of what I know will be the backbone of our growth in this field. I know that I’m the type of person that loves to explore, but not just documentation. I like to understand the theory, the new ideas, and the people behind them. The course work so far has shown me what I need to know, and has given me great triggers for learning more.

I’ve also become totally sold on the idea of the prep period. What I thought would be a slow waste of time has been the complete opposite. As a beginner, it’s nice to learn at my own pace, go for as short or long as I can handle, and research topics that I don’t completely understand yet. I like building that mental framework to prepare for future knowledge, and this allows me. And when I do have those minor freak-outs (“Oh no, I don’t understand this! What if I never understand this? What if I don’t understand what comes after this?? What if I can’t do this?!”) I’m glad that I can take a break and remind myself that I can do this. And then inevitably I end up understanding the topic with ease. I like spinning through this material at my own pace right now, so that I can go as slow or fast as I like, depending on the topic, and build confidence.

The community being built is phenomenal. I don’t yet know my cohort classmates, but it already feels like I’m beginning to. When I heard that Phase 0 involved guides and peer pairing, I thought, “Yep, sure, sounds good. Like, once or something, I'm sure. I won’t have any questions, so it won’t be a big use to me.” Wrong. Even remotely, the prep will be very interactive. And the culture? I can’t wait for more. I’ve enjoyed interacting on sites like codecademy and stackoverflow, answering the very basic questions submitted by people that are somehow even more novice than me. To now be exposed to git, and the philosophy of open-source software, and to dream of becomming a part of that community by working in a supportive, immersive environment, with students just as excited as me? I couldn’t be happier, and no one cares if I make run-on sentences.

And then, there’s the emotional intelligence again. When I heard that the program included stuff like yoga, meditation, and the like, I thought, “Yep, right. San Francisco. Whatever, I’ll go along with it.” I was excited about DBC because of their focus on empathy and personal growth, but I thought it would be hard to find a place to push myself. I was wrong. Every single bit of the topics focused on personal growth have been illuminating. I’ve already improved my ability to focus, reduce stress, time-manage, and avoid procrastinating. Sometimes it seems that even thinking about “thinking better” can bring a sort of peaceful state. On top of that, I’m preparing to grow as a teammate, and I’ve already learned to go easier on myself.

I’ve completely bought into the program, 100%, more than I would have thought possible. Knowing how supportive an environment this is, and what an interactive community and culture it will be, I can’t wait to begin creating things together. And it will be great, because we will all improve as people, too. I considered myself to be an emotionally intelligent person. Now I can’t wait to grow so much more.