First impressions are funny things. They're often wrong, sometimes wildly so, and you can look back on them and realize how weird it was that that was what you thought the first time you experienced that thing. I can think of many friends that I hated when I first met them, and many enemies who I thought were the greatest people in world. I've read a book the first time and come back to it a few months later only to realize it was complete tripe. I've left the theater talking about how awful a movie is only to go out and buy the box set deluxe edition when it comes out because I suddenly desperately need it in my life. First impressions aren't the best rules to follow when forming your opinion about something. But we have them for a reason.
Bad first impressions can turn you off of something for the rest of your life. But good ones can keep you going in something you might have otherwise hated. How something begins can be even more important than how they end, because you may not have reached that point if not for how it all started.
And it looks like my first impressions of Hack Reactor are going to be the type that keep me going. Not that everything was good, or that the first day was the most orgasmic of my life. It's only the feeling I'm left with at the end of the day. I'm exhausted. I'm a little frustrated. I'm worried about how the other days are going to be and if I've made the right decision. But I also have the overwhelming feeling that I can do this.
It's the balance of how the staff talk to us I think. We didn't walk in here to tales of how we can all do this, no problem, how we've got all the right stuff in us and we're going to get through this unscathed. But they didn't hound us with fearful images of frustrated suffering at the hands of a drill sergeant. There was a balance, a balance of "You got in! Everyone here, they've all gotten in, and that's not easy. You're all incredibly intelligent people and you did a lot to get here" and "Now I'm going to ask even more from you."
I felt like there was really a certain zone they were trying to get you in to, and it's a very difficult zone to sit in. They want you to be challenged, to stretch to the very edges of your ability, but to not have your goal out of reach.
Have you ever played those games where you have to hold a bar at a certain line? Don't push too hard or you'll go past it, but don't go too slow or you'll never make it? It's like that. There's this line you have to sit at, this line you have to straddle. And the first few days, it's going to be learning to straddle that line.
And not everyone's line will be at the same place. Some people's line will be drawn on skyscrapers, while others could be drawn on a corn stalk. But one thing that seemed to be sure - it wouldn't take long until all our lines would be even on the horizon.
At least that's the feeling anyway.
You can't really take the whole experience from a single day. I honestly can't tell if this is what the rest of the days are going to be like, or if today (now yesterday at time of writing) was just the prelims and everything else is going to be a tidal wave of alien ideas. There were goods and bads in this first day, and my opinion may change as we go through, but this is where it sits now:
The bads - Let's start here. There isn't a whole lot I can put into words here, at least not anything I could say that wouldn't be blatantly obvious. To start with, we're a big cohort. Over 40 students apparently. We were originally going to be cut into two simultaneous cohorts, but for whatever reason, that idea went out the window just a few days before the class began. I do feel a bit of being lost in the crowd, and being a naturally loud person, it makes me want to get my voice heard, which could definitely come off as obnoxious. And I can imagine what it would be like for someone who was super shy. If I was a nervous person (which, hey, at heart, I kind of am), I would feel like I was standing in a dark corner in a room full of Leos, waiting for my chance to talk to the guest of honor - whenever they got the chance to get through everyone else. So that isn't super fun.
There's also a bit of confusion on what we're supposed to be doing. I know it's probably hard for the staff running this, many of whom have already gone through the class and are therefor used to the curriculum, to really grasp that a lot of this is foreign to us, but I wish they could communicate better. We've been given a google calendar that has all of the tasks for the day, and when they start and what we're doing and who we're doing it with. Which is definitely great, only they didn't do a great job of explaining it. The intro lecture, the one that was supposed to be teaching us all about Hack Reactor, was long and tedious, although the lecturer did do her best to try and keep us engaged. I only wish the explanation of the calendar hadn't been hidden in the midst of that, and near the end too, when we were already tired of listening to her talk about somewhat preachy ideals about self-worth and responsibility. But I think even with that we would have gotten it better if she had gone over it briefly again just before we dispersed. At least on the first day, a little more hand holding in that area would have been nice. I appreciate the do-it-yourself attitude, but it doesn't work too well when we don't know what you want us to be doing.
But on to the goods. There was a lot of positive bits in this first day. I'll definitely give them that there as enough going on, enough new ideas being passed around, to keep us interested and motivated. They made sure there was alwasy something to do and did a good job of making us feel like we were really in a school setting rather than just watching a school setting at home.
I was also really nervous about the long day, and how exactly we'd have to cope with it. I did 11 hour work days for several months one summer not too long ago, so I knew I could do it. But I had had 3 days off a week in those stints. To do 11 hours 6 out of 7 days, that did seem like a tall order. But I was prepared for it. I had visions of myself chugging through, downing 5 hour energy shots and working myself ragged. I'd done similar work before, I was prepared to do my best this time.
But it wasn't quite what I expected. Yes, it is a very rigorous schedule, and there's not too much faffing about to be had. But it's not the stress riddled mad dash I expected it to be. It's more a marathon. Meal breaks are a generous hour and set at proper intervals, and it's not a whole long line of lectures. They make sure to break it up and ensure you're interested.
We started with the lecture about Hack Reactor, and orientation of sorts, that lasted about an hour and a half or so. But after that, when I was expecting to be thrown into another live lecture with the stress of paying strict attention to every second of the remainder of the day, I was instead given two recorded lecture videos and sent on my merry way.
Well that was different. They had given us a few extra minutes to watch the videos, so I could start them immediately and have a little time after or start them after a short break. And I was starting them on my own terms. Which felt good. It didn't feel like I was being dragged about by my nostril hairs, but more like I was doing this for myself. And honestly, despite the fact that I was doing the same kind of work I would be doing in the live lecture I had imagined, the stress just melted off of me.
After the videos, we hooked up with a peer to pair program for a short time - another adventure that I had luckily had some experience with before, with Hack Reactor Remote Prep. The exercise went pretty smoothly, and it was kept to just a short sprint, ensuring that we got a taste but didn't get too frustrated. And then suddenly it was lunch time and I was free to listen to my audiobook for a bit while I ate some lovely orange chicken. By the time we came back to work, I as feeling refreshed and really eager to keep going.
The next part was a 45 minute live lecture about life at Hack Reactor and what we could expect from the program. Then we went over everyone's questions, talked for a bit about how we were feeling, and then it was right back into pair programming.
My partner and I (a lovely young woman who had also done the Remote Prep course, though in another cohort) worked pretty well together, boosted by the confidence the previous talks had given us, and worked for the next 3 hours with little difficulty. It was a rather empowering moment, and the time flew by. I was actually mad when I checked the clock and realized we had hardly any time left, which I suppose is a testament to the system.
The day ended with a Townhall, a lecture on effective pairing (which was definitely funnier than it should have been since I watched it at 1.5x speed), and a Q&A, but at time of writing, I'm on lunch break from W1D2 and the details are getting fuzzy and I'm way too hungry to think about them. For now, I'll sign off. Perhaps my post at the end of today will be a little shorter and give me a chance to touch on Townhalls a bit more.
At least that's the feeling anyway.
You can't really take the whole experience from a single day. I honestly can't tell if this is what the rest of the days are going to be like, or if today (now yesterday at time of writing) was just the prelims and everything else is going to be a tidal wave of alien ideas. There were goods and bads in this first day, and my opinion may change as we go through, but this is where it sits now:
The bads - Let's start here. There isn't a whole lot I can put into words here, at least not anything I could say that wouldn't be blatantly obvious. To start with, we're a big cohort. Over 40 students apparently. We were originally going to be cut into two simultaneous cohorts, but for whatever reason, that idea went out the window just a few days before the class began. I do feel a bit of being lost in the crowd, and being a naturally loud person, it makes me want to get my voice heard, which could definitely come off as obnoxious. And I can imagine what it would be like for someone who was super shy. If I was a nervous person (which, hey, at heart, I kind of am), I would feel like I was standing in a dark corner in a room full of Leos, waiting for my chance to talk to the guest of honor - whenever they got the chance to get through everyone else. So that isn't super fun.
There's also a bit of confusion on what we're supposed to be doing. I know it's probably hard for the staff running this, many of whom have already gone through the class and are therefor used to the curriculum, to really grasp that a lot of this is foreign to us, but I wish they could communicate better. We've been given a google calendar that has all of the tasks for the day, and when they start and what we're doing and who we're doing it with. Which is definitely great, only they didn't do a great job of explaining it. The intro lecture, the one that was supposed to be teaching us all about Hack Reactor, was long and tedious, although the lecturer did do her best to try and keep us engaged. I only wish the explanation of the calendar hadn't been hidden in the midst of that, and near the end too, when we were already tired of listening to her talk about somewhat preachy ideals about self-worth and responsibility. But I think even with that we would have gotten it better if she had gone over it briefly again just before we dispersed. At least on the first day, a little more hand holding in that area would have been nice. I appreciate the do-it-yourself attitude, but it doesn't work too well when we don't know what you want us to be doing.
But on to the goods. There was a lot of positive bits in this first day. I'll definitely give them that there as enough going on, enough new ideas being passed around, to keep us interested and motivated. They made sure there was alwasy something to do and did a good job of making us feel like we were really in a school setting rather than just watching a school setting at home.
I was also really nervous about the long day, and how exactly we'd have to cope with it. I did 11 hour work days for several months one summer not too long ago, so I knew I could do it. But I had had 3 days off a week in those stints. To do 11 hours 6 out of 7 days, that did seem like a tall order. But I was prepared for it. I had visions of myself chugging through, downing 5 hour energy shots and working myself ragged. I'd done similar work before, I was prepared to do my best this time.
But it wasn't quite what I expected. Yes, it is a very rigorous schedule, and there's not too much faffing about to be had. But it's not the stress riddled mad dash I expected it to be. It's more a marathon. Meal breaks are a generous hour and set at proper intervals, and it's not a whole long line of lectures. They make sure to break it up and ensure you're interested.
We started with the lecture about Hack Reactor, and orientation of sorts, that lasted about an hour and a half or so. But after that, when I was expecting to be thrown into another live lecture with the stress of paying strict attention to every second of the remainder of the day, I was instead given two recorded lecture videos and sent on my merry way.
Well that was different. They had given us a few extra minutes to watch the videos, so I could start them immediately and have a little time after or start them after a short break. And I was starting them on my own terms. Which felt good. It didn't feel like I was being dragged about by my nostril hairs, but more like I was doing this for myself. And honestly, despite the fact that I was doing the same kind of work I would be doing in the live lecture I had imagined, the stress just melted off of me.
After the videos, we hooked up with a peer to pair program for a short time - another adventure that I had luckily had some experience with before, with Hack Reactor Remote Prep. The exercise went pretty smoothly, and it was kept to just a short sprint, ensuring that we got a taste but didn't get too frustrated. And then suddenly it was lunch time and I was free to listen to my audiobook for a bit while I ate some lovely orange chicken. By the time we came back to work, I as feeling refreshed and really eager to keep going.
The next part was a 45 minute live lecture about life at Hack Reactor and what we could expect from the program. Then we went over everyone's questions, talked for a bit about how we were feeling, and then it was right back into pair programming.
My partner and I (a lovely young woman who had also done the Remote Prep course, though in another cohort) worked pretty well together, boosted by the confidence the previous talks had given us, and worked for the next 3 hours with little difficulty. It was a rather empowering moment, and the time flew by. I was actually mad when I checked the clock and realized we had hardly any time left, which I suppose is a testament to the system.
The day ended with a Townhall, a lecture on effective pairing (which was definitely funnier than it should have been since I watched it at 1.5x speed), and a Q&A, but at time of writing, I'm on lunch break from W1D2 and the details are getting fuzzy and I'm way too hungry to think about them. For now, I'll sign off. Perhaps my post at the end of today will be a little shorter and give me a chance to touch on Townhalls a bit more.
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