Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A Curious Phrase

There is an exciting phrase being thrown about in programming circles: learn in public. The idea is to share what you are learning to hold yourself accountable while connecting with other learners.

Now you may have heard of the 100 Days of Code Challenge, where a programmer commits at least one hour per day to learn a new coding skill or to work on a project. They document this experience publicly via regular social media posts.

The idea felt familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite figure out why until recently. Then I remembered my old blog site, Physicist By 40. I chose the title based on my long-term goal at the time: get a Ph.D. in physics before I turned 40. The site documented my progress through the first few years of college as a nontraditional student (interested in physics) pursuing a degree in mathematics. However, during my “junior” year, I fell in love with understanding problem-solving techniques that facilitate solutions by making the problems more abstract. So I pursued an advanced degree in mathematics instead.

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft a-gley.

If it isn’t already apparent from my profiles, my current long-term goal is to become the best data scientist I can be. Why data science? Well, academia didn’t seem as appealing as I initially thought after one year in the graduate program at the University of Delaware. During that time, I discovered that I liked to build and deliver valuable tools and insights even more than I enjoyed solving abstract problems. Both activities rev my curiosity engine, but one allows me to quickly recognize my contributions to the world.

This brings me to my short-term goal: get hired. I want to start practicing my skills in a meaningful way, but I am struggling to land that first tech job after graduating from Lambda School’s Data Science program. To help achieve this goal, I am summoning the spirit of my old blog site and starting this one.

How I Will Learn in Public and Why

FreeCodeCamp’s Quincy Larson has some wise words for aspiring developers, engineers, and data scientists:

In each of those areas of focus you can find learning-in-public(LiP) beneficial because:

  1. LiP shows everyone that you are learning something new
  2. LiP shapes how others perceive you
  3. LiP spreads your name around, facilitating connections with others in the industry

git commit -am "weekly update"

To ensure I focus equally on all three, I pledge to provide a weekly update about what I am doing to achieve my goals (long-term and short-term). These updates will have three sections: Building My Skills, Building My Reputation, and Building My Network. Each section’s content will likely change over time since I have few ideas about what I can do to build my reputation. In any event, building projects is an excellent first step.

See the links in the Building My Network section if you want to follow along.

Building My Skills

Books

This week I’m reading:

Courses

I’m working on my writing to be a better communicator in job interviews and outreach. At the same time, I’m refreshing my SQL skills to get past data-engineering-related technical challenges.

Building My Reputation

Projects

This website has been my pet project for the past month; I learned a lot about Jekyll in the process. Still, I am looking to start a new portfolio project that can showcase my data analytics skills.

Building My Network

Mentoring

Mentoring was one of my favorite experiences at Lambda School. I want to mentor someone again, provided that they fit my current skills and knowledge base. Once I work out the details, I will share a form so aspiring data scientists can fill it out.

I’m looking for a mentor as well. If you, or someone you know, would like to help me as I enter the first stages of my data science career, please contact me ASAP.

Contact Me

Follow me on Twitter for updates, and connect with me on LinkedIn. I welcome any feedback as I work towards building strong professional and personal relationships.