It’s pretty amazing how quickly things have progressed in one week at Code Academy- and it’s all due to the passion of the people involved. I mentioned the leaders, mentors, teachers and my fellow classmates in my first post (the “group”)- but I don’t think I can really describe the amount of energy that this group is generating right now. It is a force to be reckoned with— and I say that not with ego but with awe.

Everyone came into Code Academy with plans and a rough idea of how they thought things would go, but since we’re the very first class everything is still very organic. Although some students came in with very specific projects that they want to build, and other students came in primarily just interested in learning how to program, in reality all of us are in both camps. We all have ideas and we all want to be very good at building things, whether for ourselves or helping someone else—and it’s that energy that’s propelling us forward.

You can tell during class that everyone’s brains are in high gear. Although the first week was mainly dedicated to learning the basics of Ruby- during class we’re all thinking ahead to how we can apply things like classes, arrays, hashes, keys, values, objects and methods.

It’s actually been a challenge to turn my brain off. This past week I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night or early in the morning and I immediately start going over what I learned in class or thinking about my own app ideas. Fortunately, on our first day of class we were given four books so I’ve had something to read for those late nights or early mornings. The books were Rework, Learn to Program, The Pomodoro Technique and Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Craftsmen, which was co-authored by Code Academy’s lead mentor, Dave Hoover (and it’s available for free online). My own mentor also recommended Apprenticeship Patterns so that’s where I started.

In the opening of the book Dave and his co-author, Adewale Oshineye, talk about what being an apprentice means, about being a beginner, about not being afraid to make mistakes or ask questions and about practice, practice, practice. They also tell a story of a young philosopher who visits a Zen master but is so busy telling the master what he knows that he never even gives himself the opportunity to hear what the master has to say. During the tea ceremony the master continues to pour the philosopher tea well after the cup is full and the philosopher says “Stop pouring! Can’t you see the cup is already full and overflowing?”. The master replies, “If you come to me with a cup that is already full, how can you expect me to give you something to drink?”.

I read this parable before we began our formal instruction and it was exactly what I needed to hear. Although my brain is in overdrive taking in all of this new information, during class, when I’m meeting with my mentor or when I’m talking to other students I make a conscious effort to be the empty teacup. It seems like the entire group is maintaining that philosophy and it’s that energy, of a collective open mind, that’s driving our momentum.