I was asked to read a short article about measuring up for yoga. It talks about how you should not judge yourself against others in yoga practice, and by extension in life.

Although I understood why this article was written, and what message it was trying to convey, for me it fell a bit flat. Yes, judging yourself by what other people do is bound to get you in trouble. But then again, isn’t that the exact way that we are conditioned to understand our place in society? Furthermore, isn’t there an innate sense of hierarchy that is native to us humans?

I think that it makes more sense to say, create your own goals, and measure yourself against those, than to say not to measure yourself up against anything at all. By taking away that rubric, it feels like the work that you do is meaningless. Why put yourself through the blood, sweat, and tears of what it takes to move yourself forward...

As a person who has made failing an everyday occurrence, I have had to do some adjusting. Mostly, what I have had to learn to adjust is my mind. I have always felt that I was a pretty enlightened person, but the truth is that when failure kept (and keeps on) slapping me in the face again and again, I really didn’t like it. Like most people, I rejected it…until I saw the real problem.

I didn’t recognize it as my opportunity to grow.

This is important, but failing is an opportunity to learn, get up, and try again. My anguish from feeling like a loser was getting in the way of that. So if you ever find yourself in a this place, here are some of the things that I have done to help myself out.

Get Off Your Job

Having a list of things to do is work, its a job. It is not passion. And yes some things require a little bit of work, but without passion you won’t reach success. I had to...

For the last few days, I have been reading David and Goliath (and by reading…I really mean listening to the audiobook). This book is an interesting work that challenges what we have been taught to believe are advantages and disadvantages. Its so good, I haven’t even finished it yet, but I couldn’t wait to write about it.

The title comes from the biblical story of David, a shephard boy, and Goliath, a Palestinian giant and warrior. These two were to battle to determine who’s people would become slave to whom. And although David was the unlikely winner, he took out Goliath, with a small rock and a slingshot before the fight even got started. This story is one of the classic underdog winning against all odds. Although, the author Malcolm Gladwell may argue that the odds really are in David’s favor after all, and that we have only been taught to believe otherwise.

And then they got to a...

Today I coached at the Rails Girls Workshop in Houston.

It was a fantabulous experience. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to coach the girls that much. I was worried that I didn’t know enough. I was worried that I wouldn’t be much help at all.

But, what actually happened was so much cooler than I ever anticipated.

I not only helped girls build their very first web app, I had so much fun. Since I have been a student for only 5 weeks, I had no idea how much I learned. I spend most of my time struggling with the next concept. When I started coaching, I realized that yes, I do know something. In fact, I know a lot of things. Not only is it cool to be able to help people, but it is so amazing to see the light bulb go off with the girl that I am helping. It is more amazing to see how exited she gets seeing what she did. I wasn’t anticipating how awesome that experience would be.

...

When I told people that I was getting a Master’s in Anthropology the most common question I received was…what are you going to do with that?
Many people don’t know what is that anthropologists do.

Here is one answer. Medical Anthropology.

What is Medical Anthropology?
Technically, Medical Anthropology studies health and disease from a cultural perspective.

So when a doctor studies cancer, they ask questions like:

What kind of cancer is this? How far has the cancer progressed? what are the possible origins of this disease? What are some ways that we can treat this disease?

When and anthropologist studies cancer, they ask questions like:

What does it mean to have cancer? What other factors influence beliefs around cancer? What happens to a social system, when cancer becomes a diagnosis of a person involved? How does having cancer change a person’s identity? How can this...

Now that I have officially been a developer for a month :) I get asked about about learning how to code a lot more. For a lot of people, learning to code is something that seems just beyond their reach. Maybe it has come up at work, maybe it is cause they have a project they need to complete, maybe learning to code is simply a curiosity.

As a person who tried for years to teach myself, I can understand how frustrating and overwhelming it can be to figure out how to get started. Especially when your background is nowhere close to computer science.

So I wanted to address some of the questions that I get about programming languages. The goal is to impart some of what I have learned so far, with hopes that it will help demystify this part of the learning to code process.

What Language Should I Start With?

This is a question I get a lot. And this is a question that I had a lot. If...

Today marks the end of my 4th week in my 12 month rails engineering boot camp. Even though today was friday (lab day) and I didn’t have lecture this morning, my head is still full from all the stuff I am learning, and re-learning all day. In honor of reaching this 1/3 mark, I thought it might be helpful to list out some of the lessons that I have learned thus far, and to stake some claim for where I would like to go in the next 8 weeks.

1. Bootcamp is Hard, but Doable

This is something that I heard and read for many weeks before I signed up for The Iron Yard. Something that was reiterated to me when I signed up, and even on the first day of class. But there is nothing like experience to drive it home. Yes bootcamp is hard, and yes it is doable….but this is different in practice than what I had in my mind. For me–this has been one of the hardest things that I have attempted just...

When I was at Poetic Systems yesterday, their founder, Matt said something that really struck me.

That you should quantify building a solution to a problem that you are trying to solve by first articulating it in a user story. Basically, that in order to determine if a suggestion for a new feature has merit, it should be told first in a user story, so that it can be clear that there is a real benefit.

Well…he probably didn’t say it quite like that, but that is the gist of what he said. Even though there are those who argue that user stories can provide too much focus, I can see how going for what you think will be a solution, without stepping into a persons shoes, can send you way down the wrong path.

This got me thinking. I had been exposed to user stories in my past roles. In fact I have written a lot of them, so that they could become a bug for our developers to fix. The...

Today we had a field trip at The Iron Yard. It has been many, many years since I have been on a field trip, so I was looking forward to it.

As part of our program, we are taken to a real live company that uses the software that were are learning (ruby, ruby on rails, git, html, css, etc…). And the one that we saw was Poetic Systems. This company seemed awesome and helped me understand how the homework and labs are adding up to real life stuff that I will be a part of.

Today was a beautiful perfect day for a game changing life event. At least that is what it is for me. Seeing a whole picture helps me put each piece in perspective, and motivates me to keep working, even though it has been hard. And…I love the founder! This guy is awesome, I can listen to him tell stories all day.

I like that there are smart people working together in a space where you are encouraged to collaborate.
...

Today wasn’t necessarily a day of a breakthrough. I didn’t have a big win, I didn’t even finish my homework (it was one of those days), but today I did have an ah ha moment.

Driving home early from class (the wifi had been playing terrible tricks on us all morning), I felt a sense of….calm would be taking it to far. So I will just say a sense of… not panic. I knew that I had things left to do (like finish my website, like start creating a rails app, and yoga reading, etc..) but for the first time, I didn’t feel worried about my ability to get it done.

Actually, I felt…dare I say…confident about being able to get it done. That doesn’t mean that I was able to write perfect code once arriving home, and that everything is finished. Actually the opposite happened, and I ran into new issues. But the difference that I experienced today is that….I am not afraid of what I don’t know anymore.