I’ve spent the last month teaching two summer courses and that’s eaten up most of my time. Now I’m trying to get back into the swing of things and I now see the importance of coding often: I’ve grown rusty. I’ll be spending several hours a day between now and the start of my Flatiron classes (only a week away) trying to get back up to speed.

I’ve decided to enroll in the Flatiron School’s software engineering program.

I had initially planned on preparing for this career shift using only free sources, and I still think that would have probably worked out. But working with a formal bootcamp offers several benefits:

• external accountability, which is not essential but is certainly welcome
• tied-and-true curriculum
• career support services

This last benefit is particularly important. I feel like I cannot afford to operate without the safety net it provides.

So, I’m currently working through the prework prior to my August 8 start date. So far, so good.

Resources I’m finding helpful

The third problem-set for cs50 involves writing a recursive function. The basic concept of recursions is clear to me; we worked with recursive definitions in philosophical logic.

But for some reason, I just could not manage to get my head wrapped around how this particular function had to be written. After several days of returning to the problem again and again I was finally able to get it to do most of what I wanted it to do. There are still some edge cases it isn’t handling right.

And, hard as it is, I just need to be ok with that. I’ve got a demanding timeline laid out for myself and I need to trust that these things will come to me with time and practice. But leaving the project before I know how to fix the mistakes is killing me.

Resources I’m finding helpful

In the introduction to Learn Python the Hard Way , Zed A. Shaw writes:

While you are studying programming, I’m studying how to play guitar. I practice it every day for at least two hours a day. I play scales, chords, and arpeggios for an hour and then learn music theory, ear training, songs, and anything else I can. Some days I study guitar and music for eight hours because I feel like it and it’s fun. To me repetitive practice is natural and just how to learn something. I know that to get good at anything you have to practice every day, even if I suck that day (which is often) or it’s difficult. Keep trying, and eventually it’ll be easier and fun.

A useful reminder to me when I’m having a sucky day of coding like today.

I spent some time talking to friends last night about moving out of academia. Originally, my plan was to take a soft exit over the next five years. This conversation convinced me that that wouldn’t be the right move for me. I’m almost 40. That’s not ancient but it’s not young, either. Five years represents a significant portion of my remaining working life. Furthermore, five years is an epoch in the tech world. I simply need to be moving faster than that.

To that end, I’ve decided on taking a hard exit from academia. I’m giving myself roughly a year to get up to speed and then I’m hitting the job market.

Resources I’m finding helpful

This post by Thomas Foerster on transitioning from philosophy to tech has reassured me that making a move in the time frame I’ve given myself is feasible.

My first year in grad school was intense. I had a good, broad foundation in analytic philosophy but I wasn’t ready for a seminar on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, a notoriously difficult epistemology course, or the level of the discussion in the graduate student common room.

I was out of my depth but that was a good thing. Not understanding much of what was going on around me forced me to pay careful attention, to ask lots of questions, to read and read and read. It guaranteed that my philosophical acumen would grow by leaps and bounds.

I’ve been trying to emulate that experience as I learn to code. Completing cs50 at an accelerated paces is helping, as is listening to podcasts on software development and reading through introductory texts. What I’m looking for now is a way to surround myself with that higher-level conversation, where I can hear and ask about topics I’m not yet familiar with.

Resources I’m finding helpful

A friend once said that I’ve tended to let the world take me where it will. I can’t deny it. Studying philosophy may not seem like the path of least resistance to most but it certainly seemed that way to me. This is not to say that it was easy going; rather, it simply didn’t require me to forge a new route for myself. I could just look to see what the next step was for people in my position. Apply to grad school? Sure. Take work as an adjunct? No problem. Apply out for tenure-track positions? You got it.

It’s years later and I find myself in an enviable position: a tenured professor of philosophy. And yet, I’m restless. I’ve kept my head down, my eyes focused on the trail ahead of me for so long, I’ve lost track of the destination. Until recently, I haven’t dared to consider setting off in another direction entirely.

I entered college prepared to declare a major in computer science. Something dissuaded me, though I don’t quite remember what. I did have a low opinion of my own mathematical and logical skills at the time; perhaps that was it. In any case, I’m preparing to start down that path again. I’m in the process of putting together a course of studies for myself that looks something like this at least to begin with and in very broad outline:

• Fundamentals of programming, including the basics of C++
• Java
• Python

I’m currently working my way through Harvard’s cs50 via edx. Once I’m done with that, I’m hoping to be in a good position to start teaching myself higher-level languages. I don’t know yet if I’ll end up pursuing a formal degree in computer science (this seems a bit contrary to the whole exercise, honestly), going to a coding boot camp, or just trying to make it on my own using the wealth of resources available to me.

The goal of this blog is to record my progress on this journey, along with my reflections about it. When I end up creating things I’m proud of, I’ll post those here, too.