it is difficult to believe that it has been 6 weeks. i’ve learnt a lot, and made a few tiny things too, but just like at itp — i fear that i’ve gone too wide.
for the next 6 weeks of my batch, i’d like to be a little more careful with how i spend time, and go deeper into the few things that i had hoped to get out of rc.
i keep thinking of emily bernier’s question: what are things you cannot do outside of rc? and i kept equating my answer to people — the fact that there are so many talented programmers under one roof. yes, that is super helpful; i can run down, and someone will kindly work through a problem with me, but i realize that it’s not just that. r.c. is also time & space outside of real-world constraints — responsibilities; deadlines; funding; having to please other people; the pressure of ‘doing something new’; doing something ‘well’; thinking of real-world-application; et-cetera. it can be extremely self-indulgent, and that kind of space is rare. i perhaps won’t have that for a while (grad-school → thesis → job … ).
so, for the remainder of my time at r.c., i want to do the following:
- finish the intro-to-algorithms course. this would mean ~2 lectures a week.
- work on the emergent system. that is more exciting to me currently than the painting algorithms (which ran out of steam for me from an enquiry-perspective).
- advent of code / leetcode problems, but in c to get familiar with it. i realize that my thesis might involve a bunch of microcontroller programming, and i want to be able to work through c when needed. i have a fairly okay grasp of javascript, and can find myself working through problems decently (when i’m not socially flustered).
- work though the crafting interpreters book slowly. perhaps not to make a full-fledged language, but atleast to get a grasp on how it is done.
- sketch everyday. (audio or visual). this has to be small; perhaps not more than an hour of your day; but it’s to reacquaint yourself with things you find interesting.