There is a point with learning, where you need to stop reading, and just start doing. I am hitting that point with our group project. I have spent the last two weeks planning and watching tutorials while my group members have been contributing code.
While my piece of the project does require more planning and preparation, I have been scared of putting my coding skills into practice. I know I can read, I know I can understand, I know I can learn, and the last 3 and half years have taught me that I can code! But I am still scared to mess up.
I have learned an incredible amount from Oregon State University. But the strongest lessons have always come from mistakes that I made, and eventually figured out. However, I am still having trouble jumping in and contributing code to this project. The video about the myth of the genius programer at the beginning of this class really spoke to me about my feelings of not being ready to code.
In order to get over this fear I am coding a small game, similar to our assignment, but much simpler. I will code for 30 minutes to an hour a night. Getting me to code in this “low pressure” situation will help me get comfortable thinking about the problems I will encounter in our project and I will feel much more confident about my solutions for those problems.
I will be starting my first 30 minute coding session after I post this blog. I am really looking forward to programming my first and second video game this quarter!
