|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: "Resting in your work (or: doing isn't enough)" |
| 3 | +slug: hobby-projects |
| 4 | +type: post |
| 5 | +date: 2024-12-31 |
| 6 | +draft: false |
| 7 | +tags: ['programming', 'growth mindset', 'hobby projects'] |
| 8 | +--- |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +> Embrace a creative practice by doing low-stakes, reflective personal projects. |
| 11 | +__Create__ and allow your creations to be imperfect sketches. Take advantage of |
| 12 | +the freedom from pressure and give yourself space to rest, reflect, and |
| 13 | +__learn__. Mastery requires it. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +## Keeping a software sketchbook |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +A few weeks ago--with some free time during the Thanksgiving holiday--I sat down |
| 18 | +to write a static site generator. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +The world didn't need another one. |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +Especially the bare-bones and completely undistinguished [one that I ended up |
| 23 | +writing](https://github.com/ml8/sg). |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +The project doesn't really contribute anything new to the world; in fact, |
| 26 | +there's not much that is novel in __most__ of my hobby projects. And that's on |
| 27 | +purpose. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +They are __sketches__. I'm not particularly proud of or attached to them, and |
| 30 | +rarely do I do any hobby work that has any complexity or is algorithmically |
| 31 | +interesting. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +So, why? |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +There's a bunch of typical reasons that are given for this sort of hobby work: |
| 36 | +maintaining a growth mindset, staying malleable in tools and technologies, |
| 37 | +"staying up-to-date," etc. |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +But the way that I think of my hobby work is that __it is my creative |
| 40 | +practice__. It is a way for me to __rest in my art__ as an element of a path to |
| 41 | +mastery. |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +One could argue that my time would be better spent contributing to open source |
| 44 | +projects. Things that I use, or things that others may find useful[^1]. |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +However, I think there's a lot of value in these types of small and unpolished |
| 47 | +toy projects, and that their value is derived precisely from the fact that they |
| 48 | +are small and there is no expectation that they are polished, or even meaningful. |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +As professional software engineers, one of the things that we must recognize is |
| 51 | +that our brand of engineering differs from other disciplines. Though we share a |
| 52 | +disciplined and scientific approach to developing technological solutions, |
| 53 | +software engineering has a high degree of creativity, and the lack of physical |
| 54 | +constraints leads to a malleability and practically-infinite solution space. |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +Our best-practices and principles are abstract---DRY, Law of Demeter, SOLID, |
| 57 | +design patterns, etc.---or loose suggestions. Software engineering is a |
| 58 | +discipline of trade-offs, and our touchstone texts on software design provide |
| 59 | +situational advice, at best. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +In other words: we don't have handbooks; we have style guides and requirements. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +So, as a professional in a creative discipline, I think having a creative |
| 64 | +practice is an important part of my growth. Just as artists have sketchbooks, so |
| 65 | +do I---my hobby projects. |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +## Resting in our art |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +These software engineering sketchbooks are more than rote practice of technique. |
| 70 | +By creating them, we create spaces for reflective practice. |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +Solving new---and even toy---problems forces us to practice our creativity, |
| 73 | +adaptive thinking, and problem solving. And avoid stagnating. We talk all the |
| 74 | +time about the importance of and the __why__ for having a "growth mindset." |
| 75 | +Exploring new spaces through low-or-no-stakes projects is a perfect example of |
| 76 | +__how__. |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +But these sketchbooks are also our personal galleries. Places to spend time |
| 79 | +idling and processing---__resting__. When we leaf through our projects, or sit |
| 80 | +deep within one, we give ourselves time and space to reflect on our work. |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +This sort of pressure, judgement, and risk-free reflection and consideration is |
| 83 | +often not possible in our professional work, where, at the end of the day, we |
| 84 | +must deliver some product to stakeholders. In our personal work, there is no |
| 85 | +stakeholder, no urgency, and no risk. |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +We can ask ourselves what worked, or what didn't. We can start a project anew |
| 88 | +with a different approach, informed by our reflection. This allows us _explore, |
| 89 | +discover, and evaluate trade-offs_ in algorithms or design---real confidence for |
| 90 | +how we might improve our work. |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | +When we experiment with new patterns, play with new tools, or work in areas of |
| 93 | +the stack that we don't typically work in, we __develop theory__. Traversing |
| 94 | +and building abstractions allows us to generate, discover, and evaluate theories |
| 95 | +about principles and ergonomics. |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +What made this code easier to write? To understand? More performant? With looser |
| 98 | +synchrony? And how may those ideas be translated to new domains or problems? |
| 99 | + |
| 100 | +__This sort of theory crafting and application is not often possible or emerges |
| 101 | +more slowly when our tasks are scoped to a particular product or feature.__ |
| 102 | + |
| 103 | +## Supported by educational psychology |
| 104 | + |
| 105 | +Constructing, applying, and evaluating theory is required for mastery because it |
| 106 | +is _how we learn and generate knowledge._ |
| 107 | + |
| 108 | +It is probably an uncontroversial statement to say that we __learn by doing__. |
| 109 | +But what does this mean? |
| 110 | + |
| 111 | +### Kolb's learning cycle |
| 112 | + |
| 113 | +The idea of _learning cycles_ in educational psychology has existed for almost a |
| 114 | +century and many different cyclical models for learning have been proposed. The |
| 115 | +one that I---and I presume many educators (or former educators 😅)---are |
| 116 | +familiar with is one due to |
| 117 | +[Kolb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning). |
| 118 | + |
| 119 | + |
| 120 | + |
| 121 | +In Kolb's model for experiential learning, knowledge is derived from reflection |
| 122 | +about experiences; the learning cycle describes ___how___. It is comprised of |
| 123 | +four macro phases: |
| 124 | + |
| 125 | +* __Concrete experience:__ Something happens. We encounter something new, make |
| 126 | + an observation about the world, gather data from experimentation, etc. |
| 127 | +* __Reflective observation:__ We reflect upon this experience. We consider |
| 128 | + whether the experience was something we expected or not. We think about how it |
| 129 | + aligns with what we already know about the world. What knowledge do we have |
| 130 | + that support the experience? Or is it contrary to what we know? |
| 131 | +* __Abstract conceptualization:__ We try to incorporate this experience into our |
| 132 | + existing knowledge. We develop or augment theories and processes. We create |
| 133 | + __new hypotheses and beliefs__ about the world. |
| 134 | +* __Active experimentation:__ We test our hypotheses. How can we confirm or |
| 135 | + refine our new understanding of the world? Can we add [justification to our |
| 136 | + beliefs](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/#KnowJustTrueBeli)? |
| 137 | + What new experiences might help us understand more? |
| 138 | + |
| 139 | +The model is cyclical in nature: as we encounter more experiences in the world, |
| 140 | +we iterate. The importance of the cyclical nature is not just its repetition, |
| 141 | +though, it is the relationship and dependency between each of these activities. |
| 142 | + |
| 143 | +## Just "doing" isn't enough |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | +What the cycle means to us is that knowledge is derived from traversing the |
| 146 | +_entire_ cycle, not just elements in isolation. |
| 147 | + |
| 148 | +__Doing, alone, doesn't generate knowledge, it is the reflection and subsequent |
| 149 | +rethinking of what we might do---and then __testing this__---that does.__ |
| 150 | + |
| 151 | +So, is a toy project like a static site generator really meaningful to my growth |
| 152 | +as an engineer? I have certainly worked on infinitely more complex problems than |
| 153 | +this, and written infinitely better code to do so. |
| 154 | + |
| 155 | +But doing this one-off project, allowing myself the space to write code without |
| 156 | +any sort of expectations, I allow myself the time and space to reflect on the |
| 157 | +process. And to think about what I would do differently next time. |
| 158 | + |
| 159 | +And by keeping a sketchbook and continuing to do these sorts of toy projects, I |
| 160 | +ensure that __there always is a next time__ and that it is __a next time free |
| 161 | +from expectations__. A next time that will also allow me to rest and reflect on |
| 162 | +my (shitty 😉) work. |
| 163 | + |
| 164 | + |
| 165 | + |
| 166 | +[^1]: Or that maybe I should be doing more complex projects, or ones with more |
| 167 | +interesting algorithms, things that might build a more interesting portfolio |
| 168 | +than a [skate dryer](https://github.com/ml8/attiny85-skate-dryer). That's |
| 169 | +orthogonal to this post. 😅 |
0 commit comments