Collaborative Programming

You may or may not know already that DBC supports a very collaborative learning style, in part because, they say, programming these days is actually a very collaborative field. Open Source communities are, by themselves, proof of this.

Not all companies encourage or require peer pairing, or giving feedback, but they're practices we're encouraged to get accustomed to at least within the confines of Dev Bootcamp, and hopefully afterwards, too. The idea behind it, which I've found to be absolutely true, is that peer paring, as well as giving and receiving honest, compassionate, and constructive feedback helps one to learn more effectively.

Peer Pairing

For one, it helps you to write programs more efficiently from the beginning because you've got four eyes on the initial construction. For another, you're automatically exposed to another person' way of thinking and writing, and can learn from it very effectively in the moment. Yet furthermore, peer pairing is fantastic ongoing practice at collaboration and teamwork, which, in my opinion, is never bad for an individual or an institution.

It's not without its challenges, though. When you get two different people together, there are bound to be two different personalities, or two different ways of working, or different thought processes... people are different. That's part of what makes peer pairing so rich and rewarding, being exposed to something that's different, but also the inherent challenge. I for one, caught myself a couple times having to purposefully hold back my excitement, or ideas in favor of first staying silent to make sure I wasn't speaking over a quieter personality than mine. And then, occasionally, one party will not be ass prepared as another, which is often still a fantastic learning opportunity.

Feedback

How ever are we to improve anything internally if we cannot see beyond ourselves? And of course, by our very nature, it's difficult to see outside of ourselves, and that's where it's nice to have a friend who's strong enough to tell you like it is: there's spinach in your teeth. Or, you're whining about nothing. Suck it up, and think of what the other person feels like.

In the case of programming, being able to give anonymous, or in-person feedback could, piece at a time, can help a person improve their skillset dramatically. Giving feedback can also be a challenge; when trying to give constructive feedback, I find it helpful to imagine that the feedback I've planned to give is directed toward me. How would I receive this? Sometimes it's a challenge to get past my own frustrations and practice compassion. The practice of giving feedback ends up making me a better person whether or not the person my words are intended for hears or does anything with what I've said. the practice of stepping into a place of compassion and giving kind, actionable, specific feedback helps me to take a deep breath, and realize in a more concrete way that people have positive intent 99.9% of the time.

I haven't received any of my new feedback from DBC yet, but I anticipate two opposing feelings: an eagerness to receive criticism, and a certain difficulty accepting it. Putting down one's walls and becoming vulnerable enough in a public context to be able to take feedback and use it to improve without any struggle is a rare and powerful skill, and one that I hope to continue to home in myself.

If the whole world comitted to both giving honestly, and listening to others' kind, specific suggestions for improvement, I think it'd be a better place.