I was so excited to start my second week!

When the second week of Lambda School began I was so motivated. We were going to cover Data Structures and Algorithms. Like many people, I struggled with these when first learning about them. I was sure that I’d stumble a little bit but thought I’d ace this week. I mean, I had covered this material before in classes I took at the extensions of both UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.

A Warning about Hubris:

Before I share how my second week went (hint: it wasn’t as easy as I thought). I want to tell you about my hubris. After a good first week, I felt like I could do it all and that’s good. It’s good to feel confident but it doesn’t mean you should take that feeling of accomplishment and pride and translate it to a feeling of knowing more than your instructors. I fell into that trap, I knew I was by no stretch of the imagination as good a developer as my instructors but I did question why I had to have my camera on while in lecture. It made me feel self conscience, why do you need to watch me watch you?

I hate being watched. So I decided to do a little experiment. I would go against the advice of Lambda School. I would keep my camera off for most of the week and see if there was a difference in my learning experience. I was sure, that this little experiment of mine would prove me correct. Man, was I wrong!

Not only was I less attentive in class, I also noticed that with the camera off I didn’t participate in class as often. I was happy just watching. The result was I didn’t learn as well as I had the prior week.

Also, I noticed that I wasn’t the only one with his camera off. Many of my fellow students also had their cameras off. This had some unintended consequences. What I hadn’t realized, what I had dismissed before this week was that the instructors need our cameras on. It helps them gauge if the class is “getting it”. Non-verbal communication is huge and can’t be taken for granted in this type of setting.