Entry 25.50

This week’s entry is late by choice and design, not by happenstance. For one, I really enjoy writing these when I travel. For some reason, sitting in an airport really helps me write. In the beginning, I thought it would be the opposite with the hustle and bustle going on around me. But it turns out that I was wrong. Again. At this point in my life, I’m used to being wrong. But back to why I’m writing this entry on a Thursday and not getting it out on a Monday like usual. I’ve already given you reason number one. Reason number two is writing today let’s me space it out so you might not get one for another week and a half or you might get one in three or four days. I didn’t want to go without writing for three weeks though. It really helps me calm my head. You should try it. Reason number three is the software development that I’ve been working on. I didn’t want it hanging over my head for the next two weeks. Externally, there’s zero deadlines to meet. So I chose to take the hour and a half to two hours that it takes me to write a Pondering to write code. In the end, did those two hours really help me reach my goal? Yes, and no. I had a final product on Tuesday around noon. But I wasn’t quite happy with just the way the UI (user interface) looked for one side of the program and it took me hours to figure out how to bring each page into picture. Some pages were easy and one in particular took me almost three hours despite it being almost identical to another page I had already done. I have no idea why. I just don’t know quite enough yet. Then about thirty minutes before bed I finished and as I was reaching to push it to GitHub (think the cloud for specifically software development)I kicked the surge protector under my desk and killed my desktop. I lost hours of work. Thankfully I had done it once so rebuilding didn’t take nearly as long. Wednesday at noon I had the final product. It was sixty degrees out and I was going to go play golf before I left for two weeks to go see family for the holidays. I mean I hadn’t hit a golf ball all week and hadn’t played golf for a week or so. And I did a very dumb thing.

I decided to take one more look. And those of you who know me know I demand excellence. The students who work for me in operations can tell you that. I see little details that others just don’t look for. I know it drives people nuts because they’ve told me. And I have learned to not place the expectations I have for myself on others. That doesn’t mean I don’t demand excellence of others. I do. What I don’t expect is perfection. I reserve that for myself knowing that I will never reach it, but it doesn’t stop me from trying. That fact reared its head when I took that last look which launched me into redesigning not just the front end (the UI) but also the backend (the real brains behind everything, the UI just shows the data the backend creates) of one page. Which now has become two. And so I am launching out on vacation with that one page half finished on the backend and needing to be completely redone on the front end. That’s ok. I will nab time where I can to finish it. Then that’s it. For version 4,320 at least. I’m kidding. It feels like that though. At one point, I complete threw out one of my UIs. I then took a little time to research, got a better grasp on modularizing and 24 hours later was so much further along because of that decision. Was it easy to ignore thirty thousand lines of code that I abandoned? Nope. That was a lot of work, time, and frustration. Was it a good decision? Absolutely! Probably one of the best decisions that I have made in this entire project. Quite opposite of the decision I made to take one last look. Once I finish up this UI, I get to turn my attention back to my other UI. Oh yeah, I’m not joking around with this. The Player UI original code got dumped about a week ago. I completely redid it. I had to. When I started this project, it was a set of formulas in Google Sheets. Then I incorporated Apps Scripts. I was showing my program to Mr. Hogge to get his input on it, when I realized how slow it was. Like four to six seconds to load a page. Completely unacceptable in this day and age.

So I setup a database in the cloud which was a whole new learning experience. Building a database is so much more than I ever thought. It’s not just about what information you want to store, but how you store it. I had to go through the learning pains of understand how deep information was to how long it took the system to spin it up. Granted so much faster than Apps Scripts and Sheets. But still slow. Then I learned about flattening data so retrieving it is quicker. Sounds simple even if you have no idea what I just said. That’s ok. Equate flattening data to writing an executive summary. Everything you need to know right on the top. But created from everything underneath or deep in the database. Learning about it was fascinating. Writing the code was equally fascinating. And even more complex. Not because it had to be. But I made it that way. Because I demanded it to be the best thing I can create. Honestly, I’m demanding more of myself than I should be. But it’s who I am. I’m pretty sure I remember when I first started homeschooling that I told my mother I would never use pre-algebra in my life. Yes, I was homeschooled. For four years. Maybe that’s what make me weird. I don’t know. Probably not. I do credit it with opening my mind to learning and creating this never ending thirst for learning that I have. It’s honestly what makes it so easy for me to sit down and study when I’m not in school for anything.

Learning became a habit, not a chore. It’s a skill, not natural ability. Work on it. Open a book, pick up a pencil, read and write notes. It’ll force you to slow down your reading and you’ll ingest more. When you are done, read the book again, this time with a pencil and eraser and fix all the notes that you wrote that are wrong. Then pick another book and do it again. And again. And before you know it, it won’t be a chore anymore. And you’ll be able to write in pen because you have learned to slow down so much when you read that you understand it the first time. I can read maybe four pages like that…in two to three hours. Because you’ll find yourself flipping back to connect the dots or pulling up your computer or phone for help understand. Sorry, big tangent. But necessary. Not enough people open books these days. It’s honestly sad. But back to the one sided argument I had with my mother. I did did all the arguing and still lost. But do I use that pre-algebra? Every day. I went on to start with major in Mathematics the first time I went to college. That lasted all of a day or so, but still I enjoy math. I see numbers and math floating around everywhere. Not quite like the guy in A Beautiful Mind (great movie probably because I relate to Russel Crowe’s character so much) but close. Anyway, I now have easy math like standard deviations, z-scores, deterministic probabilities and more floating through my program. It crossed my mind to try and write my own AI, but I’m not quite there yet. Once I figure out how to get the accent color on a page to go in I the right spot the first time, then maybe I’ll reopen that can of worms. But for now, I got as close as I could. Well on that one page. Working on the second. Almost there because now that I have done it once, the second time is so much easier.

The next piece of the project is the one that I’m really looking forward to. The other UI. The one that is already out there being used by players. It’s simple, but it works pretty well honestly. What I’m excited about is trying to take that UI and turn it into an actual app. Like on Google Play and the App Store app. Two completely different platforms with two different sets of requirements. Two more languages to learn. Not that I’ve really learned any of the ones that I’ve used so far in this project. I’m about as fluent in them as Marcus Brody in Indiana Jones. Everything that I’ve done makes me marvel at all the other programs that I see. I mean have you seen video games these days?! Now those people can code. Absolutely incredible. Boggles my mind now that I’ve been trying my hand at it. So we’ll see how things go as I learn how to incorporate those annoying push notifications that every app uses these days (basically a requirement for an iOS app from what I’ve found in my research), fancy splash screens and more. It’s going to be fun. I’m sure you guys are tired of reading about this project but these Ponderings are as much for me as they are for you. Just wait til I start writing my book! Jk. Kind of. Not really. But I’m going to leave you with this. Everything I just wrote about will help my coaching and my golf game. One of the skills it takes to play great golf is learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable. One of my players is going through this right now. He’s on a new stage and it’s taking him some time to adjust. We talked one night last week when he had a rough few days. This week? He turned around and won an event. Does he have work to do on the physical skills? Yes. We both know it and we have a plan to make it happen. But he’s also learning to grow mentally in this experience. Learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I’ve been very uncomfortable in this process. I’ve gotten to the point in this project that I just wanted to sit down and cry. No lie. Same place I’ve been in my golf game. Just done. No idea what else to do. So I stopped, slowed down and went back to the beginning. I started with relearning how to put the club in my lead hand. That’s how far back I hit rewind on my golf game at one point.

Guess what I learned? I had never learned how to put my hand on the club in the first place. Sure I knew how to do it, but I had never learned how to do it. There’s a big difference. It’s a skill to slow down like that. And my golf game made me slow down like that in this project when I hit that point. I had to take a deep breath (a real deep breath, not what most people think is a deep breath, but I won’t get into that right now) and tell myself I had no idea what I was doing. Because when I started this project I didn’t. And for the most part, still don’t. Before golf taught me that lesson? I could’ve been one of those people who whip their laptop across the room when they get frustrated. Like the laptop had anything to do with my inabilities. I’m not a patient person. I want this project to be done. But golf taught me to enjoy the process, not just focus on the result. So I’m enjoying the process. Even as I wrote this Pondering remembering all the hard work and heartache I have done so far (with plenty more to come I’m sure) I realized how much I have enjoyed the process. I think that’s why I kept looking for more things to do. I didn’t want to be done because I was having fun. Golf taught me how to handle that. And this experience will feed back into my game. I’m one hundred percent sure of that.

I don’t know if I’m going to write another entry before Christmas. I haven’t decided yet. I do have a flight from Kansas City to New York on Monday. Which is plenty of time for me to sit back, relax, and write. But who knows what this weekend will bring. My mother-in-law wants to do family pictures. And I don’t do pictures. I do everything I can to not get my picture taken. So we are doing formal family pictures. It’s kind of like that fight I had with my mother about pre-Algebra. It’s one sided and I’m going to lose. Maybe you’ll get to hear all about that experience. You will hear from me again before the end of the year. I promise. Now I’m going to enjoy my one hour and forty two minute flight to Kansas City watching Top Gun: Maverick. Another thing I enjoy to do when I fly. If I don’t write again before Christmas, safe travels, enjoy your time with your families and Merry Christmas.