Jan Humphries

'Chef's Kitchen' Reflection

Dec 14, 2014

The fireside video Kitchen versus Table is something that I wish I had seen prior to joining Dev Bootcamp, because I feel that it gives a much more accurate perspective of the demands of the program. I initially took DBC's time estimates for commitment to heart and planned accordingly, and was very surprised to find that the assignments take much longer than indicated. After watching the video, I have a better understanding of how that came to be, and feel that I am more prepared now for future units.

To be entirely honest, I was a bit surprised at the analogy of us all being Chefs in the Kitchen, because the Phase 0 experience so far to me has felt more like a series of meals served to me than anything I'm actively cooking up. Then I realized that his story about everyone being in the same room setting up tables and making it happen was about the in-person portion of the program, and that Phase 0 isn't really included in that. We have to go through this preparation part so that we can get to the kitchen and be ready to cook. Although I'm not an actual cook in real life, I'm looking forward to being a developer chef and mixing up great web things.

Some parts of the fireside chat did change my perception and made me somewhat nervous. In particular, the statement that we won't have time for relationships outside of the program and perhaps a short Skype call here or there. Having a balance in my life is extremely important to me; I believe it's actually important for everyone to have. Some opportunities are worth swinging that balance more to one end for a while if the reward is sufficient, and my desire to be a great developer is my driving force towards that reward. I can only have faith in the knowledge that so many have gone before me and in the quality of the people I know have been involved with DBC, and trust that it will all work out well.