Zachary Lopez

Hack Reactor - Week 3 Day 3

Highlights of the day:

  • More Backbone
  • Pairing

Backbone

Wow we did a lot more in backbone today. Due to New Year’s day being a day off, our 2 day sprint on Backbone was reduced to just one day. My new pair, Preston Parry, and I spent 2 hours just whiteboarding through the issue. This proved most fruitful as we both went from having little to no understanding of Backbone, to each having a very clear model in our heads (and on the board).

From the model, we then were able to complete the full sprint by 8:30 tonight. Slowing down to understand things really helped

Pairing

Each time I have paired it has gone really well. Today was no exception as Preston was great to work with. Looking ahead to my career, I can see how days like this will help in the future. Before getting started, we recognized that we had a lot todo and a bit under 8 hours to do it in. We talked through the project and concluded that we probably wouldn’t finish, but our goal would be to learn and have a good understanding of Backbone.

This process of talking and communicating and agreeing on our goal gave us clarity and precision in how we progressed. I think this also removed any pressure to achieve something that we couldn’t. With all of this deliberate action, we actually achieved more than we thought and finished the whole sprint.

This kind of intentional communication and clarity about goals will be something I try to bring to every pair moving forward.

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