Eat that elephant!

I once read a short book titled Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. The author, Brian Tracy, mentions an old saying that claims:

 “If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!”

Tracy’s premise is that you should do the hardest or least-desirable item on your to-do list first, and then the others will flow more easily from there. It’s great advice that really does work (and which I need to follow more). In addition to this however, I believe there is another challenge that keeps many of us from moving forward, or even starting.

I’ve spent much of the last couple of days gathering files and creating a web page for the upcoming Ball State University Computer Science Ninth Semi-annual All-section Art Show, which displays the peer-selected collages created in our Computer Science 1 course. (I’ll likely write a post about that as a recap after the show.) We ask the students who are selected to be part of the show a few questions, one of which is “What did you find the most challenging about creating the collage?”

I always find it interesting to read the student’s responses as I assemble the materials for the show. There are usually a couple themes focused on technical challenges like getting pictures sized and placed where they want them in the collage. A non-technical theme that is always evident is “where do I start?” Three sample responses from this year’s show include:

“The hardest part, at first, was deciding where to start.”
“The most challenging part of the collage creation was figuring out what I wanted to do for this piece.”
“I had a tough time finding a starting point.”

There’s another old saying that asks:

“How do you eat an elephant?”

The answer is, “one bite at a time.” There is no way we can eat a whole elephant at once—even a baby one! But if we start taking one bite after another—given enough time (and a way to keep the elephant from rotting)—we can eat the whole elephant. So many of us get stuck, having no idea where to start, because we feel our task is too large, and thus impossible. All we see is an elephant we can’t possibly eat. We just need to take a moment to decide which bite we’re going to take first.

I see this time and time again with beginning programmers. I assign a project for them to work independently on, and some come to my office claiming they have no idea how to do the project, despite the fact they’ve been attending class and doing the work. I start by asking them if they can do “x,” and inevitably, they respond “yes, we learned that weeks ago.” So, then I ask if they can do “y,” and again get a positive response from them. Next “z?” Yep, they can do that too. By this time, they’re starting to realize they’ve completed half of the project, and maybe they can complete it themselves. They originally saw the project as a huge, impossible thing to accomplish—an elephant. I simply offered them little steps, which they already knew how to do.

So eat that frog, but don’t forget to start taking bites of that elephant on your list as well.

Smelling the roses…

I started work on my master’s degree in computer science in January of 2008. I don’t specifically remember, but I suspect it was cold outside, since I was in Muncie, Indiana. The temperature really doesn’t matter, since the point I’m leading up to is that the campus was quite void of growing and flowing plants at that time, or at least it seemed that way.

I had driven through campus on many occasions during the nearly thirty years I had lived in town, but seldom spent any amount of time walking on campus. Being a student meant that I got to do that now. When one walks, one has a bit more time to observe their surroundings. Having the time and actually doing it can be two different things, however. In January there didn’t seem to be much that was worth looking at. I found that changed a couple of months later as spring approached.

I quickly discovered the Ball State University grounds staff does a wonderful job of maintaining a myriad of flower beds and other plantings all over the campus. They swap flowers in and out of many of these beds multiple times throughout the growing season. Early in the spring, and late in the fall, they put in hardy flowers that can withstand cold temperatures. In the midst of the summer you’ll find they’ve placed heat-tolerant flowers in the same beds. If one is a bit observant, one can find something new to look at from month to month as the seasons progresses.

But I found that one of my favorite flowers had been present the whole time—even back in January when I started classes—I just hadn’t taken time to notice them. As spring brought warmth, the dead-looking stems of the campus’ many rose bushes started to break forth in green leaves. It wasn’t too long after that the innumerable red blooms started to appear. Seeing something that appeared dead spring back to a vibrant life was wonderful.

Upon a bit of reflection I realized that the rose bushes were not unlike myself. I had just come through a fall of unemployment and searching for what I was going to do with my life. In the winter I started down a new, somewhat unfamiliar path. But by the time spring was approaching, I was warming up to the thought of teaching in higher education. Perhaps I was starting to bloom as well.

Ever since that spring I’ve done something that I’ve not noticed anyone else on campus do. When I’m out walking from one part of campus to another, at some point on my walk I’ll take time to stop to smell one of the rose blooms. I believe it’s important to do that, as we don’t know for sure what tomorrow—or even later today—may bring. I want to remind myself that I need to take time to enjoy what is around me now, for the winter is coming, and this might be the last rose bloom I get to enjoy on campus for a while.

But is that really a concern when you can have students blooming around you all the time?

Ten years after having a dark storm cloud arrive on my scene

Storm clouds often arrive and darken the landscape. Some pass through quickly, while others seem to linger forever. Rather than focusing on the darkness, the old adage goes, you need to look for the silver lining. A dark storm cloud arrived on my horizon ten years ago this morning, seemingly with no silver lining.

At roughly 7:30 AM on Wednesday, October 3, 2007, my world was turned upside down, or at least turned sideways. It was then that I was invited into the company president's office and told that my position was being eliminated, and my services would no longer be required by the company, effective immediately. I was not a terribly happy camper at this point. In hindsight, I should have seen it coming, but I had not been looking for it, so it came as a surprise. A surprise for which I was not prepared.

To put this into perspective, I had worked for this company since July 1, 1979--nearly three decades. To further put this in perspective, except for a couple high school jobs, this position was my first and only professional job for which I had ever interviewed. For the next three months, I learned what it meant to be unemployed, and daily looking for work.

The many job applications led to a few interviews, but either the companies weren't interested in me, or I wasn't interested in the position, after learning more about it. One week led to another, and I found myself waking up early on a Wednesday morning between Christmas and New Years, and not being able to go back to sleep.

For years, I had thought about earning a master's degree, but never acted on it.  After three months, and still not having a paying position, the prospect of returning to school came to the forefront. Early on that Wednesday morning, I filled out the online application for graduate school at Ball State University (BSU), and waited to push the submit button. Around 7:30 AM my wife arose and I asked her what she thought of me applying. After a brief conversation, we agreed that we'd make it work, and figure out how to pay for it somehow. I pushed the submit button, not really knowing what was coming next.

By 10:30 that Wednesday morning, I had an email from the BSU Computer Science Department chair indicating that if I could complete the graduate school application process by the end of the day Friday (classes started the next Monday!), he had an empty graduate assistantship he could offer me. A big part of the "how will we pay for this" question was just answered. At 5:15 PM on Friday, the last pieces fell into place, and I was officially a graduate student.

Officially a graduate student, and being ready for classes to start Monday are two different things.  Monday morning I met with a faculty member to figure out in what classes I should enroll. Having worked in industry for nearly thirty years meant that, although I had continued to learn, the current state of computer science had moved quicker than I had. I had a bit of catching up to do, to have the same knowledge as students graduating with a bachelor's degree. They were using computer programming languages that didn't even exist when I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in 1979. Soon, that all got sorted out, I registered for classes, and thus started my graduate school journey.

Jumping ahead in the story a bit, in May 2010, I graduated from BSU with a Master's of Science degree in Computer Science. Oh, I jumped a bit too far... A few month's before, a new contract faculty position in the BSU Computer Science Department was posted. I applied, and was selected to fill this position, starting in the fall of 2010. I was officially a college professor, and have been since!

So where has my journey taken me? The answer includes a lot of places I may not have traveled were it not for my dark storm cloud arriving ten years ago. I have physically traveled to Denmark, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and a variety of USA cities. I have presented papers internationally and locally. I have been published in journals and books. But one of the biggest journeys on which I have embarked since graduating in 2010, and the one which has brought me so much joy and satisfaction, is having the privilege of helping thousands of college students further their knowledge of computer science, themselves, and the world.

I think I have found the silver lining.