Finishing Up The Patterns

The final pattern I will be writing about from Apprenticeship Patterns is “Retreat into Competence”.

The “Retreat into Competence” pattern describes how to solve the problem of when you begin having issues as you start working outside of areas you are comfortable in.

I like the ambiguity of the opening quote by Robert Pirsig, I find that it is comforting while being vague at the same time. I agree with the quote about not knowing where I currently am but what I’ve done so far seems to make sense to me. I like the idea and I think I need to think more about what I’ve done so far as a computer science student to find what my “pattern” is so I can use the advice Pirsig seems to suggest and apply my own “pattern” going forward.

The topic that the pattern covers is something that makes me think about what I’ve learned as a computer science student as I am reaching the conclusion of my work for the major. In particular, it makes me think back to a conversation I had with Dr. Wurst and especially when he mentioned the fears of not knowing enough as I approach graduation.

I particularly connect to the idea that the pattern mentions of a deadline problem. The deadline problem was something that I thought would happen on Monday with my work on the UpdateGuest project and I wasn’t completely sure if our group (and I) would be able to finish our project before our review meeting. Additionally, I was having a hard time figuring out how Angular worked towards the end as I was trying to finish the issues I needed to for the project to be done. I got past the problem though with the help of my teammates and one awesome article my teammate found which helped us to get our Angular form implementation working.

I think the advice offered in the pattern is important and I agree that it is good to occasionally remind yourself of what you’ve learned and what you can already do, especially when you can’t solve a problem you are working on.

I found the “Retreat into Competence” pattern to be a fitting final pattern to write about as I finish up my work in the software development capstone course and as a computer science student. I am making it a goal to finish the rest of the patterns in the Apprenticeship Patterns book over the summer as I have found the advice to be helpful and I am curious about the remaining patterns as they are frequently mentioned in the current and previous patterns I have read.