Today marked the first day of our JavaScript training. The good news is that it’s challenging and interesting, and our instructor for this training phase is great. The bad news: I can’t remember whole chunks of high school math. It’s just gone right out of the window. The area of a circle? Damned if I know. Multiplication tables? I only remember up to 10 x 10–I’m not sure I ever got beyond that. Calculations to get remainders??? Exponents? Hahahahahah!!! One would never know that, once upon a time, math in any form was my best subject.
The other major negative—we’ve started “working together” on solving problems. I have a sordid confession…I’m an INFJ on the Myers-Briggs scale, with the “I” being practically off the chart. They used to put on my first grade report card, “Doesn’t play well with others.” Don’t get me wrong…now that I’m an adult, I do understand the reality that no one exists in a bubble, and we all need each other (you can start singing “Kumbaya” any time now), and that one does need to work with people, no matter what one does do for a living. However, working with others has always been a challenge for me, even under the best of conditions. Throw in attempting to understand a new programming language and desperately trying to recall PEMDAS and square roots, and you have the recipe for disaster. My group and I did muddle through, despite my constant interjections of, “but this is the way you’re SUPPOSED to do it!” (that pesky “J” part of INFJ)…and then finding out that NO…I was quite wrong in certain instances.
I know from past experience in working on teams, that the beginning is going to be ugly; but I’ll eventually adapt, once I get used to working with my group members.
This is going to be a long week…and I have a feeling I’m going to be learning much more than just JavaScript.
