CS373 Fall 2019, Week 2: Nathan Hoang

1. What did you do this past week?

This week was quite a busy week for me. Last week I planned out my entire semester and realized that I have several projects and tests due each week in October. For me to keep up with school and interviewing in October, I have to start working ahead in September so that I can free up my time and won’t have to scramble each day to complete my work. As a result, I’ve been starting projects early to make sure I’m staying on top of things.

I’ve also had several commitments outside of schoolwork, including a couple of interviews, soccer tryouts. Also, I was able to spend time with friends I haven’t seen since last semester.

2. What’s in your way?

Time. There are so many things that I’d like to do, in and out of school, and I know I can do them. Unfortunately, this semester will be extremely busy so if I want to accomplish everything then I need to manage my time well and can’t procrastinate as much as I’d like.

I’m hopeful I can stay disciplined in the coming weeks, and if I do then everything will work out.

3. What will you do next week?

Next week I’m going to keep finishing projects and work ahead as much as I can. I also have more interviews coming up this week, so I need to study a bit for them. If I have time, I’d like to have some friends over for poker night.

4. What was your experience in learning about assertions and going over the Collatz project? (this question will vary, week to week)

Professor Downing was right about the emotions I’d feel while completing the Collatz project. I initially thought it would be pretty easy because I assumed I could just get by implementing a lazy cache. However, when Professor Downing talked about the lazy cache in class I realized that the problem might need a little more optimization than a simple lazy cache. My fears were confirmed when my initial solution did not pass. Overall, the lectures from Professor Downing made me appreciate the subtleties of this problem.

I already knew about assertions, and I think they’re a great way to ensure confidence in your input and returns.

5. What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

I’ve been using zsh as my shell recently, and I like it much more than bash. It comes customizable with plugins such as autocomplete and different themes to display useful information like the status of the current Git branch.