I worked for years as sous in an insanely chaotic kitchen. It primed a lot of the skills I needed later in life as a developer. Just the logical problem-solving alone helped so much, but there's so much more. Flipping between metric and imperial systems up'd my formula game. Getting 'in the zone' is the same too.
In that kitchen, I never had time to think. It was autopilot 24/7. I just had to trust that I had the skills, and allow the subconscious free reign. A lot of people, have to be in a certain frame of mind to get in the zone, but I can take a deep breath and just jump right in.
Then there is documentation. I've seen thousands upon thousands of recipes and I can take away the parts I need in a single glance. It's the same thing with API references.
And being able to disconnect my hands from my conscious. In a kitchen, even in the chaos, we'd still be talking about kids, school, computer games. Rarely did we ever communicate work stuff outside of the planning session (which would def. explain the chaos). Being able to prepare prime rib for a thousand people while simultaneously and singlehandedly keeping the gossip mill running allows me to code while simultaneously teaching my partner how to code without getting annoyed at easy to answer questions.
Man, this is longer than I thought. Things keep popping into my head. Like how customers never fill out the planning paperwork correctly so it's impossible to know if you're doing things right. It's way worse in the programming world, but I'm 100% used to it. I can look at the specs sheet and immediately see areas that are ambiguous. (Side tip: Study logical fallacies, like those found here: effectiviology.com/guide-to-logica... It will help with management, co-workers, and most importantly, coding logic as the same fallacies are present. Odd concepts like "this" becomes easier to understand when thought about in these terms. It teaches you why things work instead of how.)
It sounds like you're well on your way and I'd wish you luck if I thought you needed it, but it sounds like you know what you want and you're going for it. Instead, I hope your perseverance holds, your frustrations wane, and your curiosity explodes!
Hey there, I build cool spaces online for small businesses and then help market the shit out of them. Recently started to up my dev game. Founder & Head of SEO @ Possible Web.
100% agree. Attention to detail, care for your craft, taking something from raw ingredient to finished product and end user (dish and diner; code and customer). Loads of parallels. Loved my years in the kitchen. Loving my current role in web. Further down the road I plan to bring them together.
Hi Brian!
Thank you so much for your kind comment. To be honest I didn't even expect that people will read my post and I wrote it only because it is a mandatory part of my homework :D
I've never thought of it this way and didn't know how I can use my "kitchen" skills in a tech world! Tomorrow I will have my first mock interview and because of you I now know how to answer some of the questions!
Thank you!
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I worked for years as sous in an insanely chaotic kitchen. It primed a lot of the skills I needed later in life as a developer. Just the logical problem-solving alone helped so much, but there's so much more. Flipping between metric and imperial systems up'd my formula game. Getting 'in the zone' is the same too.
In that kitchen, I never had time to think. It was autopilot 24/7. I just had to trust that I had the skills, and allow the subconscious free reign. A lot of people, have to be in a certain frame of mind to get in the zone, but I can take a deep breath and just jump right in.
Then there is documentation. I've seen thousands upon thousands of recipes and I can take away the parts I need in a single glance. It's the same thing with API references.
And being able to disconnect my hands from my conscious. In a kitchen, even in the chaos, we'd still be talking about kids, school, computer games. Rarely did we ever communicate work stuff outside of the planning session (which would def. explain the chaos). Being able to prepare prime rib for a thousand people while simultaneously and singlehandedly keeping the gossip mill running allows me to code while simultaneously teaching my partner how to code without getting annoyed at easy to answer questions.
Man, this is longer than I thought. Things keep popping into my head. Like how customers never fill out the planning paperwork correctly so it's impossible to know if you're doing things right. It's way worse in the programming world, but I'm 100% used to it. I can look at the specs sheet and immediately see areas that are ambiguous. (Side tip: Study logical fallacies, like those found here: effectiviology.com/guide-to-logica... It will help with management, co-workers, and most importantly, coding logic as the same fallacies are present. Odd concepts like "this" becomes easier to understand when thought about in these terms. It teaches you why things work instead of how.)
It sounds like you're well on your way and I'd wish you luck if I thought you needed it, but it sounds like you know what you want and you're going for it. Instead, I hope your perseverance holds, your frustrations wane, and your curiosity explodes!
100% agree. Attention to detail, care for your craft, taking something from raw ingredient to finished product and end user (dish and diner; code and customer). Loads of parallels. Loved my years in the kitchen. Loving my current role in web. Further down the road I plan to bring them together.
Hi Brian!
Thank you so much for your kind comment. To be honest I didn't even expect that people will read my post and I wrote it only because it is a mandatory part of my homework :D
I've never thought of it this way and didn't know how I can use my "kitchen" skills in a tech world! Tomorrow I will have my first mock interview and because of you I now know how to answer some of the questions!
Thank you!