I was wrapping up 310 (Robust Production Quality Applications with Rails) after 3 busy weeks and 168 hours of work. I felt very comfortable building modest applications end-to-end and integrating with third party API's like Stripe and Twilio.
I was considering the review project I was going to build (#spaced repetition anyone?) that would encapsulate the course. As I'm reaching this point Gavin McGimpsey (we know him, we love him) posted about Ruby Rampage--a 48 hour hackathon.
Serendipity! It's always nice to outsource motivation for mundane work so you can save a portion of your willpower (AKA glucose/ketones) to stay mentally 'frosty' (we are all cognitive misers, so sayeth Nobel Psychologist Daniel Kahneman).
Plus, it was a chance to compete--iron sharpens iron and all that.
So how did it go? Well, I went into the weekend confident, slipped on the starting line, and failed completely. It was terrific.