While reading the article "29 Behaviors That Will Make You an Unstoppable Programmer" I realized that they basically listed the same behavior several times: admit when you don't know something and learn it. If you waste time pretending you know something, you won't get your job done and you won't have learned anything new. Instead, if you admit it, you can learn quickly, move on and you won't make the same mistake again. I think the other behavior that was mentioned several times was to be adaptable - you can't think you know everything and insist on doing things one way. Instead you need to know how to change when things aren't working, how to look things up when you hit a road block and, above all, keep on learning no matter what so you can always keep improving. Another great behavior was to stay on top of what's coming - this is by learning how to use tools to make your life easier, by talking and interacting with co-workers to learn from them and by constantly learning.
On the day I went to "try Turing" we were learning about JavaScript. I was excited because the way I was being taught, I felt like it was actually sinking in, I was finally 'getting it.' The instructor asked us to do something complex that seemed to be confusing a lot of the other students but somehow I intuitively knew the steps I needed to take to make it happen. I thought I pulled off everything perfectly, but nothing happened. I scrutinized every line of code, I checked again and triped checked and pulled out my hair. An assitant came over to help - I had forgotten the link the jQuery library. The simplest step and arguably the first thing I should have done. Checklists matter. Even when you think you know something, it doesn't matter if you don't get the simple things first.
I really like the idea of strengths-based development. I think that if someone can really know what they are best at, it will help them focus and push them forward faster since they will be headed in the right direction. I have to wonder whether future employers will look for my potential through this approach rather than just finding someone who checks off all of their boxes. I think my top strenghts are my ability to keep on learning and my adaptability. As a former journalist, I was served well by these qualities because my assignments changed daily and I had to adapt to whatever came next. I was also required, at each assignment, to learning something so well that I could then explain it simply to others. I think these strenghts will serve me well because I know that I will have to be a lifelong learner if I want to be a developer - I have to keep on pushing to learn new things or I'll be lost. For adaptability, I hope to learn when to stay the course or when to change directions and how to be ok and work with whatever decisions I make.