At one point this week I had to have a sit down with one of my team members (I'm in management for my day job) to discuss how he's been “putting in the effort to get things done instead of putting in the effort to get things done right”. He understood my observations and agreed with some suggested changes I had.

Fast forward three days and now I'm sitting here realizing I've wasted at last 6 hours today doing almost exactly that with my coding project. I caught myself putting in the effort to get things done instead of putting in the effort to figure things out and learn.

I've recently shifted from the initial “learn by information overload” part of the bootcamp to completing my first project with only direction, not directions. BIG difference. But I was still trying the “just keep moving forward and it will make sense later” approach that helped me survive so far. It's not helping me anymore.

So now I'm sitting here, eating my words and couldn't help but chuckle…and cry a little.