Sunday Wombo Combo

Welcome to my first report of my weekly progress — a journey I’ve begun with Oneleif to persist my practice in web, game and self development.

A “kata” — named after Japanese martial art practice — is a bite-size programming exercise, usually no more than 20 lines long and intended to test your algorithm handling.

I had always lacked confidence in abstract algorithms and, having always been terrible at maths, I did not attempt katas as a programming practice in the past. However I checked out Codewars anyway and the way they invite you to sign up is exceptionally clever — You have to pass a test before you are taken to the sign up form. Sounds intimidating to a poor soul who was already low on confidence to begin with, but look closely to the test — it’s honestly very simple.

If you already know the bare basics of your chosen programming language like me, you can solve it. It’s clever because once I solved it, even if it may be stupidly simple, I felt a surge of power inside me, saying oh yes, I can totally do this. Then I could hear Codewars replying back, oh yes, you totally can. That’s all it takes to join us. You already know enough to do anything you want with programming. Come and begin the journey.

Since I joined last week, I have been doing katas at least once every morning after I wake up. It became my morning exercise, albeit a mental one but still important. My solutions might not be the best, not the most optimised, not the smartest nor quickest, but none of those things matter. My priority right now is to at least do some coding every day, and if I think of coding as anything more than solving a small 20-line problem in however way I can think of; if I try to be clever or try to wrestle with algorithms that I don’t yet understand, I would never get things done. Besides, after finishing a kata, I am taken to the solutions page where I can see the clever things other people have done, and I get to learn from them for my next attempts.

In the future wombo combos, I’ll highlight some interesting katas that I’ve come across in Codewars.

There are two things I’m learning programming for: web front end and video games. I’m a visual thinker who is largely motivated by eye candies and design porn. It feels ironic to admit that I have never received any training or education in design, only in programming. So now that I’m trying to make a come back in development, especially in front end, I have to pick up design principles from scratch if I want to make things pretty.

Problem solved, right? What excuse could I possibly have with such a fantastic tool? Here, say hello to my Blank Canvas Syndrome.

The blank canvas is like a black hole but white, an all-consuming white void that swallows all my ideas and thoughts into blind oblivion. Should logo go there? Should menu go here? As soon as I have a thought, the canvas gobble it up, and everything was blank again.

Roughly two days later I decided I can’t waste any more time like this, and turned to pen and paper. The paper is still a white void, but with the pen in my hand, I feel that my thoughts are transported quicker through my hand to my pen, and I could sketch things down before they are swallowed. It just feels a lot more solid working with pen and paper as my mockup tool.

In just ten minutes, I’ve made more progress than two days of staring at a blank Figma document. Now I can mimic my pen design in Figma and have a starting point.

I don’t want to go with full-paper mock-up because I can’t afford to have too much paper lying around, hence my original intent of using a tool like Figma. But if you have read this far and you suffer from Blank Canvas Syndrome like I do, I highly recommend pen and paper. Don’t think, don’t judge, just scribble it all down. In no time your blank canvas will disappear, like magic.

Not programming, but one could say yoga is a type of programming language for the body and soul, from a certain point of view.

Exercise is very much proven to be the answer to depression, low motivation and poor mental health in general. That being said, I’m currently not living in the same place for more than a month. Lack of financial power aside, there is no way for me to stick to any gym nor have access to exercise equipment consistently. I have asthma so I can’t run, and this is UK so I also don’t want to be wet.

Don’t aim big, aim small — even the shortest exercise makes a big difference.

For goodness sake, this is my first Sunday Wombo Combo and I’m already way over 1000 words. If you enjoy reading this, check out Oneleif while you wait for my next Sunday Wombo Combo. It was one of the founders, Sabien, who pulled me back to the world of programming and making my own creations. If you find yourself struggling in anyway, I hope the experiences I’ve shared here has shown you how you, too, can slowly pick up the pace.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to your upcoming week!

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