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Persistent

Andrew Begel

Some tasks take time. Some tasks take significant learning. When software engineering gets really hard, it's easy to give up, change a requirement, or abandon an approach because you're not sure how to proceed. In many cases this makes sense, because something truly is intractable, infeasible, or impossible, but in many other cases, it's just a lack of persistence.

The best way to learn persistence is to be resourceful. Resourcefulness means responding with difficulties by reaching out for help, either by seeking information (online or from a person) or by seeking insight (more often from a person). To practice this, each of you will do two things today:

  1. Explain something that you were stuck on and how you persisted.
  2. Explain something you're stuck on and work with your teammates to devise a plan to help each other and begin executing that plan.

When you tell a story of persistence, it can feel like bragging to demonstrate your persistence. Remember that you're helping your teammates see what persistence looks like, helping them model that good behavior.

To conclude, you will share with the class what you are stuck on and how you plan to work with others to persist and get "unstuck."