The only coding I’ve done this week has been in lab with Kelly. When we began, we both stared at a blank sketch and felt a sense of anxiety over not knowing where to start. With Scott’s help, we got started and it really felt like the flood-gates opened. One little push (okay, three) and we were off to the races, completing the assignment by the end of class. With aplomb, if I do say so myself.

The act of coding with somebody was beneficial in the same way that workshopping in a writing class is.

The necessity to verbalize what it is you’re doing makes for better writing, whether that writing be code or essays. When a sketch doesn’t work, you have to try to follow the code along and see where it’s breaking down. This is so much easier when two people are talking it through. Kelly could catch things that I missed and vice-versa.

As a nerdy nerd nerd gamer, I know that there are incredible solitary programmers, like John Blow (Braid and The Witness) and Notch (Minecraft), but I imagine they also bounce code off of friends and colleagues and are better for it.

Well, not Notch since he’s a one-hit wonder. (I’m a bit salty because he identified as a gamer-gate supporter on Twitter this week.)