#learning things

I think I have an approximation of long-draw figured out, and have so far been able to make some fairly thin singles. I'm excited to try making a long length of it.

spinning using a drill to drive the rotation worked pretty well, but for a few things. A) like I was worried about, the tension pulled the spindle out of center and also a little bit out of the drill's clutch. B) The clutch seemed to cut into the wood a little bit and there were bits of wood dust inside. not ideal. will try to put some sort of cover on the wood (tape?). C) it was hard to keep the rotation speed consistent so as to not overtwist or undertwist the singles. plying would be easier if I got this to be more consistent between singles. D) the weight of the spun yarn might increase the wear and tear on the drill's motor, especially if the rotation is being pulling off center. so I think there's a limit to how much is advisable to spin only supported by the drill. I might have to make a thing to hold the spindle and drill in position.

Even with these issues, I think I was able to pick up the basic movements for spinning... I'm excited to try going further.

Getting up to speed is a skill like any other. The more practice we get at it, the easier it becomes. A lot of what makes a more senior developer is how good we are at picking up new workflows. Every game project does things a little (or a lot) differently - different tools, different systems, different pipelines, different coding standards, different checkin procedures, and so on - but they still generally function in similar ways. The more projects we work on, the more we have to learn how to learn these things. The more senior we are, the less hand-holding we need in order to get up to speed on a project.

When I'm joining a new project, I turn on "knowledge sponge" mode. I read every new hire document I can find. I read the wiki, looking at the links for different systems - gameplay, workflow, procedure, etc. I note things to look at for later for better retention. I also pay attention and observe as much as I can. What steps are my coworkers taking when doing work? What workflow common steps have been left out? What are they talking about on Slack? What is the current milestone we're working toward? Who's assigned to what part? I write these things down for better retention later. I look at the repository - what kind of work have they been doing? What kind of descriptions are on their past checkins? How are they doing their task tracking? I note these things down for better retention later. I look carefully at my tasks. What parts of the game am I touching? Where are the edges of the game systems that this task involves? Who are the subject experts I can reach out to? How does the system I am touching work? I note these things down for better retention later.

The goal here is to maximize the things I can figure out on my own and minimize the amount of hand-holding I need from my coworkers to get used to things. The more experienced I got, the more familiar project structure became to me - this is how they do this kind of thing, that is how they do that part, and so on. This is how most devs who join an ongoing franchise team get brought onboard and up to speed.

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