Sleep IoT Quest - Day 9 Progress Update
Day Summary
Well, hello there. We’ve finished another day of progress toward the goal of learning the basics of Rust so I can create my IoT project. Yesterday I ran into an issue: my brain basically refused to focus because it assumed what I was reading wasn’t needed or wasn’t worth the energy.
Today, after typing out a monstrous coding kata, running it, and then going over the code again - confusedly wondering why, how, where - once I returned to the Rust book my brain immediately went back to: this is important; there are gaps; we don’t understand how this works; we should understand how this works. Therefore, the energy expenditure is absolutely valid and needed.
I find this mechanism quite beautiful. It works reliably. I don’t know how well people can transfer it to other fields, but at least for anything engineering-style it works quite nicely.
- Daily Quest: 90 minutes total.
- Guided coding (63m): finished typing the remaining parts of yesterday’s kata.
- Reading (27m, +8 pages): p.145 → p.153.
- Coding first rekindled focus; reading became easy again.
Context
- The kata felt cumbersome/inefficient and confusing in many places.
- That confusion created clear gaps to fill, so returning to the book felt purposeful instead of “Do I really have to read this?”
Reading
- 27 minutes, +8 pages (145 → 153).
- Not my fastest pace, but solid. Focus was good because I wanted answers to what confused me during coding.
Coding Practice
-
Guided (63m): continued and completed the remaining sections of the kata from yesterday.
- Felt elaborate and clunky in spots, which surfaced the exact concepts I need to clarify.
Reflection
- Writing out the kata first exposes unknowns; reading after that fills them efficiently.
- Once the gaps were obvious, reading stopped feeling like a chore and became straightforward.
Key Learning
- Order matters: code → notice gaps → read to fill them → improved retention and focus.
- “Cumbersome” exercises can be useful if they force confusion into the open.
Total Time Spent
- Reading: 27m
- Coding: 63m
- Daily total: 90m
PCT (Project Cumulative Time): 13h09m