Lab 6: Resourcefulness

About resourcefulness (5 min)

In Discord > Everyone

Great engineers ask for help when they need it, overcoming roadblocks with the resources of their team, their organization, and the world. They don't wait for help; they proactively pursue it.

Does this already describe you? That's great! Today you get to hone your skills, reinforcing the importance of resourcefulness. If this doesn't describe you, today you reflect on what's holding you back. Is it fear? Is it a lack of knowledge?

Part of being resourceful is believing—sometimes irrationally—that there is an answer and you can find it. Another part of resourcefulness is knowing where to look for help: will the web have the answer or should you ask an expert or a book? Finally, being resourceful also means knowing when the help you've found is helpful and when its not. This is all about self-regulation: your ability to control your thinking and actions.

Reflecting on resourcefulness (20 min)

In Discord > Random Groups

Find classmates that are not on your team. Take turns discussing the following:

• What's a recent time you were working on a hard problem (ideally in this class, but potentially other times) and should have asked a person for help, but you instead relied on the Internet, and it didn't help?
• Why didn't the Internet help?
• Why didn't you ask for help?
• What do you think would have made it easier for you to ask a person for help?

Debrief with your team (10 min)

In Discord > Team

• What stories did you hear from others?
• What were the themes that emerged?

Debrief with class (10 min)

In Discord > Everyone

As a group, let's discuss:

• (Everyone) Post in #questions: Why do you think so many people in their first jobs don't ask for help, even though their managers want them to? If you've been on an internship, what barriers did you face in asking for help? If you haven't been on an internship, what fears do you have about asking for help?
• Post what you shared in Canvas for credit for today's lab.
  
  • Note: If you do not post your reflection in #questions on the Discord server, you will only receive half credit for this lab.

The TA will discuss these many reasons back in the Everyone voice channel, then wrap.