The Deep End is an Apprenticeship Pattern that encourages software apprentices to take risks, to challenge themselves, and to take opportunities they may not normally take. It makes sure to warn readers that this does not mean that they should jump into things that they are completely unqualified for, or do things with no thought or preparation. However, it is saying that we should be willing to take risks in order to further our learning, and should be willing to try things, even when there is a chance of failure.
I think that this pattern offers a very good way to ensure that we continue our learning, as stagnating at one job, on one project, is no way to continue our lifelong learning, tying into the Long Road apprenticeship pattern that I have discussed previously. We have to be willing to take risks and risk failure if we want to move forward (the same principle used in the Breakable Toys apprenticeship pattern). I also really liked the idea of keeping some sort of record of your own accomplishments, some archive of code we’ve written previously, how long it was, how many group members you worked with, and how large the codebase was. With this sort of history, not only can you track your progression and always look for bigger things and more learning opportunities, but you can also have a record of what you have done that you can go back to in the future, which also follows principles laid out in the Record What You Learn pattern. Being able to go back and see how you’ve changed can be an invaluable tool, and if you don’t risk failure, you will never be able to progress past a certain point.
This pattern has presented a great strategy as to how to keep track of my accomplishments and is great motivation to actually take risks in my professional career. I want to continue to grow my skills and grow, and unless I am willing to fail, I will never get anywhere. As for something I disagree with from the pattern, I guess the only thing I really disagree with is the idea that line numbers and team sizes are the metrics that your career should be based on. I think they can be useful to keep track of and consider, but in the pattern, it is kind of implied that these are the main metrics to measure your performance, and I’m just not sure they are the best ones. Regardless, I don’t think that invalidates the value of the point of this pattern.
Kurt Maiser's Coding Blog 