This is the final post of a weekly series on my growth and development at a software startup in Austin Texas. Click here to view the full series or start at Level 1.

Ending on a high note

Boss Level Stats

The structure of this update is going to look a little different. For the past 26 weeks (half a year in case you’re wondering), I’ve been weekly updating 6 different categories. Connections, Ability, Knowledge, Discipline, Organization, Strength.

The idea is that each of these are levels in a game. The higher the stats the higher the level you can play without dying. Some weeks I had negative numbers, some weeks I had positive numbers. It’s clear to me that whatever character I got has some main areas of weakness, but I’ll let you look at that yourself.

The total for the 26 weeks comes to:

Final Weapons Stats:

  • Connections + 138: 
  • Ability + 120: 
  • Knowledge + 108: 
  • Discipline + 70:
  • Organization + 82:
  • Strength + 20:

Some of these weapons have increased exponentially…others not so much. But in any case, it’s clear to me that I could not be here, doing what I’m doing at my job, without a consistent weekly increase in abilities.

The numbers didn’t have a standard, so it’s hard to actually compare to anything, but each week I gave the ability the number I thought it deserved. As I already mentioned, sometimes it was a negative number. But that’s all the more reason to be consistent. If I had stopped the first time I had a negative number, I would never have gone positive again. I would have ended on a negative – literally.

I’m calling this the boss level. Not because it’s going to be harder than the rest of the levels but because it’s a test of knowing if the other levels prepared me enough to pass this level. If I had gone into each level learning nothing and not gaining any weapons from the level before, I would go into this level hopeless. There would be all kinds of attacks that I would be up against that I would have no way to handle.

Instead, the consistent attacking at the wall that seemed all but impenetrable half a year ago is finally making its impact and the wall has nearly fallen. It wasn’t one big strike that made it fall, it was a consistent barrage of attacks that slowly took it down.

Outside the Game

Each week I highlighted things that were taking up my time outside the game. Admittedly, I didn’t spend the time that I should have focusing on this section. There were so many things happening in life that it was hard to keep updated here while trying to keep focused on the work side of the updates.

Overall, I’ve been learning how to balance a life while working a full-time job. It’s not something new for me, but it is something that’s new in the sense of working a job that demands a higher performance. Figuring out how much extra time to give to the job in the goal of improving faster but also still making sure I’m pursuing the things that are important to me outside of work.

After 6 months, I think I’m finally to the point where I’ve gotten this balance a little more figured out. It’s been a growing process, but I think I’m there.

Final Takeaways

It’s been a wild ride. In the next week, I’ll write a post summarizing my entire experience in Praxis, but for now, I’m so thankful for the time that I have had in the program and the 6 months so far I have had working in this new role.

I’ve knocked out the boss and now it’s further up and further in.