Advice for Rookie You?

[BenjiSG]

Go to Worlds in 2014. Mexico really wasn't worth skipping it for.

[Bryce2471]

The answers are out there; go find them.

[Andrew_L]

Don't pick that username.

[Conor Ryan]

Prototype more and faster

[Dwight_2]

Originally Posted by tjf

If you could go back in time, and tell yourself the most important thing you learned in all your time (or lack thereof) doing FRC / FIRST events.

What would you tell yourself?

(side note, I only ask because this is technically my first year doing FRC...)

To be Brutally honest last year my team struggled horribly with time management and organization which led to times of great distress, last year was our rookie year as a team so all I have to say is keep track of time, know where your stuff is, and be ready to do anything in a seconds notice. Because everything you've worked for can go down the drain pretty fast if you're not up to doing something.

[carpedav000]

I'd slap my past self in the face and tell him to do his homework. Also, dont try too hard to make friends (it'll happen on it's own) on the team and try to watch your language as much as possible (I had a pretty bad swearing problem my first year, and it had a tendancy to make people uncomfortable)

[SMR Vault]

Network, Network, Network! We made a video recently featuring the Hardin Valley RoHAWKtics, and their biggest piece of advice was to always interact with others.

For Hardin Valley in their rookie year, this meant talking to potential mentors and sponsors until they had a well-structured program running. Though this advice was directed towards teams starting out, it can definitely be applied personally.

You can watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pdC5BnXAys

And be proud of yourself: you joined FIRST in the first place! Many students never give it a shot, so you're one step ahead of them!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by tjf

If you could go back in time, and tell yourself the most important thing you learned in all your time (or lack thereof) doing FRC / FIRST events.

What would you tell yourself?

(side note, I only ask because this is technically my first year doing FRC...)

You will kill your marriage.

[Dan Waxman]

I walked into FRC with a decent amount of programming knowledge, and ended up writing a very high volume of the code that was on the robot. However, while doing everything by myself, I admittedly did a very poor job of leading and distributing work. I also stuck to that stereotype of a programmer in a cave that can't hold a hammer right, and as a result still don't know a ton of mechanical skills, and the ones I did learn were all in a short period of time under less than ideal circumstances. So my advice for myself would be the following:

- Distribute the work. You have the technical knowledge, now gain the leadership skills and learn to act like a project lead instead of the only programmer.

- Branch out to other things as well. The code for the robot doesn't take very long to write, especially if you're working with multiple other programmers. Learning some mechanical skills and realize prototyping at the start of build season will only benefit you.