Jasper Sprengers – The Blog Pros

May 22, 2024

Fun Is the Glue That Makes Everything Stick, Also the OCP

This is part two of my series on the OCP-17. In my first post, I explained why it’s still worthwhile to tackle the trick questions and arcane details of this exam. Each of us has our own sense of how much knowledge is good enough to get a job done, like writing Java code. The examiners at Oracle probably put the bar much higher than you. If you can’t somehow make the journey fun, you’re bound to give up. So, your motivation needs an upgrade, and you must put in the right practice. In this post, we will look at both.

Amateur Versus Professional Practice

Not all practice makes perfect. Poor practice doesn’t even make you proficient. It’s not the hours that count, although Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers claimed you need at least 10,000. This sweeping statement with its conveniently round number is questionable science, to say the least. Excellence itself is not a well-defined notion. People’s innate aptitudes are not created equal. Some are born geniuses. But most importantly, the hours you put in must be effective.

June 5, 2023

Part 3 of My OCP Journey: Practical Tips and Examples

This is the third and final post about my OCP-17 preparation. In part one, I explained how playing a human virtual machine and refreshing your mastery of arcane constructs is not pointless, even if the OCP doesn’t — and doesn’t claim to — make you a competent developer. In the second part, I showed you how intrinsic motivation keeps itself going without carrots or sticks, provided you can find ways to make your practice fun and memorable. It's time to share some of these examples and tips.

Make It Quality Time

But first some advice about logistics and time management. As with physical exercise, short and frequent trumps long and sporadic. It’s more effective and more likely to become a habit, like brushing your teeth. Choose the time of day when you are most energetic and productive. The early morning works best for me because I’m a morning person. And there is a satisfaction in getting the daily dose crossed off your to-do list, even when it doesn’t feel like a chore.

August 30, 2022

Is IntelliJ Making Us Stupid? It’s Complicated

My last Java certification is the SCJP 6 from 2010, so when the OCP 17 came out, I thought it high time for a refresher. I am setting aside an hour every day when I’m at my brightest, which is after coffee and before breakfast. I'll share my personal study tips later, but it's more credible if I first pass the exam. So, I found another topic to distract me from my studies that I want to dwell on. It’s the effect that modern IDEs and resources like Stack Overflow are having on our brains. Once you dig into the 900+ pages of schoolwork that is the OCP Study Guide, you’re painfully reminded that they have been making us lazy and maybe even a bit stupid.

Granted, the sheer number of facts to digest would have been less overwhelming if I had kept up more closely with the state of the art over the last decade. Several new features have been added, of whose existence I was at best only aware. After fifteen years of using Java, you tend to rely on tried and tested ways, for which there is no excuse of course. It’s a classic example of not sharpening the saw, so shame on me.