[Python-3000] Python 3000 and the Google Summer of Code

[Brett Cannon]

On 4/16/06, Neal Norwitz <nnorwitz at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/16/06, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> >
> > again, if my host at Google wants me to spend my working hours being a
> > good mentor I could possibly be convinced to make sure I get assigned
> > one student (two turned out to be too much).  =)
>
> I heard your host is a slave driver and an asshole.  You should start
> getting some extra sleep now so you can work 200 hours a week during
> the summer. Your first task will be to figure out how to find the
> extra 32 hours for each week.  :-)
>

Glad I am taking a two week vacation before I start then!  Gives me
time to plot ways to duck out of responsibility and to make shoddy
work look good as as to make sure those 32 extra hours aren't quite so
painful.  =)

> I think it's reasonable to take a couple hours here and there to help
> mentor.  How much time did it take to mentor last year per student?

Hardly any, but that's because I didn't set aside enough time to
actually spend one-on-one time with the student.  I should have gotten
them on IM or IRC and had weekly meetings with them.  Also didn't just
stare at their code enough to make sure they were coming along okay;
just assumed they knew what they were doing.  It all still worked out
in the end, but I was lucky.

> How could you do a better job (invest less time and get more out of
> the student)?  ISTM like it's mostly just keeping in touch via email.

I think keeping up with email, having weekly real-time meetings over
IM or IRC, and making sure I do thorough spot checks on the results. 
I also think making sure you to test-driven development so that the
needed goals are very clearly spelled out is really important with SoC
since it lets the student know exactly what is expected of them and
gives them a clear picture of how close or far away they are from
meeting their goal (and thus getting paid).

-Brett