Digital Novelist Notes — Code Platoon
I missed the first two days of bootcamp on purpose. Anniversary trip, no regrets. I showed up on day three already oriented, pre-work mostly done, installfest anxiety a non-issue. That's roughly how I operate.
This is a field journal from that approach applied to a 15-week veteran coding bootcamp. Code Platoon is an intensive, career-focused program for military veterans and spouses. I'm Keith Hayden — novelist, technologist, USAF veteran, running HAC Studios, an independent media collective. I've been using AI tools daily for years in my writing work. Now I'm acquiring the formal engineering layer: syntax, data structures, full-stack frameworks, collaborative development patterns.
I'm keeping this log because public documentation forces clarity. If I can't write it plainly, I don't understand it yet. If I can write it plainly and it's still interesting, then maybe it's worth reading.
No beginner tutorials here. No bootcamp advertisements. Just practitioner's notes from someone working through the gap between AI fluency and engineering literacy.