How to face code adversities, a Senior perspective

Programming is hard

We're back in the blogging game after a week of silence. It wasn't necessary nor wanted, maybe needed. As each and everyone of you, I was also working very hard towards my objectives, dreams and, of course, my job. I'm working at a company that wasn't born as a high-tech one, but it became one after a few years of practice, dedication and belief.

That's all it took: practice, dedication, belief.

But what is practice without a few headaches and failures? What is dedication if you are never challenged with new opportunities and problems to be solved and last but not least, what is belief if you've never questioned yourself and your thoughts.

As we venture forth on philosophical grounds, I would like you to stay with me and tinker with the idea that not every read in a tech blog should be about tech, not completely, at least. Sometimes we just need to get our head straight and get back on track, so, if you are in a moment of your professional life where everything seems daunting and you want to give up and never get back to coding again, gift this post a few minutes of your time and let's get on with it.

Back to where we came from

Some of us started the programming journey when we were children, fostering the idea of building robots, games and crazy rocket science-y things that would make our mind go wow.

I was one of those kids, but not as nerdy as the ones television (read Youtube) shows from time to time. Now, don't take what I just wrote as a kind of offense, it's really not that. The fact is, media platforms are built upon the idea that something needs to be shown and that something must invite the audience to believe that everything is just better outside their life scope.

Programming languges? There's always a better one.

Kids geniuses? There's always a new child in town that can beat the s**t out of Kasparov in a few minutes.

Other people lifestyles? Surely better than ours, right?

We are getting so much used to seeing how better things are outside our scope that we lost touch with how broad our scope can actually be.

If we are not the ones believing in ourselves and our ability to overcome failure and bad times, who else then? As I was saying, I was one of those geeks as a child and I wanted to make games as an adult; guess what? That didn't work out as expected.

When I was 16 years old I started programming and I hated it, I hated the fact that I couldn't grasp it. Was it my fault? Could be. Was it the professor's fault? Wasn't the best, I must say, but I wasn't a gentle ass either. Actually, I was an adolescent being an adolescent. Full of energy but without a way to use it in my best interest, because, again, adolescence!

When I got back into programming I was 21. I was a decent computer guy because I always loved computers and gaming but I never actually got into coding until that moment. It was then that I realized that you will not grasp something until you actually want to. I understood that, as stupid as it may sound, if you are not willing to understand it you will not do it.

After that, it was a good ride and still is. Is it a smooth ride? It surely is not. But do I love it? Yes, it defines me.

Unstuck

So how do we get from being stuck with our minds thinking only about our failures to the point where failures are just another day to day operation that must be overcome?

It just takes time and acceptance.

Once you get good enough you will start to see failure just as another metric to your own success.

There is no easy way to success. Even geniuses invest most of their time trying very hard to become the best at what they do. What's shown from the media is just the good side of the effort, not what it took to get there.

But now, look at you! You have a metric to measure how far ahead you are since you started the journey! You can mathematically prove to yourself that you didn't just stand still, waiting for the rain to drop on you and wet you. You built the fucking umbrella.

Bugs, bugs, bugs

So, now that we are here, just remember that all it takes is for you to believe that you can achieve so much if you give yourself the chance to.

If Javascript seems hard, give it another go and don't fret. It's just a programming language and there's no one looking down on you if it takes you a few more days, weeks or months to get it.

If you are afraid of Math, don't fucking be. Math is beautiful. The only ugly thing about Math is the fact that it's usually taught by people that don't actually love Math.

And if you think you need to be a genius or a Mathematician to be a good programmer, think again. I'm neither and I'm a pretty good programmer.

So go out there, do your best, study hard and succeed. That's all.

The goodbye

I hope you found this article useful and to your liking and if you have any requests, drop a message on one of my social media accounts or open an issue/start a discussion on github, on this repository!

As always you can find me on Twitter, listen to my Podcast on Spotify and add me on LinkedIn to talk professionally (yeah, right)

Interesting? You might also like: