Imagine this, if you will... a four year old sits in devotion next to his dad. Both father and son stare at a black and white small TV. Dad pushes his fingers into the grey rubber keys of a black, rectangular, thin machine, and strange words appear on the screen in a language that not even literate people of the time could understand.
After a while, dad leaves the room, though he is trusting and generous enough to leave his son toy with the machine, an ancient Spectrum ZX with a whooping 48k of random access memory.
So what does the son do? Imitiate his dad, of course, and I started typing into those grey rubber keys, doing my best to copy a very basic piece of code from the same instructional book that my dad was learning with.
I clearly remember running those lonely lines of code, and seeing a perfect circle appear on screen. That was my first program, if you are kind enough to allow the word "my", given that I copied it from a book. I was four, please indulge me.
The excitement was such that I started to develop a strange relationship with that Spectrum ZX. Games took only five minutes to load. The ritual of casette tapes to store code, and the fringe musicality of the loading sequence is a privilege of my generation (anyone reading knows what I am talking about?).
Click below to listen to the angelic music of code in the 80s
I grew up assuming that I would be an IT engineer. There was absolutely nothing else for me, besides my other addiction: reading.
Bookworm and computer geek, I believe I was one of the first youngsters in history to experience the addictive power of the screen, and the fascination with a world which one could access through mastering the inner workings of this wonder of technology. If I was popular in school, it wasn't for being the cool kid.
These days I meet 12 year olds who discuss their favorite coding languange and get together to develop apps. It's the coolest thing. I was born three decades too soon, it seems (they call us "early adopters" now).
So, in compensation for so much geekiness, life threw a few other interests my way at the age of 14. Not even girls, but music, which was another universe one could access through other mysterious pieces of tech: guitars, keyboards and these new impressive thing called "a soundcard" with which one could create stuff on screen. This was so cool IT engineering had to take a step back.
It was this exploratory, inquisitve spirit, that made me reject my first programming job at the age of 20. I had flown through my Software Development training with spectacular ease and academic success and, upon completion, was immediately offered a position coding in Visual Basic for a local consulting company.
As much as that may have been a dream come true for the four year old who coded his first circle sixteen years prior, by then my young mind thought of himself as a cool music composer and rock star on stage, with too many exciting interests and ambitions to allow my exploratory rear end to be nailed to a chair, figure a way to replicate the local fruit shop catalogue into SQL Server, front-end it with Visual Basic, and call that a successful life.
So I took off to London, and then Sudan, and then Madrid, and then USA, and then Tanzania... Coding morphed into tech support and customer service. Then web development, and web development morphed into Social Media Marketing and consulting. I had the privilige of working with some of the very best, both for epic big brands as well as startups. I did the office thing as well as the entrepreneurial, freelancing thing. I did the solo thing, and the team thing. I spiced it all up with adventures in music, traveling, content creation. I learnt a bunch, to say the least.
...and now I am back where I started, in the same small town where I coded circles 38 years ago. The screen is still in front of me, and I find myself copying pieces of code from books. Life, despite its twists and turns, reveals itself poetically consistent once we are given the gift of hindsight.
Nowadays I live in an apartment located in the first floor, though my jaw has been placed at the basement for a few days, in awe of the path that has just opened before me, and the incredible people who are facilitating it. The way to this post started only a month back, when I was talking with an innovative entrepreneur who talked to me about Elixir and all its sweet promises:
-- I am going to be needing coders soon. Actually, someone like you, with life experience, strategic thought, experience in management, lateral thinking, creative, with languages...
-- Bro, I haven't coded since I finished my training 22 years ago. I toyed with some HTML, CSS, and I am still a tech geek, more on the creative side... I actually run a small production studio... but coding? Wow. That's ancient life. (I admit there was a bit of child-like excitement beneath my dismissive attitude. Did I still have the chops? Is this a call to adventure? Is really a new door opening for me?)
-- Why don't you give it a go and decide later?
I admit I felt like Han Solo had just been offered a desk job. Nothing could have been more outside of my radar than going back to coding. An array (pun intended) of inner resistances popped up in my mind: the local fruit shop SQL project, the soul-draning commuting in Madrid, the corporate BS and endless inner politics, the being nailed to a chair, the repetitive tasks... My inner adventurer cried out: "I have managed a hot air balloon safari company in Tanzania. I have written music for TV and documentaries. I created an award-winning blog. I had been in Darfour during a curfew... back to coding? I am Indiana Jones, dammit!"
(Is anyone familiar with this tantrum-like resistance? It is, again, called youth, though I've grown enough gray hair to call it what it is: stubbornness, maybe even arrogance. Will check with my confessor and get back to ya)
The entrepreneur adopted an Obi Wan Kenobi demeanor and said: "Be Open. You do not know where the adventure can take you. Maybe even to places you've been trying to reach all your life until now". When Obi Wan speaks, I try to follow.
It was a long shot. Alas, if you can predict the adventure, it is not an adventure at all. If there is no challenge, there is no growth. I admit I was initially reluctant, but I decided to follow my curiousity and knock on the proverbial door, and boy did it opened wide, luring me in, blowing my initial expectations to smitherins. Elixir was calling.
I took one step forward, and a series of events that only Luke Skywalker could relate to, started happening before my eyes. The right people. The right training. For the life of me, I couldn't have arranged this if I had tried.
So, at an age in which my ways were supposedly set, and my inner map did not account for certain territories, I find myself in a new place which tastes like my childhood.
I am as new and clean-slated as I was 38 years ago when I tried to figure out those BASIC commands on that ancient Spectrum ZX. This time the book is not printed on paper but in a repository on GitHub. My dad is not by my side, but I am mentored by a superhero and am part of a student community on Discord. I am not aiming to draw circles on a screen but a new path forward in my life.
Git add .
Git commit -m "The Elixir Adventure Begins"
BigSpaces
Top comments (4)
You are a wonderful wordsmith!
I look forward to more stories of your travels with what will be the highest average age of any cohort, I am sure ;)
That's highly likely. 😆
Youth is overrated. Truly.
Wow, first comment? 😆 My journey the the same place as you different, but I think we share a lot of commonalities. Looking forward to working with you on projects and sharing the journey from here!