The Creator Void: My Journey from Machines to Code
I have always had an inner urge from my childhood; I have been a curious kid from early. I vividly remember figuring things out on my own—how phones work, how machines are built. Every opportunity to disassemble a machine was a golden chance. I questioned things, I tried things, and I failed at many, of course. But importantly, I learned how things work, and that has always been a life thread for me.
I think of myself as intellectually thirsty, with a "creator void" inside me. I’m not satisfied with mere attainments. However, there have been sidetracks and "sideshows," as my dad would call them, that have kept me from reaching the ultimate version of me—but today, that would not be our topic.
The Barrier of the "Qualified IT Guy"
Growing up in my teens, my passion with gadgets did not diminish but became augmented. I started opening up CPUs, disassembling the CMOS and the hard drives, reassembling them, and installing operating systems. But I dreaded one thing: writing lines of code. I never thought I was worthy or qualified. I always looked to a point in the future when my brain would be able to comprehend such things.
Fast forward to my campus days doing my Bachelor’s in Business and IT. I had started out hot, but again, to use my dad's words, I became sidetracked. I abandoned the journey for a long time—so long that I graduated without being a "qualified IT guy." But life granted me a chance once again to rediscover the ultimate me. For the past two months, I have written more lines of code than I have written my entire life, and there is something I’m learning from all this that I hope helps software engineer aspirants.
1. The House and the Foundation
Just as building a house requires a solid foundation, a software engineer needs to be grounded on elementary principles of writing code. Learn how data is manipulated at the very core—strings manipulation, bytes, bits, ASCII. Learn the foundational blocks and know them very well. It can take up to a month of consistency just practicing the basics, but later, as you start working on projects like building simple tools, you will realize that you are just applying fundamental blocks but now compiling them.
Think of it like building a kitchen: you will use many different blocks, but you design it in a way that serves the purpose of cooking. I insist highly on being grounded on the building blocks.
2. The Freedom of the Disciplined
Secondly, to code requires a high frequency of consistency. You must make sure that you practice almost daily; you make it a part of your life. There is no other way to scale up. You must be consistent and disciplined. As the great Eliud Kipchoge would say: "Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions." You might be very talented, but all that talent will avail to nothing if you are not disciplined in life. As it is written in Ecclesiastes 9:11: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all."
3. The Magic of Peer-to-Peer Learning
Thirdly, I would highly recommend peer-to-peer learning. It’s good to spend time alone trying to figure things out, but it should not end at that. There is a magic that sparks when you unite with like-minded peers. Sharing your ideas makes you understand them better.
Most importantly, you get to see things from a different light and a different perspective when others share their ideas and approach to problem-solving. Your understanding broadens. There is always a "good leaf" to borrow from others. As Charles Hazlitt Puffer wrote: "He who does not read the thoughts of others will never have any of his own." It is just as it is put in Proverbs 27:17: "Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."
well, the journey has not been straight, there have always been crooked and thorny paths and to you, i do not promise a smooth journey, but a sure arrival.
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