DEV Community: Sherman Bernard

Breakthrough

Sherman Bernard — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 11:06:49 +0000

At the start of my coding journey I was full of inspiration and hope. However, as time went on I became frustrated, confused and felt like I had no direction.

The more I did, the more I compared myself to others. Comparing myself to others made me upset about my progress and my perceived inability to learn.

Yet, there was something different that kept me going and helped me ignore these negative feelings. In the past, I often gave up if I struggled with something. I didn’t have the grit or patience to keep going.

But this time, I learned something new that was very important. I learned that It's ok if you don’t get it the first time, you can keep trying. This simple idea is what kept me going and it’s what helped me have my first ‘breakthrough.’ The breakthrough was being able to understand something and move on.

Most of us think the older we get, the harder it is to learn. But that isn’t the case. It’s about your mentality. It's about being open to learn new things and willing to make mistakes.

It's also about not comparing yourself to others. Your only concern is you being able to learn and understand something for yourself. It’s something you can control and will lead to changes in your life.

Acting like you don’t know anything is probably one of the best mentalities to have. It primes your brain for learning and helps stop your preconceived notions preventing you from learning something new.

There were many times that I was annoyed when I didn’t understand something. But what I realised is that I won’t understand it straight away, it takes time. The more you can remind yourself of this the better.

This often helps give you perspective. It will give you the ability to assess things rationally and objectively. You can break things down into different parts, take breaks and approach things from different angles.

When something gets too hard, it’s more than ok to ask for help or to take a break from the problem. This will often give you a renewed perspective and help you work through the problem in your own way.

You will always have moments and days where you will feel frustrated and anxious. But always remind yourself that:
you are not going to understand something straight away,
you will understand it eventually, and
it will be rewarding when you do.

Hard work, persistence and believing in yourself is what leads to breakthroughs.

Persistence

Sherman Bernard — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 02:44:32 +0000

Many of us struggle with the idea of persistence but it's one of the most important qualities you can have. If you want to achieve something, you need to persist. However, as humans we find this very hard to do.

We often rely on motivation and inspiration to do something. However, it's never enough. I heard a great quote from a YouTuber who said: “motivation is fleeting.” This quote resonated with me and made me think about everything I had ever done in my life.

Often pure passion, inspiration and motivation were not the only things that drove me to finish something. It was often other things like money, getting a qualification or the satisfaction of finishing something. Being persistent and committed is what helped me achieve my goals.

1.Get through the door

Using pure inspiration to stay committed isn’t sustainable. We’re emotional beings and our emotions fluctuate and lack objectivity.

Because of this, we need to use methods and tools that help form habits and minimise the amount of emotion required.

An effective way to approach something is to just “get through the door.” What this means is, just show up and do something. That could be simply opening a book or turning on your computer. Once you are there, you will find that you will take the next step and start the task.

2.Small consistent steps

After you get through the door, you want to finish the task. It's easy to get overwhelmed so you want to set a small and achievable goal.

A small goal could be: “I will work on this task for 25 minutes.” If you can do that and do it consistently, you’re taking small steps toward your goal.

As your consistency and commitment to these smaller goals increases, you can start to increase the amount of time you spend on something. It's about working your way up to bigger things, but it’s always good to start small.

3.Block out negativity

Don’t let any form of negativity get to you. This is easier said than done, but some good ways to do this is are:

remind yourself of your goals,
have faith in the process,
don’t compare yourself to others,
know your worth,
understand and value your unique skills and experience,
be patient with yourself,
be kind to yourself,
surround yourself with positive people who support and encourage you, and
block out negative information, thoughts and ideas.

4.Don’t over do it

Don’t push yourself too hard. Hard work is good and important but know your limits. Make sure you take breaks and don’t burn yourself out. If you burn yourself out, you will lose the desire to keep going.

5.Conclusion

This blog does not discuss anything technical about coding or programming. It’s something I want to share about my journey. It's about knowing how to:

follow a plan, and
turn my passion for coding into something tangible.

Distractions

Sherman Bernard — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 01:58:19 +0000

Staying focused and consistent are probably two of the hardest things to do with any form of work, especially study, which is mostly a solitary pursuit.

You often find it difficult to apply yourself and can easily convince yourself that you will start after you do something more mentally pleasurable first.

I have learned that thinking about something that is or might be boring or difficult can trigger pain receptors in your brain that make you want to avoid that task.

We are creatures of habit and our brain normally likes to be an autopilot. So doing things that don’t require a lot of mental effort is often pleasurable and rewarding.

The key is to trick our brains into thinking that the amount of effort required is minimal and that there will be a reward at the end of it.

An effective way to do this is apply yourself in small, focused bursts of time and take small breaks to reward yourself and a larger break at the end of an extended period of work.

The Pomodoro technique is something that I have found extremely useful. Some people, especially in the programming world, have criticized it as being ineffective when you need to establish a ‘flow state’ which requires a consistent amount of time doing something to obtain a result.

I understand the reasoning and logic of this but the Pomodoro, based on my use of it, is effective. You can also modify the Pomodoro to suit your goals and the way you work.

However, the purpose of this blog is to not talk about effective techniques for study or work but rather the common distractions I face (and I’m sure many others too) and how to try and manage them.

I would like to note that I am far from perfect and still fail at times to block out these distractions but I make a conscientious effort to apply these techniques and try to stay focused and productive. But, we are all human and we have off days, which is perfectly ok and we have permission to have from time to time.

1.Social media

The most fascinating invention of the modern technological age is social media. Both mutually beneficial and damaging, social media has enriched, democratized, challenged and deducted from all our lives.

In the context of this blog, I will talk about how to manage it when you’re studying and trying to achieve your goals.

It has its purpose and can serve you well as a resource, a place for community and somewhere to draw inspiration from. However, you should know how to control it and compartmentalise it.

Firstly, turn your phone over and put it out of reach when you’re focused on your work. Secondly, don’t follow things that are negative. Conversely, don’t follow things that are unrealistically positive. Its important to follow things that are healthy, positive and realistic.

Check your phone on breaks and in your downtime at the end of the day. Try to avoid looking at it first thing in the morning.

It's nice to be disconnected and to have a calm and relaxing start to the day. First thing in the morning, I like to listen to calming music, write down things I’m grateful for, read affirmations and be alone with my thoughts.

Starting the day with a clear mind is both positive and healthy.

2.Friends

Rachael, Monica, Ross, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey will often vie for your attention. Considering this, it's important to set boundaries and ensure you allocate time to study and time to socialise.

You can remove distractions by putting your phone in another room and only check it on your breaks. This is where I find the Pomodoro technique to be very effective. You can set up blocks of time for focused work and then use your break to check your phone.

After you have finished your work for the day, you can talk to your friends and spend lots of time with them. I recommend it! It’s important to have down time and not think about work.

Unrelated, if you want to see a cool take on Friends watch this video. Moonlight

3.TV

Just one more episode? No, don’t do it! TV is an excellent reward and a great way to unwind. However, you need to make it the reward after you have finished your work.

Sometimes you can play it in the background if it's something that you don’t need to pay attention to, but I don’t recommend it. Your brain is working hard to problem solve and take in new information so it’s important that you are not distracted.

You can watch it on your breaks, but it might be hard to stop. This means that you must be very disciplined to be able to return to work.
Again, I recommend using it as a reward after you finish your work. If you do this, mum will be proud.

4.Music

“Let’s dance!.” - David Bowie.

Music is excellent. It can be a great study aid and reward. For study, its best to listen to something with low BPMs. Music with lyrics is distracting so it's best to listen to classical music (when I say classical, I don’t mean Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Ray Charles or ABBA). LoFi beats can also be good but they can exceed the recommended BPMs. You can find LoFi music that is calming and has low BPMs.

The recommended BPMs for study is 60-70. Music from the Baroque era is highly recommended. I prefer LoFi as it’s more contemporary and puts me in the mood to study and code, but I listen to classical music from this era depending on my mood.

When you finish studying, or if you’re on a break, listen to music you like - Hip Hop, Metal, Drum & Bass, etc. It’s excellent to exercise to your favourite tunes, unless it's Celine Dion, then you’ll want to fall asleep or be self-reflective.

Frustrations

Sherman Bernard — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 07:47:37 +0000

Your learning journey usually consists of a number of stages. You will go through some or all of them at various points and are bound to repeat some of them. Why? Because you’re human and that’s perfectly okay and normal.

We learn from our mistakes and try to do things differently the next time round. It may take a few attempts but we get there in the end.

Here I talk about the stages I went through and still go through. I hope it resonates with you and encourages you to keep going.

1.Inspiration

At the start of your learning journey, you’re really inspired. You have big plans to:

meet your goals in record time,
become an expert, and
land your first job with a huge salary.

In your mind, all your dreams have come true and you’re living the life you always wanted.

But there’s one problem, you haven’t started. There is nothing wrong with having these thoughts. However, we need to know how to stop them from overpowering us and understand that it takes consistency and hard work to achieve anything.

We also need to realise two things:

1.Things will not go to plan, and
2.Inspiration and motivation are fleeting.

2.Motivation

Staying motivated is always a challenge. Most people find that you’re usually quite motivated to do things when you wake up.

You have so many things you want to do but as the day progresses, you realise that time is not infinite and your energy levels start to deplete through the day.

Motivation is like fuel but it runs out. You normally need to find ways to refill your tank but it can be hard to do.

So while motivation is a great thing and something we should always look for, we need to realise that motivation alone will not get us to our goal. That’s why consistency, patience and discipline are so important.

3.Consistency

Consistency, along with patience and discipline, are the magic ingredients that you need to move you down your path.

If you have faith in those things and the processes that require you to apply them, I guarantee you that you will get to where you’re going.

The great thing about consistency is that it’s not this big and unrealistic idea.

It’s small and simple and won’t overwhelm you. You can always start small and then build your way up to something bigger.

When you do this, you end up achieving something big without even realising it.

Like reading a book. You start at the beginning, read a little everyday, and then before you know it, you’ve finished.

When you apply consistency, stay focused on the small steps and the task at hand.

It’s important to look up from time to time but don’t do it too often because you will be overwhelmed and not understand how all these little steps will get you to the top of the mountain.

That’s why it's good to assess your progress once a month. It will help you see the big picture and decide if you need to change anything that might not be working.

4.Comparisons

Here’s where things get real. You start to see lots of videos and social media posts showing people meeting their goals and doing it in superhuman time.

They seem to be saving people from burning buildings, delivering babies and finding a cure for cancer all while learning how to code or something else.

They’re truly amazing people and we should all be grateful that we exist on the same planet as them. Wrong, their lives, like their posts, are unrealistic with lots of filters on them.

Remember, they are only showing you what they want you to see, not all the self-doubt and fear they’re going through.

No one is ever going to show you that. However, some might. They’re normally great people who are grounded and understand what reality is.

Looking at these things can make you feel inadequate and want to give up. Firstly, block these things out.

Be selective about the people you listen to and follow. If something is too good to be true, it usually is.

You’re an intelligent person, and you can tell when something does not make sense.

Unfollow and ignore people that like to brag or sell you false hope. Don’t buy into toxic positivity. Know that life is about balance, hard work and doing what’s right for you.

This is why its important to find friends and mentors that are wise and supportive.

If you feel depressed, defeated or inadequate, ask for help and talk to them. They will give you advice and support.

They normally know what to say, when and how. We all need to help and support each other, so pay it forward.

If you know someone who is going through something similar, support them too.

5.Its ok - you can do this…

As time goes by, you will feel tired, start to doubt yourself and question your progress.

You may ask yourself, will I make it? Is this the career for me? Have I made a mistake?

When you reach this point, it's important to take a break.

Take a week or two off and clear your head. Do things completely unrelated to what you’re studying.

Take a trip if you can or go for walks, watch movies and do things you enjoy.

When you’re ready to come back, assess your progress and your map. Think about things critically and objectively and decide what your next steps should be.

When you are studying and following a plan, it's important to:

1.Have faith in the process, and
2.Take your time - it's a marathon, not a sprint.

You will find your stride and start setting up effective routines that will work for you.

You are always free to change or tweak these routines based on your tests of them. It’s always good to change things up from time to time to help keep you motivated.

6.Conclusion

The most important thing to remember is that we are human. We are not machines and we do and will go through a plethora of emotions on any journey we are on.

Unlike machines, we are flexible and adaptive.

This means that we can be in a situation, recognize what’s going on, identify how we feel, find its cause and change it to move in a direction that will help us meet our goal.

It’s perfectly normal to be frustrated, upset or demoralised but know that you can do things to delete those emotions and turn it into fuel for success.

Research

Sherman Bernard — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 03:41:58 +0000

Before you start something, you should think about why you want to do it. This may take a little time but writing out a pros and cons list is always good.

I recommend writing it out and then looking at it again in a week to see if what you wrote makes sense and still resonates with you.

One important thing to remember is you should not let money be your only motivation. You should do something you are genuinely interested in as this is what will continue to drive you to reach your goal.

When you decide what you want to do, research the topic to understand it fully. I talk about this in detail in the sections that follow.

This blog is has the following sections:

How to achieve your goal,
What’s required,
The costs involved, and
Conclusion.

Before I discuss these points in detail, you should realise that no amount of research will prepare you for all contingencies.

You have to be prepared for failure, frustration and be willing to reassess your reasons for your decision.

When you start your research, try to look for things that present a balanced and informed argument about it. There are alot articles and videos on the internet that are one sided and misguided. They sell you a dream and don’t tell you about the realities.

1. How to achieve your goal

Before you start to research what you want to do, make a high level plan. Map out the steps involved. When you do this, be realistic about the scope and time required.

This will change after you have completed your research as you will have more information about what’s required. Modify your plan accordingly.

Maintain a balanced life to preserve your health, sanity and inspiration. You should start small and work your way up. Trying to do too much straight away can be overwhelming and demoralising.

2.The cost

There are various costs that apply to the pursuit of your goal. These costs include:

money,
time,
experience - Ie: projects, freelance work, internships, etc, and
qualifications - Ie: a degree, bootcamp, masters, PhD, etc.

Look closely at these costs and understand:

if you’re willing to make the sacrifice, and
put in the time.

3.What’s required

Do you need a qualification?

You should first assess if a qualification is required for the type of work you want to do. This will help determine time and money is required to get into your desired field.

For example, you can start a career as a software engineer without any formal qualifications.

You can create your own path by:

learning things online,
reading books,
creating a portfolio, and networking.

However, a qualification can help too as it verifies what you know and attending a university or bootcamp can give you job opportunities. Being taught in person and having a curriculum that’s curated by experts is also beneficial. It gives you a deeper understanding of complex concepts and teaches you important fundamentals.

If you want to become a data scientist, a formal qualification is most likely required. You can possibly get into the field without one and ultimately work your way up, but you would need to get into the right jobs, network with the right people and probably still need some basic qualification to get in.

I think a portfolio and experience can and will help, but I think a qualification is what is will help you the most when it comes to a field like data science.

How much do you need to study?

In terms of how much time you need to study depends on the type of studying you’re doing. It can vary dramatically based on whether you’re doing a university course, bootcamp or teaching yourself.

You have to consider different factors and customize your study time accordingly. Things to consider:

is it part-time or full-time study?
do you work?
do you have a family?
allow time for housework, exercise, relaxation, social life, etc.

Whatever you’re studying, I recommend avoiding burnout and making sure you look after yourself. Trying to achieve a lot in a small amount of time is often a recipe for disaster.

I can only speak to self-learning, as that’s my current situation. I’ve read articles and watched videos about it and the consensus is about 10-15 hours a week. If you can achieve more, that’s great but I wouldn’t exceed 40, especially at the start.

Spending lots of time on an intensive topic can be overwhelming, exhausting and frustrating. If you burn yourself out too quickly, you’ll want to give up. I have done this myself.

Good things come to those that wait. So you have to be patient and pace yourself. You can work your way up to putting more hours, and you’ll find that as you get more comfortable, things will flow quite naturally.

Also, it's more about results than time spent. The goal is to get things done efficiently. Afterall, we’re telling machines how to do things for us so we don’t have to. subsequently , it's counterintuitive to spend more time on something than required.

Again, I cannot stress the importance of taking time out for yourself. Having downtime and resting your brain helps stimulate your it and solve problems.

Routines are a good way of adding structure and helping you work toward your goal. It’s also good to modify or change your routine to increase its effectiveness and to stimulate your brain. If you go to gym, leg day does not always have to be on a Wednesday.

Tracking your progress gives you the following benefits:

enables you to see your achievements and to reflect on them,
it allows you to assess your plan and routine and determine if you need to make changes, and
it lets you see where you are in your journey to your goal.

It’s good to have a robust method to track your progress but you don’t want it to be onerous. It is also good to check in your progress at least once a month for the reasons discussed above.

Your portfolio

Your portfolio is probably the most important thing you can do. YOur portfolio is your biggest asset, especially in the absence of a formal qualification or experience. It’s where you get to show people your skills.

It's a marketing tool that you need to use effectively. Spend as much time as you can curating it, making it look good and promoting it. Employers and clients will use it to assess if they want to hire you.

A personal site is the best way to centralise your work. Making a good professional site will showcase your skills and display your work ethic and methodologies.

Projects to put in your portfolio:

work you have done for clients,
personal projects - these should solve real world problems, and
coding challenges - this can show your problem solving skills and your ability to organise your thoughts - employers, recruiters and clients may not look at this deeply but you if you’re applying for a technical role, some employers or recruiters may look at it.

Networking

Networking is an important way to promote yourself. Great ways to build a network are:
Use social media to promote your work. This can include projects you have started and finished, courses you are doing and books you are reading. Twitter and Linked in are great ways to do this. Reddit can be useful too.
Reach out to tech recruiters on Linked in or other job sites.

join meetup groups - network with other developers and people in the field.
use social media and meetup groups to network with other developers, tech recruiters and people who are associated with the field.
write blogs and share them on social media and people in your network.

Other skills

There are other skills that are very important to develop. Many people refer to them as “soft skills” but I think they are just as important as your problem solving and coding skills.

Key skills:

communication,
organisation,
knowing how to have oversight,
clean and simple workflows,
writing,
public speaking,
being able to articulate yourself,
speaking in plain english and being able to simplify complex ideas and concepts,
providing guidance,
helping clients and others articulate their requirements.
knowing how to be efficient and effective, -bbe collaborative,
Be pleasant to work with,
don't subscribe to or promote a culture of blame,
learn about and promote self-care, and
have a sense of humor.

4.Conclusion

What I have written here is based on my own research and insights. I have read a lot of articles, blogs and watched lots of videos about how to forge your own path and career. I have also used trial and error to see what works and I’m sure there will be plenty more.

With time, you can start to clearly assess the information you take in and see what is realistic and reasonable, not just objectively but also for your own circumstances.

I have over 20 years experience in the workforce. It includes, project management, analytics, governance, compliance and logistics.

I have learned a lot over the years and no matter what your experiences, you can research things for yourself and make informed decisions about what you should do and how you should do it.

You may not even realise it, but you already have a wealth of knowledge and experience which will innately help you connect the dots.

Fourth times a charm

Sherman Bernard — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 10:46:31 +0000

It took me four times to really get serious about coding. I was always interested in tech and enjoyed IT at school but always had trouble sticking with it.

My first foray into tech was when I finished high school. I wanted to work in tech so I did an IT course at a TAFE college, it was a two year course. I passed the first year but didn’t do so well in the second.

Instead of sticking with it, I decided to leave school and get a full time job. At 19, I wasn’t very interested in school and I wasn’t a good student.

After being in the workforce for over 10 years, I ended up in a job that required me to work with data and get good at using Excel, especially pivot tables. I loved working with data and finding ways to visualise it. I learned alot about the importance of data structures, governance and documentation.

I spent 10 years in my last job as an analyst. As mentioned above, it required me to work heavily with data. I got pretty good at my job however, my skills hit a glass ceiling.

The world around me was changing and I struggled to keep up. There were newer and better ways of doing things, and I only heard about them by accident or, when new people started in my team. I knew I had to do something to keep up.

I became keenly interested in data science but soon discovered it was a long, complicated and expensive path to become one. It was discouraging, and I wasn’t confident that I could get into the field.

I did do a lot of research into the field and looked into the best ways to process and analyse data. I discovered that the most popular ways were using SQL, R and Python. R and Python were used widely for processing, analysis and modelling.

Initially, I was interested in R. However, Python had wider applications and it was a good language for beginners.

I decided to learn Python with the aim of getting into analytics. I looked online for tutorials and reached out to a mentor for advice. They recommended that I first read a book called Beginning Programming All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies. They said that this would give me a good overview of programming.

I bought the book and started to read it fervently. I read it for about a month and then gave up. Work was stressful at the time and my motivation faded quickly.

After failing to get any traction the first time, I decided to give things another go a year later. I looked for Python tutorials online. I found one on YouTube and decided to try it. I did it for a couple of weeks, got frustrated and gave up.

It jumped from basic concepts to more advanced ones very quickly, and it didn’t really teach you any basic programming fundamentals (which is key).

I tried to be systematic and logical in my approach to deal with my frustration and increase my consistency. I took notes, wrote my questions down and went for walks to clear my head.

Sadly, it didn’t really work for me. There was something missing, and it was stopping me from passing the early stages of my learning.

In December 2019, I resigned from my job. I decided to take some time off and reassess what I wanted to do.

I’d been watching various tech YouTubers for a number of years and one that stood out to me was Andrew Sterkowitz Link. He’s a self-taught developer and his story resonated with me.

After watching some of his videos (and other YouTubers), I started my journey again in 2020. But this time, I brought insights from my previous attempts to the table as well as information from my research, and a better understanding about patience and persistence.
Initially, I still wanted to work with data, and I thought the best way for me to do that was to become a data analyst.

However, as I learned more about coding, I decided that I did not want to be limited by a role that would only require me to extract, transform and load data (ETL). I wanted to solve problems based on the insights provided by the data.

I then thought about developing enterprise software. Based on my years of experience and knowledge, I was in a unique position to provide business intelligence and develop tools for companies with unique needs.

I thought that an in-house job at a company would be ideal. However, I found that the barrier to entry was quite high.

My goal was to do something that:

I was interested in, and
Would leverage my existing skills and experience.

Ironically, web development, which I wasn’t a big fan of, seemed like the way to go. I led a project in my last job to develop a website.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I couldn’t deny that it ticked a lot of boxes.

Websites have a wide variety of applications, they’re cross platform and the work offers a lot of opportunities and flexibility. I also didn’t fully understand how powerful websites and web apps could be.

After much soul searching and analysis, I decided that full stack web development was the career for me and I have been on this path since last year. I really enjoy it and I have learned lots of new and exciting things.

My road to getting here has not been easy. I’m 43, but my age has not stopped me from knowing and believing that I can achieve anything I want to.

After seeing how others have made their dreams a reality, I realised that everything you do matters but at the same it doesn’t.

What I mean is, if you fail, so what. If you give up, so what. If you start again, so what and that’s a good thing.

All that matters is that you do what you want to do and that you enjoy it. There’s no special rule book that tells what we can and can’t do, just do whatever you like. Have grit and patience and you’ll get there.

But remember the golden rules:

Be kind to yourself.
Look after yourself.
Be patient.
Take breaks and time off.

We use machines but we are not machines. Machines are meant to make our lives easier. We should be efficient and effective in how we use them to improve our lives.

So, in the words of one of my favourite singers “If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.” - Aaliyah.

Attempts timeline

1996-1997

TAFE College.

2018

Started Beginning Programming All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

2019

Started Python Beginners Series for Absolute Beginners on YouTube.
Then started Coding for Python book.

2020

Started Beginning Programming All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies again and finished it. Link
Started Coding for Python again and finished it. Link
Finished Learning How to Learn on Coursera. Link
Finished Automate The Boring Stuff with Python on Udemy. Link
Read A Mind for Numbers. Link
Finished an Arithmetic course on Khan Academy. Link
Learned how to touch type using TypingClub. Link
Did a SQL tutorial on SQLBolt. Link
Completed Python projects.
Did Python and SQL coding challenges.
Joined online groups.
Networked with people and got a study partner.
Reached out to my mentor.

Origins

Sherman Bernard — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 01:52:00 +0000

My journey into tech is 30 years in the making. It started with my fascination with electronic devices like: TVs, VCRs, stereos, computers, DVD players and mobile phones; I was obsessed! I wanted to know everything about the functionality of each device I came into contact with.

Like most kids, I was into video games. I was first exposed to them at the local milk bar (corner store) and arcades. Later, I would play them with friends who had computers or game consoles like: the Commodore 64, Amiga 500, Nintendo, Super Nintendo or the Sega Master System.

At about age 10 or 11, my parents bought me a Commodore 64. It came with a tape cassette drive and a port for cartridges that you could put in the back of it.

I remember playing games on it for hours and entering commands into the BASIC interpreter. It took a long time to load a game using the tape drive. You had to play the tape on both sides to load the entire game and a multi-colored screen was displayed while the game loaded.

Later on, my sister and I got a Sega Master System II. It had the game Alex Kid in Miracle World pre-installed and we would play it all the time.

My obsession with tech continued into highschool and adulthood. I always wanted to know about the latest and greatest devices. I would spend lots of time analysing specifications to understand what each device did and assess whether it would meet my needs. I also loved customising things to make them my own.

My tech journey began at an early age, and I always kept my finger on the pulse of technology. However, my commitment to learning how to create things or how things worked at a deeper level was short-lived.

I was always interested in coding or knowing how to build a device, but I never had the patience or commitment needed to stay with it. But now, much later in life, I have learned that all journeys start with one small step.

With this new outlook, I find myself back on the road of learning. But this time, I’m staying the course.

There have been some false starts over the last twenty years, especially in the last three, but they have taught me many things. Most importantly, principles that have helped change my outlook.

In my opinion, these principles can help you learn, grow and lead a happy life. I think that these principles are good to learn and understand:

Failure is good - You learn alot from failure, it makes you stronger.
Embrace errors - When you code, expect errors. Investigate their causes, be patient and persistent when you try to find a solution.
Enjoy the process.
Start small - Something is always better than nothing.
Be curious.
Be patient.
Be consistent.
Be persistent.
Take breaks - I cannot emphasize this enough. Do not overwork yourself. Set a time to finish everyday and enjoy your weekends. It's about balance and letting your brain recharge. Solutions and ideas often come to you when you’re not working.
Look after yourself - Get enough sleep, drink lots of water, eat right, exercise and do other things.

Starting and stopping is not a bad thing. It’s all part of the process and it’s a way to gain insight and learn different things, including more about yourself.

You can always try different ways to do things and it's never too late to start again. Everytime you start again, you bring more knowledge and experience to it compared to the first time you tried.

I hope you find this helpful. Happy coding and keep going.