Why (Framework) traveling will not make you happy.
We all had this thought that only if we went to another country like Tokyo, Japan, for two weeks, we would be so much happier, relaxed, and creative.
Because your current city is so boring and nothing happens. You have seen the old town a thousand times; you went to that bar with the whiskey sour cocktail to often, it is nothing special anymore; the people you know are just complaining all day long and are doing nothing that excites you anymore.
If you would be in Tokyo, you could see all these new streets, and you would visit the Tokyo sky tree. Ahh, sky tree doesn't that alone sound so exciting? You would try Sakė the Japanese alcohol drink made out of rice. Also, you know that you would meet many new inspiring people because you know that Japanese culture is more group-oriented and you would find a fantastic group where you would blossom like a beautiful red camellia in the morning sun.
Doesn't that sound like a dream come true? But then the only thing you feel and see is the daily routine around you. All the refreshing things are somewhere outside but not here. Right now for you, it looks like everything is normal and dull.
It is like with this new Framework everybody is talking about. Let's call that framework superiorJS. You are reading this blog post with the title: 10 reasons why superiorJS is the best thing ever happened to web development or Why you should use superiorJS right now. But you just learned fancyJS and it is not that exciting anymore. It is routine for you because you are using it daily and if you could use superiorJS right now you blossom like a beautiful red camellia in the morning sun.
So you moved to Tokyo, Japan, because you found a company that uses superiorJS. Your dream has finally come true! You are super excited and the first month is over, and you feel great. You feel like the past month was the best in your life! Everything is so exciting and new! Even just going to the grocery store, it is exciting because you still find new things like Kitkat with matcha tea taste. Isn't that amazing?
After two months you are not that excited any more you found out that you don't like sake and you can not see the matcha tea KitKat anymore. Tokyo is a big city, and you feel alone, even there are 14 million people around you. Oh and superiorJS feels like fancyJS, and you had to implement the dropdown component now in superiorJS instead of fancyJS. So you have done the same task, and it is so tedious. You wish you had never moved and stayed with fancyJS.
So what happened here? Why do you have the same feelings in Tokyo as in your old city, and why does the new framework feel like the old framework now? What is the constant here?
Yes, it is you and your thoughts! You forget that most often we overvalue new shiny things and undervalue the pleasure in finding meaning in the regular daily routine we do. The problem with obsessing about new experiences is that they are unique just for a few moments. They will get consistent and routine kicks in again.
How can we escape this endless loop of suffering?
The answer is gratitude!
But what does gratitude mean?
It's the warm feeling you get when you remember the person who told you to drop your 1980s hairstyle and get with the new millennium already.
Gratitude is when you sit down in a lonely moment and think what a wonder it is that your parents found together and their partners found each other and so on for thousands of years! And you are that fantastic outcome of that!
Gratitude is when you were standing in line at a grocery store, and it takes longer than you think: "Wow I'm so lucky that I can buy this food and don't have to starve like millions of other people! I don't even have the right to complain!"
Gratitude is when someone is telling you a story, and you are so fascinated about that person that this person smiles back at you that you are listening.
Behind every person is a fascinating story! You just have to listen!
Gratitude is using fancyJS and saying thank you to all the contributors and hours of work spent by other people because fancyJS is free and open source!
Gratitude is saying taking a deep breath and thanking yourself what you have accomplished with fancyJS and that superiorJS is also a fantastic framework, but currently you can get your work done with fancyJS and you are happy with that.
You can find gratitude in everything you just need to search for it! Jumping from country to country or framework to the framework will not make you happy!
Thanks for reading!
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Top comments (28)
Framework traveling is another form of procrastination. You get stuck in a learning loop, chasing the new shiny, like you said.
It's one thing if you actually can't get something done with your current toolset. It's another if you see a 5% improvement in a new framework and need to start from 0 and tackle the easy parts of your project...again.
Agree 100% with you. What frustrates me even more is when we choose a framework because it is popular for a, b, c reasons but we are blind when choosing the right framework for the right job, used by the right people (people who are experienced enough to work on it AND/OR can adapt quickly)
Couldn't have said it better!
Exactly!
The thing is do you really need the (maybe) 5%?
Maybe getting things done is more important then looping through frameworks!
Dude. Yes. This is great, I really appreciate you taking on this topic!
Glad that you like it :)
Thank you very much!
Cool post! I actually like it a lot.
I never understood why people like to torture themselves that much
what I did (still do actually) was to learn one, and then follow social media of other frameworks that way I could keep up with the news but not necessarily learn the framework.
If I ever needed it on the work well...
I already knew what's the community focus and finish to learn stuff around that focus (actually you can learn a lot from the news of a framework)
wanting to know what's on the environment doesn't mean you should learn everything on the environment
Just like nature enthusiasts, you don't need to study a biology career to know a bit/read about nature, same thing with fishing, carpentry
once you need it then you can focus on the subject
Yeah, you should never stop learning!
One part for me of development (now) is to also build not just learn.
I learned (ha! pun intended) that if you only learn frameworks you will never be great because you just know the theory but actually never build anything :)
Love this post! Good promotion for mindfulness. Also currently in Japan can confirm Matcha Tea KitKats are still a thing. The new flavour of the month is Sakura Sake. ;)
Thank you :)
We even have the Matcha Tea KitKats here in Europe now :D
No matter if it's about a framework, or programming language - Knowing each framework, or programming language isn't that hard, but: Mastering one is the key. So yeah, well said. Stick with one and be a master in this framework/language and you'll be happy :)
Yeah, you need to find the right balance :)
You should not stick to flash anymore for example :D
"...that bar with the whiskey sour cocktail to often..."
TOO OFTEN.
Caps lock alarm!
Grammarly premium thinks it should be to not too :D
Grammarly is wrong and you should report it to them. That's why I don't use it. Keeping the "Strunk & White" book by my desk is good enough for me. You are not using a preposition, you are not going "to" a place called "often;" you are indicating you've over used drinking whiskey sour cocktails "too" often.
Great to hear you about this topic
That was truly appreciated sir. Thank you.
Very good post.
Thank you very much :)
Looks like the programming is just like the real life;)
Sometimes it is harder because the computer will just say NO! ;)
Well said. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for commenting :)
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