This might seem to you a clickbait title. It very well might be. Only further reading may reveal.
So, let me tell a bit about myself. Throughout my college time, I'd focused more on learning Valorant lineups than learning software engineering. I was (maybe still am?) what people call ... a Javascript Andy.
I had known C++ from my attempts at competitive programming in earlier years. Apart from that, I'd made few clone projects using MERN stack (religiously following guides from udemy courses).
I can still remember during interviews people asked me why had I used MongoDb. Words that'd been sketched into my mind by blindly following the tutorials came out instantly. "For better scaling".
Years went by and here I was in my last semester in college. I'd gotten a job offer as a software developer, and was working in the same company as an intern for the semester.
During my internship, I wanted to explore my options. But the scarcity in tech jobs had already been going on and most of them were having significant years of experience in their requirements.
Also remember those projects that I'd told you about... Yeah, I forgot most of the technical stuff. (You can say... following the guides without exploring more, wasn't such a great idea)
Somehow during this time, I came across a youtube channel called theo-t3.gg. It was my saving grace.
One of the first video on the channel that I watched was about choosing the right database. I watched that whole video along with my beautiful girlfriend (better software engineer than me).
We both had an epiphany seeing that. All that talks about scaling and stuff had clouded our judgement about relational dbs. SQL is really good. Watching similar videos on other topics made me realize that my knowledge had been very shallow. This was the onset of my journey.
We both started working on a project together. This was the first time I'd set on making a project that wasn't following a guide...
That's a lot of progress...
There was also a major shift in the attitude. Like the initial rush that'd been when we'd taken up computer science, learning about this computer world. It all had come back!!!
Another thing about me was that I'd always used VSCode up until that time. The only place I'd seen vim was during the streams of competitive programmers that would almost always use vim.
I'd always go and say why do people even use vim when "Modern IDEs are magic".
Skill Issue.
That was what was actual reason. I'd seen people be so fast with vim, but the only thing that I got to know after almost 4 years, was to exit vim. (Forgetting -m flag in git commit).
Watching theo changed my recommendation of youtube. I was enlightened by the Primeagen himself (in youtube shorts, where he had just created The Best Macro of All Time).
Thus began my neovim era. Every day I was getting more hyped by watching Prime just being able to code so fast. I had been vim-pilled.
I tried out my newly installed neovim. I began the vim tutor and after about an hour of it, I was bored. I was so slow. And that dream of becoming fast was too ahead.
I switched back to vscode. But I hadn't stopped watching the Chad prime everyday just flexing him vim skills on me.
The thing that finally got me back completely was .... Kickstart.
I watched the effective IDE video of Teej, and after sometime, my neovim setup was complete.
Teej went on to explain the different settings, but I skipped it instantly. Same habbit of throwing the manual away was still with me after all these years.
Kickstart got me into customizing neovim step by step. I didn't knew anything about Lazy, Mason, Treesitter, Telescope.
The first config that I changed was to enable custom plugins. Customizing neovim step by step to my flavour gradually helped me understand things.
And all this time I'd forced myself to use neovim. So naturally my movement also became faster. I was on the same level as I'd been before switching due to better movements. I've gotten so used to it that I can't ever imagine of going anywhere else.
Apart from the editor wars, I had also started watching more and more tech content. My Javascript bubble had already been burst by Prime. So I was expanding my horizon. I explored Go. I tried Svelte. I used HTMX. I'd always been relectant, but now it's the curiosity that drives me.
Remember all this happened in a span of less than 5-6 months. This progress was so much more than what I'd made in like the last 2 years. Doing all this has also boosted my confidence. I am knowing more things, and am able to indulge in more discussions than any of my friends combined.
I am learning, reading(or let other people read and make a video of themselves and then watch that video. "Same thing") everyday. Also the memes are the best.
My journey has just started as a developer. But the change that I've noticed in myself is huge. Instead of just going with the flow in my career, I've taken charge of it. I'm actively buidling stuff, learning things which is helping me grow much more rapidly than before. And I'd really thank all the people who've helped me through my journey.
I've added some of them in a list below.
Thanks for making software engineering interesting again!!!
Some of the people that've helped me in this journey:
- My Girlfriend ( always there supporting me. Also she's beautiful)
- Primeagen ( having a great content that you love to wait for everyday)
- Theo ( restarting my learning journey in tech and being one of the best explainers)
- Josh Tried Coding (Great content on typescript/react w)
- Teej ( Catapulted me into the neovim world.)
- Devops Toolbox ( Really cool channel that taught me alot about cli tools like tmux and also neovim plugins)
- Nerd Academy ( Great explainations. Used for Golang learning)
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Top comments (3)
"We both had an epiphany seeing that. All that talks about scaling and stuff had clouded our judgement about relational dbs."
As 30 year veteran Oracle DBA who's worked with countless developers over the last few decades, I wish more devs were as open minded and not just just following the current trends.
As a sysadmin/DBA, I've tried hard to learn proper coding techniques and methodolgies to improve my coding, I simply ask for the same respect for infrastructure items like RDBMS. It's not just a black box, the more you understand the harder and better you can make tech work.
Absolutely. I can actually see this trend all around me. Mostly because that's the thing that people have been sold on. Use this for this. Use that for that. Exploring more gives you wider perspective. Maybe what you're "sold" is not the only way. And maybe not even a great way.
I see you did try out so many different frameworks/libraries. Speculating next post to be HTMX vs Svelte.