About Me
To start off, I want to briefly touch on who I am. I've been creepin' through DEV posts for some time now, made it more "offici...
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Im in a similar boat, this is a career I am in because it is part of my passion for creating new thing etc. I'm not ashamed to admit that I chose this over other interests due to the potential to earn more money, but when it is an equal interest to other career options that typically pay less... well here I am.
I enjoy my job, the people, the lifestyle. But mostly I look forward to where it could lead me. I learn what I need to learn for the job, and make a point of staying ahead of the curve in relevant areas. I am proud of the work I do, and I work hard at it. I like to deliver the highest quality product I can. But it will only ever be one of many passions, and not THE passion.
I look longingly outside on nice days, and im not sure I will ever be the kind of person who could dedicate myself 100% to code in the same way others seem to. I go home, I want to go for a run/bike ride. I want to spend my weekend lazing about or going to see a local attraction or whatever.
I dont think my attitude is unhealthy either, I am a believer of maintaining a healthy work life balance, and by fostering my other interests, I am a healthier, more alert, more motivated employee. Crucially I am less likely to burn out like you hear so many horror stories about.
Great post.
I decided to post my comment here as a reply to your own, we are very similar in this respect.
I do my job to the best of my ability, I am always learning and experimenting. I make good money from doing it too.
The point that most resonated with me is about the "nice days". I too sit and gaze out of the window at the beaming sunshine, the birds, and I think is there something more I should be doing? Am I fully realizing my potential? But then I think, like you, this is the path I am on in order to reach my potential, whatever that may be.
Nice post, great comment.
I feel that it is important to realise that a career choice shouldn't define you and how you spend your time. Would you expect a bricklayer to go home and practice laying bricks all weekend, or in the evenings? Of course not. That doesn't mean they don't want to or cant produce high quality work.
I feel like this industry is far too quick to judge a person based upon what they are NOT doing rather than what they are. Fortunately every employer I have had understands this, however I have heard horror stories from friends, colleagues and online.
It is okay and healthy to be human, with a myriad of ideas, interests and passions.
Thank you both for your insight. While I haven't gotten to work directly with a development team just yet, it is one goal to do so. Reading as many posts as I do about the subject, I see passion being tossed around every where. George, I like that you pointed out most other career paths do not follow this type of effort. It is the reality of it. It's important for people to recognize there is more to life than just work. I mean, nothing wrong with it if that's your jam! But to shame those that don't spend their entire day and night coding is not contributing to anything beneficial for the field or the people working in it. I have this little fear of being chained to one thing, and I fully realize that is a mental limitation I created myself. For me, it's highly important to have that room of freedom to be able to go outside and explore new places or try new things. IE: I've dabbled in blacksmithing, had a long bout of smoking the perfect ribs, learned to ride motorcycles and drive boats and so much more. I guess, new experiences in short. I also love working out, fitness, pushing my body to its limits (which I failed hard when just getting in to this field and became fat and lazy faster than it took to get in great shape!) This is a great field for the challenge, education, money and experience. That, overall, is why I chose to get in to it myself.
Thank you both again for sharing your view of it :)
I promised myself I would never use this word in this context... but that was a "savage" answer. Good on you, sir. I feel the same way. I lost my passion for tech a long time ago.
But I would argue that's a good thing. It's kind of like a marriage. Yes, you have an intense passion early on, but at some point that fades. In a successful marriage, you move from being a lover to a partner in life.
The same goes with many things in life. A healthy progression is that you are passionate about something early on and eventually move toward finding your groove in that field. You derive satisfaction not from intense bursts of immediate gratification but from the long-term benefits of maintaining and improving your knowledge and ability in that area of interest.
Sidenote: I've been married for 22 years. I'm still not an expert, but I'm working on it. ;-)
This is a great insight and I appreciate you sharing this. It's nice to get other views and responses to this area. I like how professionally you worded it as well. It's respectful, but not to be pushed over or taken advantage of, something becoming more and more important as companies continue to push and want more for much less. Very well put sir. :)
I like your honesty. And that's fine that you're not passionate about coding.
Interest is enough. You don't need to start with passion. Build skills in the areas that interest you and use those skills to advance yourself and your career.
You build skills through learning and doing. To ensure that you're consistent with your skill building you need to form the right habits, not be passionate about the skills.
If you want to learn more about this way of thinking then I highly recommend:
Thank you for this well thought out response Dwayne. I'm pretty happy to see So Good They Can't Ignore You on your list. That is partly what inspired this writing, apart from coming across a handful of "be passionate about coding" posts from various sources this morning haha! I will definitely add Atomic Habits to my reading list as well.
For me, coding is one of many hats I wear to produce a result.
I would say I'm not passionate about coding.
The result of hard work and the impact it makes is what I seek to do.
Coding is one of my vehicles to achieve that result.
This times a thousand. I appreciate the clear and concise response Andrew.
Hi Travis, found your post while googling for this subject, so I'm replying a year later. I'm studying programming and will get a job in the area soon (hopefully next semester), coming from a corporate IT background (applications and security analyst for a big company). I realised the technical and creative aspects of problem solving are the ones that excite me the most, when I grabbed a cup of coffee and connected to a database looking for an issue (instead of contacting the support team that was responsible lol). When I had to solve a managing issue I did, but my drive was almost non-existent.
I also agree with the term 'passion' being used carelessly (particularly in job offers), we should use the same analogy we use for personal relationships. That is, a passion is a flame that comes and goes, you could be passionate about a lot of things in different times of your life. You don't need to be one-sided, you can enjoy several aspects of your life without becoming obsessed with any of them.
So if you enjoy art, education, technology and helping others, you could build a website showcasing a timeline for the greatest renaissance painters, or an aggregate news site about museum exhibits in Pennsylvania, or whatever comes to your mind. Or nothing at all, and be a competent developer nonetheless.
I see from your personal website that you're Batman too, and why wouldn't you be?
Sorry I'm just responding to this! Completely took a hiatus from...everything, for quite a while to be honest. But this was really great to see, so thank you for your input! Actually, really appreciate the ideas you brought up for websites. Hadn't really thought of that before.
I'm glad to see others relate, and agree with my thoughts on passion being thrown around so wildly. There are so many nuances to the tech industry in general that seem to..as oddly as it is..lag behind the times. Maybe we can all push to be the change we want to see some day.
Appreciate the shoutout to that little page too haha! It's long over-due for a makeover. Maybe I'll start there before moving on to these other ideas you gave.
Thanks for the insight, and hope you find luck in your programming studies!
Great post, Travis. I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability - great discussion starter as well!
Thank you Molly :)