Hello World
None of you guys know me. I mean I haven't done anything worth noting, yet... Hi, my name is Vinod D and I am a self taught web developer. I started coding in my college days and by the time I was 18. Nowadays you might hear people saying that if you need to be coder you need to start early. It was not so in my case. And I'm a mediocre coder TBH. But I'm confident that I can learn a new language, if needed, and start writing some "mediocre" code in that language in a month. Because all the things that I need to know about any language, I already know. I mean the basics of programming language. I was lucky enough to have someone who made sure that I learned the basics properly. And once you know the basics, the rest is just child's play, in my opinion.
I got into web development an year back. I started in Java, yes I know... Java. Before that I was not so keen to get into web development. I was interested in android development as I had done a course on that and wanted to pursue it further. Story for another time I guess. My point is once I got into web development, it completely changed me. It was as easy as ABC and at the same time as complex as learning ABC for the first time. It was an interesting experience for me. I knew the basic concepts but I didn't know where and how to apply them. And that's the time I met someone. I don't want to tell publicly who it is, but he was really an oasis in the desert for me. He guided me in the right direction. He helped me whenever and wherever necessary. He was the one who told me practice is the best thing someone can do. And he is absolutely right. Practice makes perfect or at least perfect to an extent. I mean I can't believe, where I am right now with my skills in coding coming from where I was an year ago. I have developed a fully functional web application that does some automation (sorry, I can't share much details) and I am building a chatbot now.
In the initial days of my web development journey, I didn't know what I was doing. I was literally copying code from stackoverflow to my code. But then suddenly, it started getting interesting. I wanted to learn how the code actually worked, how it affected my application. That's when I actually started learning. Now I know what I'm doing.... to an extent, I mean honestly, does any of us know entirely what we are doing? Anyways that was the turning point for me. I wanted to learn more about web development. I wanted to do something with it. And that's when I turned to NodeJS. And oh my god, that was a big turn. I mean, I was really amazed by what Node can do. I was like using JavaScript for backend development, really? Sign Me Up!!!!! And then I started learning NodeJS. And everything I knew about web development till date just vanished in front of me. I was overwhelmed at first. It was like learning a new language altogether, I mean I know it is a new programming language, but you know what I mean. A NEW LANGUAGE, like French or Spanish. It was a really big turn for me as I mentioned earlier.
As mentioned earlier, I really am a mediocre developer, but whatever I develop, I do it because I want to. Not because of some external pressure. I mean that's what really matters. Whether you want to do it? Not only for web development, for anything. The real question is do you really want to do it? Or are you doing it because of some external pressure, whatever it may be. If you put your whole mind and body into something, you are sure to reap the benefits of it someday. The results might not be visible in the start, but as long as you continue to do it, you will surely be able to see the results. But I don't want to be mediocre. I want to be good, really good at what I do. And I am ready to spend the time for it.
Another thing is that you should always be ready to learn. Learning is a never ending process. You can't learn 100% of anything even if you devote your life to try to learn it. There will be at least a small part that will seem always too far to you. So embrace it. As long as you understand, what you are learning, that's enough. At least that's the case with me.
So in conclusion, its not about being the best in the business, its about being the best at what you do. Whatever you do, you should be able to do it properly. There will be hard times for you, you might even be in one right now, but just remember that it too will pass. It does every time. I've heard this somewhere, not able to place where. "Life is like an arrow in a bow. The more you are drawn back, the more distance you can cover." With that I am ending this article. Hope to see you guys soon with a new one. Till then.... Signing off... Vinod D
Top comments (3)
Loved this - "Life is like an arrow in a bow. The more you are drawn back, the more distance you can cover." What a beautiful way to look at it!
Thanks for the feedback Anna. Really appreciate it.
Hooray for mediocre coders! I'd say most of us are mediocre most of the time. But sometimes, you'll look back on something you wrote and say, "hey, that was actually really smart."