Why I Write
I have been fascinated by coding from a young age. My first experience with the magic of creating something came from DarkBASIC, which simplified the coding of games by not needing to know the low-level details. While I was too young to finish any of my ambitious ideas, I had gotten a taste of the endless possibilities. I found a lifelong passion.
Since the early days, I have added many programming languages to my skill set, and my focus has shifted to web applications. Java is one of my most familiar languages, and recent enterprise experience has added the Spring Boot framework to my tool set. I aspire to become strong with React as well so I can design and write a full application for any idea that sticks in my mind. I also enjoy coding in Python and learning about its many powerful modules.
The Other Writing
In my childhood, long before I discovered my passion for code, I enjoyed writing brief fictional stories. I had a small collection of such “books”, most often consisting of several paper pages stapled together, containing lines written in pencil. My interest continued as I grew, and when asked what I wanted to be, I would say author. My early writing career culminated with being a member of my school’s creative writing team for a year.
Around the same time, my coding picked up, and I redirected all creative energy toward ideas for 2-D and 3-D games with DarkBASIC. However, I recently discovered another avenue for writing by sharing my technological story.
I love learning about new ways to code, and I also like describing what I’ve done in the form of tutorials. Often, I find myself learning from and looking up to technology writers and their great tutorials and documentation. I want to give back with my own explanations and strengthen my understanding along the way.
My Learning Philosophy
When I learn a new programming subject, I prefer to type or copy simple code examples and run them to get instant results. Nothing is better than seeing something work on your own computer screen.
There can be constraints on how feasible it is to run code yourself, though, such as memory limitations, CPU speed, or source code licensing. Luckily, the popularity explosion of open source projects has made it easier than ever to get hands-on with code, and many applications can be built and run starting with a personal computer.
Once the basics of an application are running, I find it much easier to explore additional language features and add them to the working application. My own learning is most successful when broken down into pieces with clear functional results, and I believe anyone can benefit from the same approach.
Coding Matters
The software and internet revolution enables change at a rapid pace. With the the right work ethic, anyone can change the world with the right idea at the right time.
The speed of creation doesn’t mean every idea has already been invented, though. Every person’s mind is different, and everyone has unique viewpoints to contribute. Even extensions or combinations of existing applications can advance the standard for modern software.
Technology is created for us, by us. We have to collectively create a future where we want to live, and I want my ideas to be a part of that. I hope you believe your ideas can shape the future too.
No one has the full picture of how things work as they start a new journey. The only way to create is to begin with what you know. Later on, take a look back and you’ll likely be amazed at your growth along the way.
If you don’t know how to code, today is the best day to start, either with my tutorials or any of the other outstanding resources available on Medium and throughout the web.
Once you know how to code, the power to shape the future is at your fingertips.
If you want to start learning about Spring Boot, please consider my tutorial below to create an API from a Spring Initializr template.
