Is It Too Late to Learn To Code?

Hopefully not, because I am doing it. Again.

Photo by Tai Bui on Unsplash

There are two types of people in this world.

The first one is those who know from the very beginning what they want to do in their life. There are some 10-year-old children in this world who know exactly what they want to be and how they are going to achieve it. I have a 15-year-old niece, who wants to be a doctor.

Then the others are those who are always trying to figure out what they want. These are people like me, in their late 20s or maybe even 30s or 40s, who are still trying to figure out what they want.

People who have tried a lot of different things in their life, trying to figure out which one will work for them.

Something they would love doing.

Something that doesn’t suck the energy out of them.

But does such a career choice even exist?

I have had two jobs in the last three years. I liked neither. The work was decent in the first one, but the people were intolerable.

Then, in my current job, the people are tolerable, but the work is intolerable and repetitive.

I have friends who are earning more than $2k per month in their jobs. Still, they are unsatisfied because someone they know from their college or office is earning twice as much as them.

Then there are people who are stuck in the 9–5 jobs, unsatisfied and tired, who wanted to do something of their own. Something they love doing and that can help them earn some money as well.

Well, I love writing. I tried making money out of it and it worked. I have earned some money with writing, but the starting phase is always too frustrating. Also, just because you like something doesn’t mean you are very good at it. I loved writing, but I was and still am not very good at it.

It needs work. A lot of work.

If it needs work, it means you have to learn this new skill and learning a new skill takes up your time and energy. It needs patience. Lots and lots of patience. And time.

Sometimes, the hurdles in the way will make you break down and you now hate the very thing you loved. (If not hate, you now don’t want to do it as often)

This brings me to my next question:

Assuming there is no perfect career choice, what should we do?

I have only one thing to say in this matter. Do not waste your time thinking stupid things and comparing yourself to others.

If you love something, do it. It doesn’t matter if you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s or ever 50s. You can be 90-year-old and still learn something new. Something you love. But you will never find out what you love if you don’t try new things.

So, try new things.

Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.. — John C. Maxwell

I did my bachelor’s in computers, so coding is not something new for me. I wrote my first program in high school. It just printed “Hello World” and it was the most amazing thing I ever did.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
  cout << "Hello World!";
  return 0;
}

It feels so good to build something from scratch. I loved it so much that when most of my classmates were busy studying physics and chemistry for the finals; I was making projects in C++ for fun. That is why I got such a bad score in chemistry. (Don’t worry, I still secured 90% + marks in the finals.)

It didn’t change during graduation. I loved the practical classes. The four-hour lab periods which most people hated were my favourite.

All the students were required to submit a project during their final year. The teacher divided the class into teams and when every team was fighting over the work division, my team members were busy telling me to not do everything myself and to relax.

But I was relaxing. I was enjoying the whole thing too much.

Was I dumb enough to not read the signs?

Yes, I was.

Because I left coding for a job in administration. I always thought that coding for me is more like a hobby. Even if the teachers tell me I am good at it, I will not be a good software developer.

I tried hand-lettering during the lockdown phase while preparing for different exams for MBA (which is apparently necessary to be successful), but I left it when I landed my first job sans MBA (not so good at group discussions and interviews).

Then, I came across this platform and started writing, which I came to love. I loved writing and the minor accomplishments. But for me, everything eventually becomes too stressful, too much.

I think you’re also seeing the common pattern here

You guessed it right.

Over-thinking killed the cat! 🙀

I know it goes like Curiosity killed the cat, but in my case; it was overthinking. It’s just that my cat was coding first, then an MBA (which I hated, to be honest), which turned into hand-lettering and then writing.

The good news is I am back at coding. The circle of uncertainty and unfinished things is complete, my friends!

It was difficult to go back to where I started. I am almost 27, married and have a full-time job. I have to learn everything from scratch because the IT world changes so fast and because 4 years is a long time. All my coding skills are buried under four years of dirt (reels and shorts).

But since the day I started brushing off the dirt off my coding skills, I am loving every single moment of it. I am sleeping a little less and have to utilize every single moment, but I am happy.

This takes me back to the random quote I threw your way some paragraphs above. Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward… So, I am trying to fail early in my late 20s, which honestly is not too late.

Even if I never get a job out of it, or it may not turn into anything fruitful, it would be fun doing it!

In the past few weeks, I have built a new site. I may have done it watching a tutorial, but who cares? I learned something new.

This proves the point that college and school are failing to teach us the basics. Because honestly all my college professors ever taught me was div, header and footer.

So, if you are also struggling to find what you love, do this:

1. Try new things.
2. See things through (no more killing the cat, we love the cat)
3. If you don’t enjoy doing that thing, leave it and start something new.
4. Do it fast, because as we have already said twice in this single article, it’s better to fail fast.

If you fail fast, you would know that the cat can’t be yours and you can move on in your life, instead of looking back and regretting the missed chances and lack of hard work on your part. Let go of the cat.

There are many more cats out in the world waiting for you to bring them home.