My Journey As A Self-Taught Developer And What I Learnt…
Just To Be Clear, My College Still Teaches Me Chemistry To Get Into A Computer Science University
We Just Hit 1k Followers(in about 3–4 months!)… Which is a huge milestone for me. And as a way of saying Thank You, I decided to share something which Nobody knows about. My “abnormal” journey, of learning to develop, design, and edit.
I mean… Even right now, as I’m writing this, I am 17 years old and probably the least experienced when compared to anybody reading this. This is the reason I’ve never made an article on the experience or anything similar. I consider myself as an intermediate with about 5 years of work. Sooo… Yeah… Just a small confession.
This article will neither have attractive images, or YouTube videos. It’s just me writing, the article and you reading…
It all started when I was in 6th-grade school. I was 9 years old when I got a computer. It was nothing fancy, 2 GB ram and Windows 7. And just like anybody else, I started playing games. NO… I did not play CS: GO or Valorant. I played much much dumber ones, like… Well… Microsoft chess, Mines, and so on, where I, of course, lost all of them.
If you have a look at the 10-year version of me, you’ll find the most introverted, “scared to talk” kind of a guy. I’m still working on that but… Anyways, I hated computer science. 1 reason is, I never operated a computer practically until I was 10 and the second reason is, the education system was simply too harsh and theoretical which ushered computers, away from all the joy.
Without any knowledge(or interest) I just Googled for “The Best Softwares” or something similar… Yeah… I was weird back then.
The only reason I did this was… well… just to “play” with my new second-handed computer. And what I got after scrolling through some websites, was audacity. THIS was it. Here, started the Journey, which has never ended and which probably never will end.
10
That was when I installed audacity, which for those of you who don’t know, is an “open-source audio editor used to create, modify, and edit audio”.
You know the program which you wrote and which had an unexpected error… Correcting the program and seeing it working on screen, is what brings joy(for me at least). NOT writing it on the exam sheet step by step memorizing unnecessary statements on an exam sheet. NOT to mention, you cannot create a 3d model, develop an app or create a digital art in your exams.
I started of with some practical uses of a computer while the school textbook had a context the history of computers asking for us to memorize dates(of the old computers) which we will forget anyways.
I just enjoyed it. It was this time when I realized that I had made the mistake of relying on the education system, for knowing how the subject works. After a month or two, I started pushing the boundaries. I started using Blender, a software used to create anything related to 3d graphics. By the end of the first 6 months, I was able to get around with GIMP, Blender, and Audacity.
11
During the summer holidays, It was about time everyone realized that, the computer will be my future(I was not yet into development). This was when I was gifted my new computer. A better 4 GB ram(I know) HP computer with Windows 8.1. This… was when I started with some video editing. Not using DaVinci Resolve or any “professionally popular” ones, but using Kdenlive, cause that’s the only thing I could afford considering that I had no Nvidia Graphics for Davinci or money for Premiere Pro.
This was when I started editing local blogs, animating for TurboSquid/Free3d, creating NFTs, and so on. And what do you think happened after that? I did not delete everything…… Did I?
12–13
I was 12 years old when I deleted everything online. My complete online presence was gone. From Facebook to my NFTs to my Google account itself. And you might ask why…
If you come from India, you might know this. The term “Part-Time” means completely different here. Here, we finish all our education/masters/Ph.D./whatever and only then put up our first step to “Job”. Or at least, this is how it goes for me. And me getting almost 0.5 Ethereum from my photoshop skills was not accepted. And this is debatable. Maybe posting NFTs at the age of 12 really is a bit too much. Maybe it really was my bad. I’ll leave it up to you.
My only social media platform was Whatsapp(and of course stuff like YouTube). My online presence literally FADED away. And if you’re wondering, just from the brink of your mind if this is anything to do with my current username, Yes… There is. Don’t worry. I’m not gonna change it.
Anyways, this was when I thought of just focusing more on learning and ignoring what was happening and continued learning.
This was when I was introduced to…… Wait for it……… Programming. I had this error in blender which said pip is required to continue, thus triggering the curiosity of python.
By the end of 12, I was able to go around with some python and its basics. Once this was done, it was very easy to go and learn other languages like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and C# and by the end of 13 years, I was comfortable with frameworks like Angular, QT, ElectronJS, and game engines like Unity and Godot.
14
This was when people started recognizing my work. I was made the editor of my school, further giving me good experience in editing, managing, and blogging. Yes… the blogging part helps me even today, as I’m writing this. But one caveat which came with this was the attention, which… I was not a big fan of it.
With all of this, I finally was able to show my skills really worked. That is when I created another Google account, this time a business account, named FadinGeek which leads to everything you see when you Google it.
Also In this time, I learned flutter, a dart-based framework. And started learning assembly(and still learning assembly). This was when I went a bit more professional, yet small stuff, like designing and developing a website for my tuition academy and also, start building my very first commercial game, which was a complete flop, to be honest, it was made using a game engine called coppercube which is less popular JavaScript engine.
Considering that I had literally 0$ for investment, I tried around self-advertising with Reddit, quora, but honestly, that’s all I could do… Even NOW.
It was also At this time when I start learning Figma, and XD for UI/UX design. This also leads me to create some templates in Envato.
15–16
This was when I continued to learn, and develop more products, I started my unity asset, my YouTube channel
(though I did not post videos until I was 17), and finally, Medium(I started medium at the end of 16, almost 17).
I published my first unity asset which is doing great, surprisingly great with a 5-star review considering the final investment for this is literally 0$. The same with YouTube, Medium, and just recently even OpenSea.
And Btw, if you are just curious, I also finally got a pc(legion), which is certainly not 4GB ram(it’s 16) and is fairly powerful for the work that I do.
17-Present
If you have read all the way till here, thank you… It really means a lot to me. I aim to write more articles, make more YouTube videos, talk and reach out to new people, give stuff for free, and also hopefully get a good grade. If you want to ask anything to me, you can reach me through Twitter or insta and I’ll try my best to answer all of them. I really want to build community of just awesome people
Right now, I’m currently in my pre-university, where I… Of course chose computer science which comes with a combination of other subjects like chemistry, physics, math, English, and a regional language. To get into the next university which I desire, I need to write a couple of exams, all of them being chemistry, maths, and physics(no computers!) even if your mainstream is computer science…
And SO… Here I am, studying chemistry to get into computers, in the present. This is my long, unusual journey… Of being a developer, designer, and editor.
You… Are Awesome!
FadinGeek
