Developer Diaries # 3: Hello World

<! — My journey from a noob to a noob who codes — ->

We have all experienced the satisfaction that comes when you build something with your hands. Be it a primary school science project like a soda bottle volcano or be it a magnificent piece of art. It just feels great to make something out of nothing. That, basically, is the motivation that pushes every coder towards greatness. Well that, and the fact that coders around the world are paid quite handsomely for typing out code that seems utter gibberish to the untrained eye. Also, pop culture makes us look so freaking cool!

The beginning

My coding journey technically started quite early at the age of 11 or 12 when our school teacher introduced us to the magnificent MS LOGO. It seemed like some kind of witchcraft when our teacher wrote in a few lines of code and the computer somehow understood what it meant and carried out the commands flawlessly.

It took me a while to understand the witchcraft was really just a tricked out piece of silicon and a ton of math. Oh my god, so much math! Fast forward 4 years, in high school I had to take a class in basic programming. This is when it hit, computers are made for more than just browsing facebook and downloading bootleg versions of music. My first real project was a burglary detection system using a tiny Arduino board. It came with its own siren and blinking LEDs, all the bells and whistles. Though a seeming beginner project for me that was state of the art back then. I aced the class and made up my mind to join an engineering college.

When I first entered the college I felt like a fish out of the water. Here people rambled on about web frameworks and Deep Learning. My burglary detection system was garbage! I went into a downward spiral of self loathe and pity. But I was rescued by the wonderful community of coders here at my college and that’s probably the most wonderful thing about the coding community, you’ll always find the help that you seek, all you gotta do is ask. So I started learning from the basics of coding to web frameworks, from design to Machine learning. I grabbed every opportunity and like a sponge, I absorbed and kept on making new cool things. And I can proudly say that I’ve barely crossed the starting line!

The present day

Coding isn’t really the easiest thing to do. You hit a lot of roadblocks and every roadblock takes you down a different rabbit hole. Sometimes you’d get stuck on a single bug for days but once you get past it you’ll probably hit another one right after that. The point being I have to learn new things every day to solve new problems and tackle weird bugs but now I enjoy the journey. I enjoy getting stuck on a single error message because the payoff when you solve it is huge. I started coding with a desire to build new things but I never imagined I’d enjoy the building process this much.

If you want to start coding, here’s the tip, Just Start. There are no gunshots, no bells, no finishing line. All you gotta do is run.

Cheers,
Yashaswee Chakrabarty,
Core Team, DSC HIT

Plays the Guitar, Check. Jams often, Check. Cooks up fun little projects, Check. Yashaswee is one of those few individuals who would type along to the beats of Bohemian Rhapsody, and shake his head when he remembers Calculus. He is a Web enthusiast (Yay!) and keeps learning and teaching others cool new things all the time.