Why I am one of the best Web Developers in the world.
Everyone can learn the basics of a particular topic. Just a few manage to master a discipline though. Everyone can learn Javascript, Ruby, CSS, Python etc. Not everyone can build complex web applications. It requires something special. A secret. One year ago I couldn’t write a singe HTML basic web page. Last week I gave a workshop at a Google I/O event on how to build chatbots. In this article you will accompany me through my unlucky journey on how I became one of the best Web Developers in the world. The truth might hurt, so it’s up to you to continue reading.
Chronic pain means chronic effort
When I was 17 years old I got injured in my hip while playing football. It was pretty weird, I stand on the floor and couldn’t move. I got thoroughly examined by doctors and nothing came up. Nothing was broken, no injuries. I began a journey full of doctors, hospitals, tests, hours of rehabilitation, etc. Nothing to be found. No positive results. Unfortunately, the pain didn’t decrease during the years. I tried everything possible, all the therapies that were in the market. For a 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 years old young boy, the process was mentally devastating. At the age of 21, after many tests (see how often I am repeating the word test), a doctor came up finally with the diagnostic: I was suffering from premature arthritis in my hips. The form of my hip bones was not right and that was causing a slow but incessant destruction of my cartilage.
Wow.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, what has this personal story to do with Web Development? With becoming one of the best developers in the world?
Let me show you.
Years of rehabilitation, no success.
For several years, I was at the university studying mechanical engineering. I could barely study because of the daily pain. I had to do rehabilitation almost every day for endless months. Go to the physiotherapists, get treatment, do exercises at the rehab session, do exercises at home. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year. No results. A lot of effort. No success, still with pain. In my exams? The same, lot of effort, lot of suffering, no success.
Web or Software development are very difficult disciplines. You have to know the rules of the programming language. You have to know all of them and store them in your brain. You have to decouple a problem and represent the reality in lines of code. You build something abstract that can represent an object from the reality.
You begin by learning the basics. But soon your small programs become huge and you end up having thousands of lines in your program. You try new complex stuff and it does not work. You don’t know why. You read the documentation and still does not work. You do almost exactly the same as other developers and still does not work. No one can understand the problem for you. It’s your brain. You are desperate. You don’t know why it does not work. Like me. Like me with my arthritis. I tried rehabilitation, exercises, doctors and it never worked. I got frustrated.
But, after 4 years suffering chronic pain and 4 years more recovering from severe surgeries, I could run again. The light at the end of the tunnel. 8 years for achieving something that everybody takes for granted: being able to run.
If I was able to fight against arthritis without success for 8 years, you tell me that you can not work for a couple of days without success, in order to solve a problem?
Hours of coding, no success
Same story applies for Web, Software Development or studying mechanical engineering. After years of learning Ruby, HTML, CSS, Node.js, Rails, Express, PostgreSQL, etc. I manage to build software. The process was challenging, nice, frustrating, beautiful, demanding. A lot of days I couldn’t understand why things where not working. I couldn’t get the results that I expected. But I always remember my fight against arthritis. I was used to the process, fortunately. Now I was using my experience for something that could give me precious results: colorful Web Applications. The struggles didn’t bother me, I was used to them. I was used to the process:
Small steps, no surrender, ask for help, manage frustration, believe that it all work out someday and try it again. I was used to the process.
This that can seem so obvious, may not be so obvious for many people. A lot of people, that come into code after successful studies or careers, are used to study and get good marks. They are used to have a good resumé and immediately get a good job position.
Not in Web Development. Here it does not matter how good you were in the past, how rich your family was or how successful you were in your previous job.
You need to learn a new skill in your brain, that it is challenging. It takes a lot of patience, effort and the results do not come immediately. But they come and once they come, you have a very powerful skill. You learn to think in a different way.
Best developer in the world.
In the title I said that I was one of the best developers in the world. That’s pretty arrogant and unlikely to be true. And also pretty stupid to say. Let me explain.
Last year I run the marathon in Barcelona. My time was 4 hours and 20 minutes. The record of a marathon is around 2 hours. My friends that are in good shape run the marathon in 3 hours 30 minutes. Yet my 4 hours 20 minutes time is something spectacular and historic.
To me. To my level. According to my standards. According to my perception. According to my level. How many people have run a marathon after 3 hip surgeries? Not so many. The list is pretty small. And the list can get even smaller, if you do not compare yourself to anyone. If you have a ranking where there is just one participant: you.
It’s not about how good you are in comparison with other people, but how happy you are with your own personal development.
In Web or Software Development or any other discipline it’s the same. If you try to compare yourself with other developers, you will get mentally hurt. There will be lots of developers that will be better than you, more intelligent than you. That’s for sure. So what?
I no longer compare myself to anyone. I just want to improve as a developer. Instead of competing against my teammates, fellow teachers, other developers, I try to learn from them and try to help them whenever I can. You immediately start to enjoy the days, your current projects and your skills improve drastically. You enjoy the process and you feel like the best developer in the world. Celebrate it.
Enjoy not only what you do, but who you are
If you keep comparing yourself with other developers, these comparisons can make you sick and get into your psyche. If you are in Web Development you should be proud of the things you build and proud of what you learn. This applies specially for students in coding boot camps: forget about the others and focus on your own learning process. In the first days you can not build anything, after a short period of time you can build small pieces of software. As a teacher I often see students that are used to be very good in their previous studies and struggle at coding. I’ve been there. They say: “I see other people advancing faster than me” So what? You don’t know what they did in their previous jobs. Maybe they were used to think in an analytical way. Learn what you want to learn for yourself. Enjoy it. Celebrate it. Consider yourself special, because you are. You are doing what you like and you are trying something new. Not many people have this courage. Leave your ego outside in the street and be like a sponge, try to learn for you. Just compare yourself with yourself in the past.
People should remember more often past experiences where they worked hard and the results were not immediate but they paid off on the long run: educating children, creating a family, working hard in the job, waking up everyday at 6:30 am, helping a friend in a difficult problem etc.
Web Development or other difficult disciplines have the exact same patterns. It’s not about the coding skills but the soft skills. You can not rush into the solution. You should build small steps in order to build something magnificent. You should be prepare to your limitations. You should be prepare to asking for help. And that goes against our ego.
Are you ready for the challenge?
If you want to learn Web Development, there are plenty of resources out there.
If you are suffering chronic pain, here you have a friend.
Other articles:
https://medium.com/@albertmontolio/what-happens-if-you-give-200-in-a-coding-boot-camp-90ad3c31bb69
