My quest to learn to program continues. I’ve buckled down and worked my way, fitfully, through Codeacademy, getting at least a cursory understanding and proficiency with HTML and CSS.
I was disappointed along the way when there was a glitch on the Codeacademy site. I spent a good half-hour trying to figure out how my answer could possibly be wrong until I thought to check out the Q & A forum where I found the issue was with Codeacedemy, not me. I was cheated out of a couple badges I rightfully deserve, and I liked those badges.
Back to my experience in this whole learning to code area. How am I feeling now?
Meh.
I was thinking about my programming regimen this morning and was reminded of when long ago I learned a bit of BASIC. You know, it’s the old Hello, World! syndrome all over again.
Interesting but a yawn.
So what the hell do I want?
I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t this. I’m pretty certain I will never sit down and make my own web page. I don’t see that as a need I have or will have in the forseeable future.
Pondering my situation, I opted to take a different tack. I decided to figure out what I knew with certainty about my interest in technology. I came to the conclusion that, having grown up in a pre-digital world and having been an information junkie all my life, I’m just absolutely and endlessly fascinated and in love with the world of technology and expect I will be until my dying day.
You kids born into a digital world have no idea how much all this tech is indistinguishable from magic, to reference Arthur C. Clarke. I’ve already privately bemoaned the fact that I’ll be long gone in fifty years and will miss whatever startling new developments might be happening in 2063, Hologram sandwiches?! Damn, and I’m gonna miss them!
A recent example: I practically wet myself yesterday when I read that Twitter released a new update that allows not only swiping across timelines but adding photos to direct messages. I had to update the app right away, try it out, DM a dog photograph to one of my sons, marvel at what they have come up with now.
A mobile app from Codeacademy? I downloaded it within minutes and was trying it out.
Medium? What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that? I’ve spent hours a day on the site since I first logged in a month ago.
If I read an online article about quantum computing, I’m giddy, a bit dizzy. (I’ll readily admit I barely, and I’m being generous with myself, understand quantum computing. It doesn’t matter. My head explodes.)
Wolfram is releasing a new computer language? It doesn’t matter that I can’t decipher what it really is from their webpage, I’m filled with this sense of wonder and try to speculate about the future of computer languages. What will that mean in a hundred years? Or even fifty or twenty? I have no idea but it takes my breath away to think about it.
I just love this stuff. I’m endlessly fascinated by it and marvel daily at all the cool things that are being developed and rolled out. Really, I’m not exaggerating, for a guy my age it’s magic, pure and simple. And I love the magic.
I’ve been this way since I sat in front of an Apple IIe back in the eighties. I remember thinking, This is going to change everything. I have eagerly anticipated the latest developments, the newest models, the next bits of software, and the newest apps since then.
I’m thinking I’m not a maker, a programmer, a coder, and probably never will be, but I am a user. I’m an avid user who loves to see what’s new, where technology is going, how it’s being used, and speculating where it will go next.
What interests me is great content, wonderful photographs, clever and exciting media, good user experience, “coolness” as originally personified by Steve Jobs and Apple and now spreading like wildfire on the internet thanks to a wonderful and creative worldwide community of makers and builders and coders and thinkers.
Since I can’t or won’t learn to program because I’m not focused enough, clever enough, creative enough, or (okay, let’s say it) educated enough to build the next Twitter, the next Medium, something better than Facebook, maybe I can spend my time learning and enjoying all the new tech that I can find, trying to fully utilize, learn, and exploit all the possibilities and uses of what others have thought of and built.
Maybe I should strive to become a… wait… wait… EEU— Extreme End User.
To be continued…
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