Amidst Technological Distractions, Message to Aspiring Developers
The constant exponential surge in technological trends is a double-edged sword that can best be described as being both blessing and a curse .
The constant exponential surge in technological trends is a double-edged sword that can best be described as being both blessing (mainly to the experienced developers) and a curse (mainly to the aspiring developers). The intervention efforts being made by the big tech companies to support aspiring developers, in form of scholarships, can also be another factor that adds insults to the unhealed wound. If you are one of those highly motivated aspiring developers, or a bit experienced but find yourself being distracted by the avalanche of constantly evolving new technologies, then this piece is aptly for you. Continue reading as I take you through to explore some of the factors slowing down your progress in your journey to becoming a Senior Developer.
Language to Learn
The first challenge that often greets aspiring developers when they begin their journey to becoming developers is “which language should I learn?” syndrome. If you are in this shoes, then it is not your faults neither it is a peculiar problem to you.
There are quite immeasurable numbers of online resources dedicated to “advising” aspiring developers on which language should they learn first. These resources often end-up being the major distraction and confusion that they innocently have to deal with, mainly due to the fact that almost all the resources/articles start with the same type of argument and end with the same kind of note. They will start with some arguments that the aspiring developer may not even make any sense of, and then end with “You should first learn ABC language because it is simple and beginner friendly”. These resources are, in my opinion, mostly biased and inclined towards the language that the authors are mostly conversant with or have a personal preference for.
The truth of the matter is that, these resources are mostly keeping the aspiring developers off the Big Picture, of which if they were lucky to know about at beginning of their journey then the issue of language-to-start-with will not be their top priority (but rather the technology to learn). The Big Picture I am referring to here is the fact that all programming languages, at least all the general purpose programming languages, that you may lay your hands on have the same underlying principles, and hence learning one is also like learning the others (though with little difference in naming as well as how block of codes are being put together –something one can learn in a day).
Even if you are to think of a language to learn, then your priority shouldn’t just be “Which one is simple” but rather “which one has more helping hands available to you that can help you when you got stuck”
The Big Five
The rate of competition between the Big Five (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft) in coming up with different learning opportunities, in form of scholarship, for aspiring developers with the acclaimed view to growing up the new set of world class developers is silently distracting the attentions of the aspiring developers and hence slowing down their progress.
The way these scholarship programs are being promoted and hyped, through social media and developer communities, often left the innocent aspiring developers (sometimes including developers with some level of experience) with no option than to say “let me give it a shot”. And this is why it is always likely to find one aspiring developer enrolled in multiple scholarship programs trying to teach him different things at the same time. And I don’t think I need to tell you that:
“Jack of all trades is a master of none”
Apart from distracting the focus of the wannabe developers, these programs also put them in an academic-like setting –a setting that usually limits the amount of things that one can learn plus the need for one to account for what he learns at a given period in time; a practice that often leads one into thinking inside the box of note-taking and memorization as opposed to thinking about what problem can he solve with what he learns.
I am not saying that enrolling in such programs is a bad idea neither am I saying the programs are not helpful, but I am just trying to show the mistakes that most of aspiring developers made while enrolling into the programs and the distractions they cause.
My advice to you is to, even if you saw the need to enroll, stick to only one program that is in-line with the type of technology that you are aspiring to be proficient in and always try to think of what you can do with what you are learning in the program (don’t rely only on the small projects in the course to test your understanding, but also try to come up with your own set of problems and try to solve them with what you learn).
Technology Hype
The continuous rise of new disruptive technologies has been a major distraction not only to the aspiring developers but also to the experienced developers. Languages with rising popularity, new libraries and frameworks, Artificial Intelligence, Block chain technology to mention just a few. The best decision here is for one to forget about all the hype and focus on one thing at a time.
It is not that I am asking you to be indifferent to learning new things; in fact being flexible and adaptive to change is one of the habits that you will find common to great developers, but it will be better for you if you can keep your eyes off the rest until when you are satisfied with your progress and competency in applying a particular technology to solve a problems, then you can think of learning another alternative (or another different technology to add up to your stack).
Conclusion
As an aspiring developer, you should not prioritize learning a particular language over a technology, your focus should be on one thing at a time and don’t let any hype about a particular technology distract your focus and attention towards achieving your set goals.
NB: All that’s been said above is a personal account of some of my experiences during my journey to becoming a developer, a journey I’m still on up to now, (plus the experience I have interacting with aspiring developers) and I hope this article will help you in avoiding the mistakes that I made at the beginning of my journey (as well as the mistakes that others made).
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