I just want to know my stuff!

Isn’t it better to be known as the best at one thing, than to be good enough at everything?

A snippet from Ire Aderinokun’s article, “A Master Of None?”

This question embodies the self-opposing debate that has plagued my mind for the last 8 months.

I spend most of my day developing server-side web applications. When I have time to spare however, you’ll find me tinkering with Android APIs. Because I’m a curious cat, over the weekends, I’d be phasing between frameworks and languages or trying to figure out what’s going on in the world of frontend frameworks (Talk for another day).

Leave it to me and I would be developing applications for Android full time. I’ve come to love the platform and community even more. My world is proving it is not even close to being that simple.

I want to stick to a platform that I find intriguing. Is that selfish? Is that immature? Is specialization gonna impair overall growth or is it just another argument for the “there is safety in diversifying” team?

I definitely would lean towards being the best in one niche. It doesn’t mean I’d have to be there forever. This proves to be difficult for a young software developer looking to kick-start a career in an ecosystem where companies want to hire polyglots.

My greatest fear is that I’d remain mediocre especially now that I’m trying to figure out where exactly to sink my canines. There are a lot of things I’m trying to get better at, like planning better. There are some others I do not yet understand, like why Medium chose to put the Bookmark button at the bottom rather than at the top of the story or how I chose my Twitter handle.

I’m never content with what I currently know. I am eager to get better with each passing day. Everyday I find something I don’t know and it bugs me. It may be Scala tomorrow or TensorFlow next week. For now however, I‘m writing PHP and Java for servers and would still really love to work with Android fulltime.

I really do not care what I do. I care that it’s something that matters, is impactful. I care that I have fun doing it. I care that I love it so much that I’d wanna be the best at it. So… I really do care what I do.

I just want to know my stuff but as Kanye would say, I don’t have all the answers.