The Struggle is Real… Important

Nothing in life worth having is easy. Cliches exist because they represent a pattern that has been shown to be true more often than not.

What the collective “we” of #Web3 builders experience is a daily struggle. But a beautiful one. Even the simplest challenges that come with setting up the developer environment — knowing your machine, your OS, dependencies, versions, any updates and the inevitable changes those might catalyze on the whole- then searching for that needle in the haystack that is precluding just getting to writing code- the best of the best deal with this dynamic- regularly. So my aspiring and emerging dev-friends, you are not alone. And at WBA, nobody goes it alone.

So my usual disclaimer moment in these meanderings- I know I am wired differently than many when it comes to facing challenges- the gift of cancer and recovery from alcoholism allow me to live the “don’t sweat the small stuff” mantra- yes, I truly feel these have been gifts with which I have been blessed.

One of my favorite novels to teach when I was a high school literature instructor is Far from the Maddening Crowd, by Thomas Hardy. Great read if you are into the beautifully convoluted Victorian style. Few are, so the TLDR of the reference here is that the plot manifests a central them of The Inevitable Tragedy of life. Now while something not working in your code while you build is not a tragedy, the theme applies here for my purposes. What we always explored wasn’t this paradigm in isolation, rather we dissected how the various characters emerged from said tragedies. What happened next? How did they respond? How did they change from the experience? Grow? Or not?

Invariably through 3 cohorts for CosmWasm and one for Solana so far, I have seen the proverbial inevitable “tragedies” of becoming a developer (a process by the way that is ongoing -one without a final destination, rather a beautiful eternal journey). We know the aforementioned challenges are going to arise- and then getting code to work and function as intended for a secure and user-friendly experience accentuates the challenging process of being a builder. With these thoughts in mind, it is humbling to see the resilience, the emergence, the cohesion and the excitement of our builders. They are displaying precisely the character we strive to attract and nurture in our programs. It is this character, the accompanying values, and the talents and skills they are growing that define the portrait of a WBA grad. A portrait that we firmly believe is integral to growing adoption as users want to engage with instruments and technologies that they trust- built by talented, professional humans.

With the purposeful support of our team, and the cohort of peers, we see every cadet struggle- the best and the most inexperienced. We empathize- all of us- with the emotional and intellectual responses to struggle. We have all been there, and again, we are all dealing with it daily- if you are not running into challenges, you are likely not growing nor building anything of substance.

Embrace the fail- learn to love the compiler complaints. Like any good relationship, those errors and being told you are wrong is part of the connection, and for me at least, one of the greatest contributors to my own growth as a developer. In the space we talk about “breaking shit” 8 year old me loves this- as I sure enjoyed breaking shit when I was a kid- and then putting it back together.

This is what great builders do. They break shit. Then they fix it. They ask very hard questions without a clear answer, and then explore every possibility to find the best available solution- and then try to break that.

If this is not how you are wired, being a Web3 builder is not for you. This world is in the neophyte stages. Everything is new- it’s all in Beta. I love to live my life in Beta. It’s super fun and chaotic. Again, this is not for everyone.

Sitting in class today watching cadets engage with their instructors 1:1 or in small groups was immensely inspiring. Adults who came to the room perhaps a little sheepish about their progress, feeling the comfort of the safe space with their peers and teachers to be vulnerable- to say “This doesn’t work and I don’t know if I can do this” — and then being open to partnering to find solution. This is the way.

The WBA and our model is not for everyone- we know this. But for those for whom we are the right fit, the outcomes are magical.