It took me 13 Years to get into tech, here is how I did it

If you entered this post because of the title, you probably thought to yourself, “how dumb this guy should be?! - I got to read this” well, I’m not always the sharpest pencil, and I’m far from being Stephen Hawking, but I’m me, Emil, unique enough, lovely to meet you - and with the time, I will blow your mind.

I was flirting with programming from the 7th grade (2009 probably), I was going to a programming class on a college campus not far from my home with people much older than me, and we were learning C or C#; I really don’t even recall, the only thing that I do remember is a lot of blue screens.
 
I could not concentrate on the learning, and I played games during the classes until I stopped going because playing games at home seemed like a better option, and the fridge was nearby.
 
The next time I encountered programming was in high school, where we learned Assembly and some C. And I think I barely passed the exams because I did everything BUT learning in high school.
 
The third time I attempted to get to the point of actually learning to program was after my military service at 21. That is when I discovered FreeCodeCamp for the first time - and it was a blast!
 
I can’t say for sure if it is because of the programming languages (I was learning web development: HTML, CSS, and javascript) or just because the user experience and the ‘roadmap’ was much clearer, BUT again, after a few very enthusiastic weeks - I stopped, lost the momentum.
 
And then got back to it at 23 y.o (2021) after changing my mindset about it.
 
Oh, and I got into tech. Yey.
 

Now What?

 
In this post, I would like to try to deconstruct what possibly many experiences in their journey to get into tech and programming, challenge the base assumptions and give my 5 cents of advice.
 
Inspired by the best-selling author Tim Ferriss, the older I get, the more time I devote to developing better questions as a portion of my daily routine. Crafting better questions will bring better returns in many areas due to asking things differently.
 
Looking back, the piece I probably was missing was the ‘why’ to program.
 
Of course, the perspective of job opportunities and good salary, and the potential to work from anywhere was on my mind, and still - it is not enough.
 
Why do I want to help you?
 
That’s a good question.
 
Because I want my love-hate relationship with code while learning to mean something.
 
The meaning is to help, help others like myself, younger or older, to have the encouragement to start and keep it up.
 
That is why this blog was created, and that is why I started streaming my learning and creating content around all this fuss.
 
So, let’s define what coding is.
 
Coding is the process of converting a logical plan of action from a human-readable language to a machine-readable language.
 
Before any coding is done, logical thinking, analysis, and laying out a series of instructions for a computer program or application should occur. This is the programming part. Programming is the bigger picture in the process.
 
Coding is a part of that process but should always come after the programming or problem-solving and planning stage.
 
So the question of “How to code” is already not the right one. Before you start looking for the answers, you need to think carefully about what sort of coding you would like to do.
 
Because this will dictate the languages, you choose to learn and how you learn them.
 
More on that in some next posts.
 

Why?

 
When you learn how to code and program, you’ll often find yourself demotivated. And keep in mind, it’s not ‘If.’ It’s ‘When’ it will happen.
 
The thing that will help you get over it is the ‘purpose.’
 
So before investing any more time (besides maybe finishing reading this), define your ‘why.’
 
Your ‘why’ will help you in the hard times when things do not go your way and everything seems stupid and not worth it.
 
It could be that you have an idea of something you want to build, a game perhaps, or maybe create a website for your father’s pizza place, or maybe just for the potential income and the high demand.
 
Make sure it’s YOUR OWN WHY, and it’s not defined by someone else.
 
Whatever it is, make sure it’s strong enough to help you keep going when things are getting tough.
 
To wrap this post, my ‘Why’ is the ability to create things from nothing.
 
I want (and love) to solve problems - and I know that coding and programming are incredible skills to do so.
 
I’ve got many more reasons - but I prefer to unwrap them as I will continue to write and create.
 
Do you have an idea of why you would like to know how to code and program? Please share it with the world, and find like-minded folks to help you stay on track.