Man. At 25, you are still so incredibly young, you have no idea. I am 30 and still feel incredibly young, but you already have a 5 year jump on me, which is huge. Take advantage of it and don't waste it. You're already on the right path by looking to be a developer, which leaves the world open to you. Maybe you'll get tired of working on other people's stuff when you reach 28 or so, and maybe you'll start a company that you're passionate about and exit by the time you're 30. Then you can spend the rest of your life swimming with sharks, looking through telescopes and learning more about physics, or whatever it is that excites you. 25 is the ideal age to make this transition. Do it.
Hi there. Just wanted you to know that you shouldn't be embarrassed/ashamed about the stuff that you're putting out there. A lot of people don't want to admit their struggles or often won't post something for fear that someone will consider them stupid, not gifted/insightful, etc... These fears are illogical and usually stem from personal views/beliefs on intelligence.
Especially if you were always ahead of the class in school, and could get away with less studying than your peers, you are prone to this way of thinking. The fact that you cannot grasp something immediately and innately may be disturbing to your brain, and it will easily get overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it all.
Just want to tell you that if you are able to recognize these fears/doubts, and continue what you are doing in spite of them, you will reach your destination. You are still incredibly young. I am 30 and not even to the point where you are, congratulations. You have 6 years to fuck around before we're on even playing ground.
It may sound stupid, but what has helped me deal with overwhelming emotions is the fact that we can only be successful one day at a time. If you have a successful day, then you are on the path to being successful at whatever you're wanting to do. Even if you don't exactly know what it is yet.
Focus on having successful days, and eventually you will look up and be amazed at what you were able to achieve. Also, realize how much time you spend looking for those silver bullets-"Am I reading the right stuff, is there a way to get there faster? Is there a better way?" These are all important to think about, but they can also be used for reasons to do nothing, which is not a good formula for success.
As one successful dev once told me, there are tons of ways to get there. There isn't a better or best path that anyone really knows of. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but it seems to be true. I think a lot of times, worrying about finding the best way to get there is the best form of procrastination. You fool yourself into believing it is better to find a better way than to actually do something. I think the best advice when you come to a point like this is to think of something you want to create and just take some time off to learn how to create it. You may realize along the way that there are certain things that you really don't care about learning for the time being. If you look at all the different responses from HN users, you will see that every response is unique. Some may suit you, but some won't. I think it's really going to be up to you to find what you need and what you don't. The only way to find out is to do the work.
Cheers, and I love the website you created. Keep up the good work and remember to not be too self conscious about the stuff you put out there.
I can't convey to you how good this post made me feel. It's extremely reassuring to me that there's someone out there who feel the same way I do about this stuff.
And the procrastination part made me smile. I keep trying to find better and more optimized ways of learning something and I keep getting stuck at certain points. Only after I've read your post have I realized that this was just another way of procrastination (and perhaps the most insidious form of it).
Thanks billions and billions of times (hat tip to Mr. Carl Sagan) for the very kind words and the motivation!
I hear this often. Is this really a good idea? I have thought of it, but I wonder, am I just going to move all the way out there, and then I still won't find anything? What then. I guess I could just sit here and do nothing too, I guess that would be similarly effective. I would like to think that what you suggest is true. I hope that it is. I don't know why I have so many doubts without even actually attempting it. Maybe a visit out there would be a good idea to break this way of thinking.
Would love to talk to you a bit more about this. This is very much a real issue for me, and I would like to further understand what you mean by finding practical things to do, etc. I would greatly appreciate any further response. Thank you.
Definitely happy to talk further. Not sure how we can get in touch privately in this forum -- if that's not possible, drop me an email to anonimoheynonnyno@gmail.com
It doesn't. Part of the reason is urgency, and part of the reason is not fully trusting what I have found with my research (or not knowing if there is something better, and maybe I am missing out). I thought about this before posting, as I don't wish to shirk my own responsibilities, but from your response and others, I am glad that I decided to post, it has been very helpful and encouraging for me. Is there any reason this boot camp might be better than the others? I do not know anyone who has attended these camps.
Hey, thanks for the support. I admit I don't know enough about what was going on in that vid to make it exciting, but the thought of being able to make a website do whatever I want to sounds incredibly fulfilling.
Does not have to be something big. Perhaps just playing tic-tac-toe with your web app can be a start. or not even that. You don;t have to build a web app from the beginning. Try building a simple console app first. It's much easier.
I basically have no technical background other than basic engineering, but nothing software related. On the bootcamps, do you personally know anyone who attended and recommended a specific one? I thought about doing this, but I heard mixed reviews (I know there are quite a few now).
I don't know anyone who has gone through one of these dev bootcamps - but in the grand scheme of things 12 weeks of intense effort under some guidance is a relatively small investment to give you a feel for whether not you have the talent and enduring interest to go down the route of building out the skills to be the technical founder yourself.
Even if you decide that doing the web development yourself isn't all that exciting, you will now be in a much better position to evaluate other programmers that you hire to execute your vision.
Hey,
I am currently in Dallas. I really have no ties here, I am considering picking up and moving, but not sure yet. I would definitely like to know some people who have worked on, or are working on something programming related. Part of the reason for me wanting to learn basic coding is to find my mission/passion. I have many interests, most too large probably to be feasible on any level, but I feel that as I become more aware of things that are missing in my life, more ideas pop into my head. I would like to be a little more prepared than I currently am in case the need arises, to put it coarsely.
Hmmm, I'm beginning to think that maybe you should formulate WHAT you want to do before you get to the HOW. Maybe it'll turn out coding may only be a small part of it. Building a start-up goes way beyond coding. Jeff Bezos never coded yet look at where Amazon is today...Just a thought
