Introduction
They say “You can’t teach old dog new tricks”. Guess what you can. Learning is a lifelong process. Every moment of life teaches you something as long as you are aware of it.
Learning new things has always excited me. In my 15 year career, I have donned different roles in different types of companies and have enjoyed my learning everywhere. Learning is of course not new but journaling my journey is. If you want to peek into my shortcomings, frustrations, and motivations that are leading me to take up this new journey, then hop on and enjoy the ride.
Past and Future
I am excited to be starting on a new journey and I am going to blog it away. When I was growing up as a teenager, I sometimes came across advice that you should “keep a diary” in other words journal every day. If you are a ’90s kid you would also have come across the idea of having a ‘pen pal’. A distant friend in some faraway country whom you could write to without knowing if you were ever going to meet the person. It was a crazy idea for me back then. But in the last 25 years, the world has changed so much. Of course, the idea of traveling to a different country and meeting someone is still a far-fetched dream (especially if you are a middle-class person in an economically developing country like India) but you can of course write your heart out and share it with the world and connect with whoever cares to read it.
Internet through its social media, blogs, Youtube, and various other applications has made the world a much ‘smaller place’ thereby connecting everybody to everybody. Most importantly it has made the idea of “keeping a diary” and “having a pen-pal” enormously convenient. In this new journey and various other future journeys, I am going to share my thoughts, views, and opinions with anybody who cares to read them, comment on them and share them.
I am an Engineer in Information Technology and an MBA. I was starting out in the right industry at the right time. I had taken Computer Science in college and School. I even worked in a large ITES company Wipro Technologies back in 2005. Somehow, I never fell in love with the subject. As I look back it could have been several different reasons or a mix of them. Maybe I was distracted with partying, getting bogged down with earning a salary, not having the skills and hence the confidence of excelling or it could be 10s of other factors. As I look back 15 years from now, I realize that apart from the focus it was also a lack of guidance. The Internet had taken off but Youtube, Facebook ,etc were yet to be born. The only source of guidance was your family, friends, relatives or maybe colleagues but now the world has changed. You have guidance from a 16-year computer prodigy to a 60-year retired veteran who has taken up the same skill development that you are interested in. Watch Learn Practice Flourish and Repeat seems to be a mantra.
I have taken up blogging several times in my life. From eBlogger to WordPress to my website sanadsuman.com. Somehow, I couldn’t sustain it over a very long period consistently this is what I am going to try and overcome this time. Wish me the best of luck.
A new journey begins
So finally coming to the topic of this blog series. I am going to journal my journey to becoming a full-stack developer starting at the age of 40. I have fidgeted with some code in my years at Wipro Technologies but that doesn’t count. Firstly, it is 17 years back and secondly, it is on whole new programming language ie. Python and Django. I am banking on my knowledge gathered in school and college and also my curiosity about building a real-life project from scratch.
This blog will be my journey highlighting Objectives, Challenges, Methods, Victories and Losses along the way. I am sure there would be many of you who would connect with this and share your stories.
What this journey is not about
There is no real expectation, monetary or otherwise but looking forward to the satisfaction of applying my knowledge, skill ,and time and sharing it with whoever can benefit from it. The quote from Steve Jobs about “connecting the dots forward” has stuck with me. I realized you cannot always logically and rationally justify the things you do and the decisions you make but in retrospect, they somehow connect. Also, as Blaise Pascal writes “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of…”, I don’t know why I am so excited about developing this skill but know I want to.
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of… We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.” ― Blaise Pascal
Also please note that this blog is not going to be something like 5 Quick ways to Learn full-stack development or 3 Reasons Why you should take up programming. I will try to keep it in a very conversational format sharing what I experienced and learned during my journey. Also as highlighted I am not an expert programmer. I am not a programmer at all so there is nothing right or wrong with what I will be sharing in my posts. You might even find something that may be technically incorrect and, in that case, I would be happy to get your feedback. Wish me luck.
Small Request
What do you think this journey is going to be like? Please don’t forget to comment and share the post on your social media. Also, share your email id in the registration form so that you get the latest blog in your inbox as soon I post it.
