What Programming Taught Me About Life In 2015

Programming. Not the kind you do with your DVR to catch the latest episode of Dancing With The Stars. Though someone did write computer program(s) to give you that ability. The type of programming I'm referring to is the kind done by “nerds” on computers. If you seen any of the Matrix movies, these programmers are the guys that can “read the matrix”. That's the group I'm working my way into.

Something happened along the way of this journey of mine, I didn't just learn how to “code” I also learned more about life and how I should live it. Programming is easily one of the hardest(mentally) things that I have ever done. On a daily basis it challenges, frustrates, confuses, teaches, and rewards me. So here are the following top 5 things that programming has taught me over the last year.

1: How to learn again

I don't care who you are programming doesn't come natural. Now that's not to say there aren't people who pick it up very quickly, but programming requires massive amounts of learning. I believe that those who are “naturals” are people who have been gifted with picking up and learning new things quickly. Programming has taught me how to learn again. Too often in my adult life before programming did I not accomplish “learn something new today”. If you're going to be successful in this field you HAVE to be able to learn. Not the type of learning where you go take a couple classes or a course over lunch. This is the type of learning where it is continuous. It has reminded me that there is so much about life and this vast universe that is constantly offering up learning experiences if only I'm receptive to them. Programming has not only taught me how to learn but how to teach myself. The latter may even be more important than the former, but if you can't learn there's no need to try and teach yourself. Over these past year I feel I have expanded what I know exponentially. This leads me to….

2: I know nothing (like Jon Snow)

Now this sounds a little oxymoronic at first look, but hear me out. Since deciding on my career change into programming there have been massive ups and downs. When I graduated from Centriq Training, I felt on top of the world and that I could program anything if given the time. Boy was I wrong. Even with what seemed like a whole college degree's worth of information in 4 months I still knew so little about programming, and its intricacies, that my knowledge is much closer to nothing than any other level. And that is OK! Wait, how could knowing nothing be ok?! The fact that I'm able to realize that I know so little is the triumph in itself. Now this knowledge combined with the first lesson and now knowing what I need to learn means nothing is out of my grasp. I learned that I have to have enough knowledge to know what I don't know so that I can pursue it and learn or teach myself. However, it's not just that easy, which leads me to…

3: Patience/Commitment

Nothing in life is easy, and odds are you'll get frustrated, or even angry, trying to learn something new if you're anything like me. Programming has taught me how to be patient and that things don't come over night. Now I'm not going to quote all the old adages about patience, but programming has proven them all to me time and again. However, patience is all for naught if you aren't committed to whatever it is you're doing. That could include being committed to being patient. These two things combined are probably the hardest two things to implement. I have had to be incredibly patient trying to learn new concepts, but not just patient with the process, committed to it. When I've successfully combined these two things and apply it to what I don't know and then how to learn it, there's nothing I can't do or learn. If you stick with these 3 things it will lead you to…

4: Every problem has a solution

There isn't a single problem that can't be fixed, in my opinion. I learned that what might seem to be an impossibility to add to my code, even that has a solution. It's just probably not what or how you thought it might be. Keeping your mind open and receptive is just as much a key here as it is to the learning process. This isn't to say that every problem has a solution right now, but that if I can apply lessons 1-3 that the solution will present itself. This has made one of the more profound changes in my outlook on life, using the lessons that programming has taught me I no longer approach things as a problem, but rather a challenge to find the best solution. Doing this leads me to…

5: Celebrate success

There is no better feeling than solving a problem in your code that you have been working on from an hour to weeks/months. This is the culmination of lessons 1-4. I've learned that it's ok to take a minute to sit back and revel in my success. It's actually a good thing. Too often am I hard on myself, after all I know nothing remember? So taking the time to really celebrate my victory, whether in life or programming, is a cornerstone for all of this. What's the point of all this hard work if at the completion you can't take a moment and sit back to appreciate what you have created. That creation can be a perfect moment, a new program or patch, a treehouse for the kids, any of those things. After this long process it crucial that you take this time to appreciate what you've accomplished and use this positive energy to keep your momentum into the next task. And it just makes you feel damn good at the same time.

So as long as I'm able to keep learning, understand that I don't know everything and I'll need help along the way, I stay committed and patient to the cause, that the solution will present itself, and finally to congratulate myself on the victory I think I can handle anything that life will throw at me.