“if today was the last day of your life, what would you do differently?”
Answer: I’d still go against all odds
Back during my college years if people were told that I was going to be a good programmer, nobody would have believed because you know society is always ready to judge people based on their field of studies at university. One more reason why our education system is failing in making people reach their highest potential and inert skills. Well anyway, how did I go against all odds?
Dedication, Focus and Having Fun
About 3 years ago, I started learning the Microsoft MVC5 course on Udemy because a friend of mine suggested me to take the course and gave me directive on how to use the knowledge acquired into building real world web applications. That sounded exciting since I had already some knowledge in HTML and Bootstrap, then the challenge was set. I dedicated my time after my courses on campus to explore the course by locking up myself for 4 weeks (which goes approximately to 30 days), learning, testing, debugging, and finally building BisoOnline. I had fun while learning the course and building BisoOnline, but that wasn’t enough. How useful would C# be to me in the long term? Every single web application is going mobile, and improving my C# skill would only help me make Windows mobile application, but again how many people are using Windows phones?
*Hint: Few bucks can get you the skill you’ve always wanted.*
Then I was back on my personal challenge again. 30, which became my favorite number in terms of long term challenges, was the number of days I needed to focus, dedicate and learn mobile app development (coffee became my BFF). So, I spent few bucks on a #JAVA course on Udemy to acquire the needed skill to shift BisoOnline from a web application to mobile application, remember Warren Buffet said that we shouldn’t spend cash on someone to accomplish a task that we can do ourselves. Currently, the app has more than 2000 downloads (you don’t only build the app, you better advertise it as well).
It’s cool knowing 50 percent how these programming languages work, but again how useful would it be to me in the long term if I only know half or maybe one third of it ?
Piece of advice: “There is a lot of programming languages out there, the ultimate goal in learning one of them should be to master it and either build a real-world application from it or join a team that works on a project that requires your skill”
Back to 2017, a year that I described from its beginning as a game changing year. In January, I flew to Istanbul to meet a friend of mine who is currently one of the best bot consultant out there (he knows his shit). As we were having that fine Kenyan coffee served at Starbucks, we had a very long discussion about the future of tech, bots, Africa, productivity and scalability. What I actually grasped from our conversation was the importance of learning (if necessary) and mastering skills that will be needed in the future, skills upon what the next generation of technology will be built. Fortunately, Python appears to be one of the top programming languages that play an important role in AI, Fintech, Robotic, Image Processing, and more. That’s how my love story and journey with Python started. This time around it’s no more about learning for fun and making every single idea a reality but it’s about learning, building then SCALING (guys in Startups will understand what I mean). Again, 30 days is what it took me to learn #Python from Edx, also to mention that the instructor was really amazing. At the moment, I am able to write non-complex algorithm and build non-complex python program (small achievement needs to be celebrated). Am I going to stop there? Of course not, mastering it and building scalable real world web application is the ultimate goal.
Note: The human brain is one of the greatest gift given by God. Putting our brain at work gives us super power to create and become small god (who of course should never be worshiped). You want to go against all odds, put your brain at work, you want to prove people wrong, put your brain at work, you want to realize that super cool idea of yours, put your brain at work, give it challenges because nobody is more intelligent than you. Don’t be fooled by our education system, having tons of diplomas doesn’t make you smarter. Last but not least, always go for self-education.