"Live high" or my story from procrastination to self-development

Hello Friend.

Today we will not talk about the complex and not so aspects of programming languages ​​or some kind of Rocket Science. Today I will tell you a short story about how I embarked on the path of a programmer. This is my story and you can’t change it, but if it helps at least one person to become a little more confident, it means it was not told in vain.

Prologue

To begin with, I was not interested in programming from an early age, like many readers of this article. I, like anyone gouging, always wanted something rebellious. As a child, I loved to climb up abandoned houses and play computer games (which gave me a lot of problems with my parents).

Being in the 9th grade, all I wanted was to get rid of the all-seeing parental eye as soon as possible and finally “live high”. But what does it mean, this notorious "live high"? At that time it seemed to me a careless life without worries, when I could play games for days on end without reproaches from my parents. My teenage nature did not know who she wanted to become in the future, but the direction of IT was close in spirit. While I loved hacker movies, it added courage.

Therefore, it was decided to go to college. Of everything that I was most interested in at that time and was on the list of directions, there was only programming. I thought: “Well, I will spend more time at the computer, and comp = games.”

College

I even studied the first course, but we had no more subjects related to programming than birches at the north pole. From a complete sense of hopelessness, I threw everything in the second year (I was not miraculously expelled for ANNUAL absenteeism). We weren’t taught anything interesting, there I met the bureaucratic machine or it was with me and I understood how to get marks correctly. Of the subjects, at least indirectly related to programming, we had “Computer Architecture”, which has been 2.5 pairs in 4 years, and also “Fundamentals of Programming”, on which we wrote 2-line programs in BASIC. I note that after 2 courses I studied perfectly (with a hot parental hand). How did I resent and shake, saying: “We are not taught anything, how can we become programmers? It’s all about the education system, we’re just out of luck. ”

It came from my lips every day, to every person who asked me about my studies.
At the end of college, having written my thesis on DBMS and a hundred lines on VBA, I gradually began to get to it. The process of writing a diploma was hundreds of times more valuable than all 4 years of study. It was a very strange feeling.

After graduation, I didn’t even think about the fact that I could someday become a programmer. I always thought that this was an impossible sphere for me with a bunch of headaches. “You need to be a genius to write programs!”, It was written on my face.

University

Then the university began. Having entered the direction of “Program Automation”, I had even more reasons to shout about the terrible education system, because even there we were not taught anything. The teachers followed the path of least resistance, and if you could type on the keyboard 10 lines of code from a leaf, you put a positive mark and went off to drink coffee in the teacher's style.

Here I want to say that I began to experience outright hatred of the educational system. I thought that they should give me knowledge. Why did I come here then? Or maybe I'm so short-sighted that my maximum is 20 thousand a month and socks for the new year.
Today it’s fashionable to be a programmer, everyone admires you, they mention in a conversation, such as: "... and do not forget. He is a programmer, that speaks for itself."
From what I wanted, but could not become one, I reproached myself constantly. Slowly, I began to come to terms with my nature and thought less and less about it. “Nothing, have I ever been distinguished by any special mentality? I was not praised at school, well, okay, not everyone is destined. ”

While studying at the university, I got a job as a salesman and my life was relatively calm, and the longed-for “live high” never came. Toys already didn’t excite the mind, they didn’t feel like running about abandoned houses, and some kind of longing appeared in my soul. Once a buyer came to me, he was smartly dressed, he had a cool car. I asked, they say: "What is the secret? What do you work with? ”

This guy turned out to be a programmer. Word for word, the conversation began on the topic of programming, I began to whine my old song about education, and this person put an end to my razdolbayskim nature.

“No teacher can teach you anything without your desire and self-sacrifice. Learning is a process of self-learning, and teachers only put you on the right track and periodically lubricate the pads. If it’s easy for you during the training, then know that something is definitely going wrong. You came to the university for knowledge, so take courage and take it! ”He told me. This man kindled in me that weak, barely smoldering ember, which had almost gone out.

It dawned on me that my whole environment, including myself, was simply decomposing behind a screen of undisguised black humor and tales of the countless riches that await us in the future. This is not only my problem, but also the problem of all young people. We are a generation of dreamers, and many of us can do nothing but dream about the bright and the beautiful. Following the path of procrastination, we quickly set standards for our lifestyle. Instead of a trip to Turkey - a trip to the country, there is no money to move to the city you like - nothing, and in our village there is also a monument to Lenin, and the car no longer seems such a wreck. I understand why "live high" has still not come.

The same day I came home and began to learn the basics of programming. It turned out to be so interesting that nothing could quench my greed, I wanted more and more. So far, nothing has fascinated me so much; I have been practicing for days on end, in my free and not free time. Data structures, algorithms, programming paradigms, patterns (which I did not understand at that time), all this flowed into my head an endless stream. I slept for 3 hours a day and dreamed of sorting algorithms, ideas of various software architectures and just a wonderful life, where I can enjoy my work, where I will finally “live high”. The unattainable Ultima Thule has already appeared beyond the horizon and my life has made sense again.

After working in the store for some time, I began to notice that all young people are the same insecure guys. They could make an effort on themselves, but they preferred to relax contentedly with what was available, deliberately abandoning their unfulfilled desires.

I tried to combine work and study with the university. After I became interested in the profession, the teachers began with a clear desire to tell me some of the intricacies of the profession, I liked to discuss with them. Of course there were many things that I did not understand from the word "completely." At such moments, my hands fell, piercing the next wall with my forehead, I again began to think that it was "not mine." But time passed, I returned to the same tasks and voila! Everything was elementary.

I managed to find a company for myself, like me, insecure guys who are trying to achieve something. We helped each other, competed, collected all sorts of drones and robots, programmed “smart” houses for our friends. We did everything that brought us almost no money. There I began to specifically lean towards C # and C ++. Why? Yes, simply because I liked to make cool and beautiful applications (used WPF), and work with controllers like Arduina or STM.
I didn’t try to get a programmer soon, because I realized that it would be difficult to combine with the university, but at that moment I liked being there. However, one of my friends recommended me in one starting project, where we worked on a temperature control system in the tank. We hired students to make development cheaper, as I understand it. To refuse would be simply stupid, the money for me was very good and I wanted constant movement. After that, other entrepreneurs began to contact me, although I did not post a resume. I think it's all about word of mouth.
After a couple of years, I already wrote some really useful programs, fit in well with several projects by the developer, gained experience and got even more charged for further development.

Epilogue

There is a belief that if you do something regularly for a certain period of time, then this “something” will become a habit. Self-education is no exception. I learned to learn on my own, find a solution to my problems without outside help, quickly get information and practically use it. Now it’s hard for me not to write at least one line of code per day. When you learn to program, your mind is rebuilt, you start to look at the world from a different angle, and otherwise evaluate what is happening around you. You learn to decompose complex tasks into small simple subtasks. Crazy thoughts come to your head about how you can arrange anything and it will work better. Perhaps that’s why many people think that programmers are “out of this world”.

Now I work in a company that develops automation. I feel fear, but with it I feel faith in myself and in my strength. Life is given once, and in the end I want to know that I have contributed to this world. The story that a person creates is much more important than the personality itself.

What a pleasure to me still bring words of gratitude from the people who use my software. For a programmer, there is nothing more valuable than pride in their projects, because they are the embodiment of our efforts. My life is full of wonderful moments, “live high” came to my street, I began to wake up in the morning with pleasure and really breathe deeply.

In this article I want to say that the first and most important instance of education is the student himself. In the process of self-training lies the process of self-knowledge, sometimes thorny, but bearing fruit. The main thing is not to give up and believe that sooner or later the same irresistibly distant "live high" will come.