It took me 13 Years to get into tech, here is how I did it
Tags: beginners, programming, webdev, career
Published: 2022-05-30 17:26:13

If you entered this post because of the title, you probably thought to yourself, “how dumb this guy should be?! - I got to read this” well, I’m not always the sharpest pencil, and I’m far from being Stephen Hawking, but I’m me, Emil, unique enough, lovely to meet you - and with the time, I will blow your mind.

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I was flirting with programming from the 7th grade (2009 probably), I was going to a programming class on a college campus not far from my home with people much older than me, and we were learning C or C#; I really don’t even recall, the only thing that I do remember is a lot of blue screens.
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I could not concentrate on the learning, and I played games during the classes until I stopped going because playing games at home seemed like a better option, and the fridge was nearby.
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The next time I encountered programming was in high school, where we learned Assembly and some C. And I think I barely passed the exams because I did everything BUT learning in high school.
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The third time I attempted to get to the point of actually learning to program was after my military service at 21. That is when I discovered FreeCodeCamp for the first time - and it was a blast!
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I can’t say for sure if it is because of the programming languages (I was learning web development: HTML, CSS, and javascript) or just because the user experience and the ‘roadmap’ was much clearer, BUT again, after a few very enthusiastic weeks - I stopped, lost the momentum.
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And then got back to it at 23 y.o (2021) after changing my mindset about it.
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Oh, and I got into tech. Yey.
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## Now What?
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In this post, I would like to try to deconstruct what possibly many experiences in their journey to get into tech and programming, challenge the base assumptions and give my 5 cents of advice.
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Inspired by the best-selling author Tim Ferriss, the older I get, the more time I devote to developing better questions as a portion of my daily routine. Crafting better questions will bring better returns in many areas due to asking things differently.
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Looking back, the piece I probably was missing was the ‘why’ to program.
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Of course, the perspective of job opportunities and good salary, and the potential to work from anywhere was on my mind, and still - it is not enough.
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Why do I want to help you?
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That’s a good question.
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Because I want my love-hate relationship with code while learning to mean something.
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The meaning is to help, help others like myself, younger or older, to have the encouragement to start and keep it up.
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That is why this blog was created, and that is why I started streaming my learning and creating content around all this fuss.
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So, let’s **define what coding is**.
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Coding is the process of converting a logical plan of action from a human-readable language to a machine-readable language.
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Before any coding is done, logical thinking, analysis, and laying out a series of instructions for a computer program or application should occur. **This is the programming part.** Programming is the bigger picture in the process.
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Coding is a part of that process but should always come after the programming or problem-solving and planning stage.
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So the question of “_How to code” is already not the right one._ Before you start looking for the answers, you need to think carefully about **what sort of coding you would like to do.**
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Because this will **dictate the languages, you choose** to learn and how you learn them.
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More on that in some next posts.
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## Why?
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When you learn how to code and program, you’ll often find yourself demotivated. And keep in mind, it’s not ‘If.’ It’s ‘When’ it will happen.
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The thing that will help you get over it is the ‘purpose.’
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So before investing any more time (besides maybe finishing reading this), define your ‘why.’
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Your ‘why’ will help you in the hard times when things do not go your way and everything seems stupid and not worth it.
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It could be that you have an idea of something you want to build, a game perhaps, or maybe create a website for your father’s pizza place, or maybe just for the potential income and the high demand.
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Make sure it’s YOUR OWN WHY, and it’s not defined by someone else.
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Whatever it is, make sure it’s strong enough to help you keep going when things are getting tough.
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To wrap this post, my ‘Why’ is the ability to create things from nothing.
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I want (and love) to solve problems - and I know that coding and programming are incredible skills to do so.
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I’ve got many more reasons - but I prefer to unwrap them as I will continue to write and create.
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Do you have an idea of why you would like to know how to code and program? Please share it with the world, and find like-minded folks to help you stay on track.