Young In Mind - For the Rest of My Life 🏄‍♂️
Tags: devjournal, webdev, career, codenewbie
Published: 2020-12-15 04:10:28


---
title:Young In Mind - For the Rest of My Life 🏄‍♂️
published: true
description: Beginning a software developer career at 47
tags: devjournal, webdev, career, codenewbie
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/gp4du90fzgnz2y0xufc1.jpg
---

## Starting to Code at 47


Most people would agree it is a good thing to be curious and to have a wide range of interests. It is good to be inspired by many different people and many different disciplines. All my adult life, I have believed that `change == growth`. 

This view might come in part from when I studied acting in the theatre - from the 10th grade in high school to age 21 _( I never had a professional acting job )_. Or maybe it comes from when I wrote screenplays _( unsold )_ and studied film in my twenties. Both in theatre and in cinema one learns to look for where change occurs in the characters on the pages of a play or a screenplay. Almost always, that is where character development happens.

Three years ago, a change began happening for me when I started to explore programming. At first, I slowly dipped my toe in the water with some Google searches such as: 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ihxhyeqvyiblkqiojxq6.png)

This led to [Khan Academy](https://www.khanacademy.org) - where I learned what a **variable** is. I played around with my first **function** _( whatever that meant )_ by inputting **arguments** _( whatever those were )_ into opening and closing parentheses. I certainly did not write this "function" that changed the colours and sizes of some shapes using **JavaScript**. I soon learned that JavaScript is a **programming language**. Through some more research online I learned _( sort of )_ what a programming language is.

Around the same time that I was dabbling in code on Khan Academy in the fall of 2017, I happened to be reading a book called [THANK YOU FOR BEING LATE](https://www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Being-Late-Accelerations/dp/0374273537), by [Thomas L. Friedman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman). 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7hscrnu1107a34m6yzuf.jpg)

That is where I first read about [GitHub](https://github.com/). I learned GitHub is an online platform for sharing code and collaborating on code. I learned that [Git](https://git-scm.com/) _( what a weird sounding name )_ is software for what programmers call a **"distributed version control system"**. These were intriguing words even if I only fractionally understood what they meant 😃 Soon after, I came across [Paul Ford's](https://twitter.com/ftrain?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) remarkable online article, [WHAT IS CODE?](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/) - and I found it fascinating. 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/i07ni9iuw5s44f0qixhj.jpg)

After reading and rereading that article, I was hooked. At 47, with a wife and three children under nine years old, I decided that "software development" was what I wanted to do.

---------------------

## After a Month or Two . . .

Next stop was [FreeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/) where I began to learn HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript. Soon after, [Treehouse](https://teamtreehouse.com/) became the first financial investment for my new educational path. I began to learn Python. I had a full time job at a company where I had worked for over a decade but I wanted something better paying with more opportunity for growth and of more interest to me personally. A year passed where I explored all sorts of possibilities in tech. I did a course on [Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/) where I learned about Linux, Bash and the command line. I was also working a second job part time as an Uber driver in the Seattle area. I began picking the brain of every developer I had in my car _(of which there were many)_. And my self study continued.

I bought a new, more powerful laptop from [System76](https://system76.com/) which came pre-installed with the open source [Pop_OS!](https://pop.system76.com/) ( a laptop and Linux Distro which I still use and love ). I read about the [Raspberry Pi.](https://www.raspberrypi.org/) I bought a "Pi" and began playing with it.

Another year of self study continued where I tried Ruby, learned more and more about the command line, npm, Ruby Gems, and continued with Python and more JavaScript. I did many different tutorials on YouTube - and looked at everything I could - from JavaScript code challenges on [CodeWars](https://www.codewars.com/) to [Kali Linux](https://www.kali.org/) and cybersecurity. My wife and I attended a few [GitHub Constellation](https://githubconstellation.com/seattle/) talks in the spring of 2018. I had a ton of imposter syndrome - but everyone was friendly and the talks were absorbing.

-----------------------

## Third Phase

After two years of self study, feeling that I wanted some more structure and help, I found a bootcamp to attend. I dealt with more imposter syndrome but I met some great people, learned a ton, finished the cohort and began my journey of learning while job searching post cohort.

And I am in the thick of that process now.

Software development is a discipline where you have the opportunity to learn multiple new things every single day. Sometimes it feels like trying to drink the ocean, but I try to remember to simply take it one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other.

At times it takes me multiple attempts to get a particular concept or skill.

For example, I tried working with [Vim](https://www.vim.org/) at least three times - each time putting it aside in frustration. But eventually, with the help of [Ben Orenstein](https://www.benorenstein.com/) and [Chris Toomey's](https://ctoomey.com/) excellent [tutorials](https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/onramp-to-vim) on [Upcase by Thoughtbot](https://thoughtbot.com/upcase), the concepts and muscle memory began sticking and I am now a happy Vimmer. Vim is an incredibly rich piece of software that you can continue to grow with for years and years. 

I have come to love the modular style of editing code. Sometimes I use [Atom](https://atom.io/) ( mostly just because Atom is simply cool 😎 ) with a nice Vim key bindings [package](https://github.com/t9md/atom-vim-mode-plus). But usually I split my time between classic Vim in my terminal and [VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) ( also incredibly rich software ) with it's excellent Vim emulation [extension](https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim). I am a bit obsessed with text editors 🤓.

I consciously remind myself everyday to take my inspiration from everywhere. From [David Heinemeier Hansson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Heinemeier_Hansson) and his work on [Ruby On Rails](https://rubyonrails.org/) and [Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/). To [Tania Rascia](https://www.taniarascia.com/) and her wonderful [tutorial on
React](https://www.taniarascia.com/getting-started-with-react/). 

--------------

{% user taniarascia %}

-----------

From [David Goggins](https://davidgoggins.com/) and his amazing book, [Can't Hurt Me](https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Hurt-Me-Master-Your/dp/1544512287):

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/h9ncvoyy2bs68mm6v3ud.jpg)

-----------------


To [Dan Abramov](https://github.com/gaearon) and his [blog](https://overreacted.io/): 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/9woxjvcrr7s420708s5d.png)

-----------------

Or Dan's series of JavaScript [tutorials](https://justjavascript.com/) he did in collaboration with [Maggie Appleton](https://maggieappleton.com/):

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/unjhi2jkcn4pquh9s0x4.png)

------------------

This podcast episode from Chadd Wright resonated with me:

{% spotify spotify:episode:49ZA1JWVkkmtzOO8ev0GfQ %}

The podcast has nothing whatsoever to do specifically with programming, but has everything to do with not giving up.

Chadd is a former Navy Seal and a current Ultra Runner:

{% instagram CG5vxbSpaFS %}

-------------------------------

And I am inspired equally by the YouTube [content](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpURC3VhaQD3YGaI6hEqtKDvXE3-MFDcc) of Brian Douglas, developer advocate at GitHub. He makes complicated ideas clear.

{% user bdougieyo %}

-------------------------

I try to remind myself that everything in my life can feed into becoming a better programmer. From eating healthy and getting enough sleep to working on a personal project. From contributing to open source to writing these words using Vim in [KDE Konsole terminal](https://konsole.kde.org/). When I am on a walk in the sun with my twin boys, or when I am preparing something to eat for my daughter, I am becoming a better developer. It is all part of it.

Software development is an incredibly vast, creative and beautifully complex activity. If I were a teenager now or even if I had three lifetimes, I would never reach the end of this road - and that is more than fine with me.

Software, and everything having to do with writing code,  stretches my mind and forces me to look forward everyday. That is a wonderful thing to anyone in any profession or craft. And I can stay with this discipline and still have never-ending `change == growth` in my professional life - for the rest of my life. Looking back over the past three years, I would say that was what I was really looking for in 2017 when I started believing I could do this.