The moment that changes everything
Tags: beginners, career, watercooler
Published: 2019-11-18 15:43:07

Some people claim that enlightenment is often accompanied by lively laughter. If this is true, this happened to me on November 14, 2019. On that day, I decided to make software development my primary occupation and thus say goodbye to my (management-heavy) corporate job. It happened right after I came across [FastAPI](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/), which to me felt like a 10x improvement compared to any other framework I had seen before in terms of simplicity and documentation.

If you are just starting out, everyone is facing the same issues as you at some point: Whether it is finding the perfect editor (don't worry, your strong opinion will develop naturally), different programming languages, people not having solved the _exact_ problem on Stackoverflow (or worse: the solution still not working on yours), keyboard symbols that have no use in the real world, a crushing feeling of cognitive inferiority or just generally the [terrifying lows and dizzying highs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97M1X13XvOk) that you face when something magically works or doesn't.

But then there will be the day when it "clicks". That moment will be different for everyone. If you are like me, you are so full of joy that you break into tears while walking home – as a 2m tall/29y guy, strange looks from other people included. But yours can be very different and if it hasn't yet, don't force it – just keep on working on stuff you find interesting. It will!

One more remark on what triggered my strong reaction: What many people do not know at the beginning is the meaning of open source. You may have read about it here and there and are excited that _somehow magically_ stuff on the internet is offered free of charge for no obvious reasons. There can be a [business case for open source](https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-business-case-behind-open-source-software) but some people simply build insanely good stuff for fun, pride or discontent with present-day solutions. The latter must have been the primary motivation for [Sebastián Ramírez](https://tiangolo.com/) when he developed said API framework and gave it away for everyone to use.

When I first saw it, I had about 2 hours of [Django Rest Framework](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/) (DRF, also open source!) under my belt. But to be transparent here: that was six weeks before and on the "to procrastinate on"-list ever since, all negative strings attached. By the time I found FastAPI, I knew just enough about DRF to understand how simple it would be to build the API I wanted in the first place. DRF is a great framework, no doubt. But it can still be scary for someone building his/her first API on a shaky Django foundation.

Back to the beginning: I am writing this to you if you are still hot and cold about software and scared of "saying yes" to it. If you do not understand something in this article, go back again to the third paragraph – I didn't understand some of it either for most of my life. But every time you make a small step forward, it will likely give you a rush of joy and I can assure you that at some point you will be able to walk where you want to. And _that_ is a lot of fun!

---

Social media is not my strong suit but I am happy to help someone in a similar situation. So if you are still unsure, feel free to connect with me here or via Twitter: [@_ajascha](https://twitter.com/_ajascha).