That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Coder
Coding tips that improve your daily life
Like many others I had lost my job during the 2020 pandemic. I had been working a career that I was no longer passionate about and looking for something to spark my fancy. After extensive research I noticed a trend that all the qualities of a career I wanted was in one thing…programming. That is when the seeds of interest were sowed and I began looking into a career in coding.
Fast forward a month later, I’m starting my first day at Flatiron’s Software Engineering course. Little did I know that something seemingly simple as learning to code would change habits in my daily life. Here are some lessons I had to learn…typically the hard way. Hopefully you can learn from them too.
- Measure Twice, Cut Once!
In real estate it’s location, location, location. But when coding it’s “testing, testing, testing!” You thought you’d have learned from the catastrophe of a shed you helped your dad build in high school but sadly…no.
In coding the importance of planning, design, and testing is insurmountable. You can code all you want but if things aren’t going how they’re supposed to due to lack of preparation it WILL be a bad day. Whether you’re making your first command line app or a fully functioning CRUD application there’s no winging it when it comes to applying such precise logic. Measure twice, cut once!
2. Get Up and Move!
As exciting(or frustrating) as coding can be, the reality is that you’re sitting at your desk for copious amounts of time. You need to get up and move!
This fact forced me to get up and try to find more activity. My activity levels went from the occasional strain of lifting my finger to order DoorDash to eventually taking walks in my free time. That need to walk turned into going to the gym every day and often during lunch hour.
3. Ask For Help!
Wether it’s pride or imposter syndrome, both can get the best of us and we won’t WANT to ask for help even if you’ve been stuck for an absurd amount of time. That thinking takes away the time that could have been spent learning, or making progress, away from you.
“Having a need and needing help is not a sign that you are weak. It’s about being human.” —
Conclusion
As my first full month of diving head first into coding nears its end, I can look back and actually feel a semblance of progress. Before, I could only see my literal accomplishments in the form of completing a project….but now I can FEEL it! All the blood, sweat, and tears seem to have finally started to culminate into something beautiful on the screen and off.
And that’s the time I got reincarnated as a coder
