Technical Blog Posting - Getting Started (Emotionally)

It Starts With Facing Our Emotions

This is my first blog post. This is not meant to be perfect, too in-depth, or even good. This is meant to serve as inertia for a new habit. Planting the seed in the garden.

The hardest part of starting any new habit is the disconnect between what we are used to at the present moment, and what we are used to in our desired futures. This "gap" in emotional experience is why we procrastinate. Really, it's just fear of the unknown.

We try to justify logical reasons to ourselves as a way to hide from that fear. Here's some common things we tell ourselves:

1. "I don't have enough experience to teach others."

   1. This one assumes that we have to be perfect to teach, but this ignores cases where we learn things who are just slightly more knowledgeable than us. This can be from learning how to stir-fry a meal on the stove top, drawing a circle, or anything.

      Teaching also serves as an active recall, and requires thinking about a thing in a structured way. Teaching also helps the teacher more deeply understand the material, because it forces the teacher to fill in gaps or flesh out concepts more thoroughly.

      

2. "I'm not good enough for people to take me seriously."

   1. This ignores that everyone feels this way at some point. Also, it's a weird cultural dynamic that the "product" world created.

      We buy products/services and see how amazing they are, but we fail to see the trial/error period where people fail continuously to find what works. We only see the end result. I want to reject that notion, and build crappy things in public, and focus on my growth over time.

      I'm a work in progress, and I'm going to continue to get better over time. My technical, social, and emotional skills will grow over time as I do more things. People will see the results of those experiences as the "Product", but that's like 5% of the equation.

3. "I have to do (x) before I can start."

   1. This mindset creates "Tutorial Hell", and I've been there longer than I would have liked. This comes from the idea of, "If I know enough, then I won't be afraid or uncomfortable". This is not true. I'm making myself accept that I'm always going to have a level of uncertainty, and that's OK to feel.

4. "This has been done before, I shouldn't bother".

   1. This mindset has held me back for such a long time, but the more I learn about building software in "the real world" the more I realize that this is overlooking something important: that our personalities have a huge impact on the thing we make, and that may resonate with people in a way that has never been done before.

      If this logic was sound, then we would only have 1 story. We would not have genres of things. There wouldn't be more than 1 of each type of video game, book, movie, TV show, program, or business.

      Do it your way, for yourself. Other people could resonate with your unique perspective, based on your unique personality and life experiences. I reject this idea.

It Progresses By Doing It Consistently

The reason why people say, "The best way to program is to program" is because by doing this repeatedly, we can build experience and prove to ourselves that we can do it. Following tutorials alone will not help us build that muscle. In order to get what we want, we need to just do it.

That being said, I think it's also important to build foundational knowledge. Learning fundamentals of any skill is important, but there needs to be a balance of "learning about" vs "deep understanding through experience". I'm still finding that balance, and I'll keep trying until I get it. From doing physical training, I can say that knowing the best form is important, then we need to commit to doing it even if we're not at our best. The pattern matters.

What I Want This Platform To Be

I want to become a joyful creator with a vast amount of technical expertise that can bring people up with me. As I progress in my career, I'll accumulate knowledge and experience that I want to share as I go.

In general, my plan is to do 3 types of blog posts:

1. Introspective Posts on Emotions or Mindsets (like this one)

   1. Why: Overcoming emotional hurdles + building emotional strength as a skill is paramount to thinking clearly, which is necessary for building quality software

2. Technical Posts about a programming (or programming adjacent) principle

   1. Why: Understanding the "why" of a topic is valuable. Learning to use a hammer is good, but learning when to use a drill instead of a hammer to get the job done is better.

3. Retrospectives of Problems I Solved

   1. Why: Diving deep into situations are what build experience. I'll discuss the context (why, what, when, how, and where), what I mistakes I made, what I gained, and what I would tell my past self.

Thanks for checking out this platform, and I'll be here as I grow.