5 Life Lessons from Lines of Code
Never stop searching, there’s always a better way
No talent required. Anyone can use the search engine to find a solution to a problem. But what if you can’t find the answer after the first search attempt, the second? the third? Sometimes when you’re working with new technology, you might be the first to encounter this problem. First, you need to believe that there’s a solution. If you stop searching for the answer, well, that’s the end. When you continue to reframe the question and try different methods and tools, you will realize nothing can stop you.
If you have tried your best making something work, and it doesn’t. Move on.
In software development, there are tons of third party modules for you to implement into your projects in order to speed up the process. However, sometimes it’s not the most compatible solution, and your project might crash and end up spending more time trying to fix it. In life, the third party module could be a new person you just met, a hobby you are trying out, or a new job that you just started. When they’re compatible with you, life is instantaneously 10 times better. At the same time, when it just doesn’t fit your core value. You might spend more time “fixing” it to meet your expectation. It might still work in the end, but was it worth it?
You can’t predict the future, but you can expect the changes
When planning for software development, the initial mockup and what the user eventually uses or never used can be vastly different. I used to feel angry whenever a client makes a request to change the entire project to something else when the project is near completion. Thinking to myself, “why you do this to me?” Then I realized, it’s not the client who’s doing it. It’s the universe. The client only changes the project because the world’s demand has changed. The dynamic of the universe has changed. It was just silly of me to be mad at the universe. The world is changing and everyone has the power to affect a change. Changes happen because the world is alive, and it’s good to be alive.
Don’t bother being perfect in the beginning
When building something from zero, we all have an ideal picture of what it should. Although that visualization of how everything is going to work out perfectly is a healthy mindset, often times, bugs are expected after a fresh line of code. After opening ten different tabs to search on Google, then, the little voice inside of you start saying, “I will never solve this. God of code hates me. This looks so simple. Why can’t I solve it?” Of course, having those thoughts were counter productive and made me not enjoy what I was doing. Now, I expect mistakes and bugs. I celebrate when an error message changes into a different one, because I know that I am making progress. In life, we can apply this thinking when we’re trying something new. Expect that you will make mistake and things don’t work out. But you won’t be bother by the little voice inside of you, because you’re ready to take on those challenges ahead of you.
Accept ignorance and harness it.
What you know today might not be valid or useful tomorrow. When I decided that I will build a website myself, some people told me to learn Dreamweaver, a software that allows you to drag and drop to quickly build a website. In the beginning, I actually believed that I knew about building a website. Until I met a JavaScript developer and other front end developers, Nobody uses Dreamweaver, they said. It’s about learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript to be able to build a real website. Then I started swimming through loads of information on the internet, there are also a list of frameworks and different programming languages to do similar tasks. Constant reset and relearn about the best practices. The more I learned the more I realized that I knew so little. I still don’t know much, but the unknown is what drives me to continue to search and learn.
Not everyone should learn code, it just happens to be the interest that attracted me. There are certainly other life lessons from doing other activities, from playing basketball, traveling to a new place, or even daily routine of brushing my teeth. What’s your life lessons? Comment below, I would like to learn from you.
In the end, I really appreciate the time you took to read this.
