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Learning to code is a fickle thing – I love it, wholeheartedly, but if you don’t have the ability to donate a certain amount of time to it each day, or week, things start to slip. In the life of someone who freelances, works part time and contracts to a couple of companies, dividing your time between work and pleasure is a HUGE struggle. And is only made more difficult when your ‘pleasure’ activities are primarily work-based.
The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind – things at LegRoom are evolving rapidly, and freelancing has seen me work a schedule I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. But it’s okay, because I love what I do! The only downside of it all? Dev time tends to fall by the wayside.
But, as they say, any progress is still progress, no matter how small. Whether I’m investing thirty hours a week or three hours a week, I’m still actively taking steps toward that end goal. It’s unrealistic for me to think that I’ll have time to learn e-v-e-r-y day – as long as I keep at it, and do everything I can to absorb as much information as possible, I’m golden.
You can tell I feel guilty about it… right?
I’m a bit of a perfectionist, which is a blessing and a curse, particularly in creative environments. When it comes to learning to code, it’s no different to learning any other skill for me – there’s this constant feeling of inadequacy that rears it’s ugly head with each character you type. It becomes impossible to hold back from comparing your skillset to others – no matter how much progress you’re making, it never quite feels like you’re on track to becoming a real, functioning developer. You’re constantly comparing your three months of learning to a code veteran’s fifteen years. Imposter. Syndrome. Sucks.
BUT, it’s normal. Especially for those in the dev community – newbies and veterans alike. I need to keep telling myself that everyone knows something no one else knows. Not everyone will be an expert at everything, and that’s where this community really thrives (thankfully!) – it’s built on sharing your knowledge with others and giving back to the community that gave to you.
It’s been almost two months since the last Road to Code article, and realistically, not a lot has changed – I’m still just as confused by flexbox and I still hate floats (but at least now, I understand my confusion and hatred… and have learnt that it’s totally justified).
Most importantly though, I’m just as eager to learn, and I’m just as fascinated by the web’s capabilities – I’m still fighting the good fight and pushing through bouts of self-doubt and imposter syndrome.
We’ve built a pretty solid foundation here at LegRoom, for content creation and development, so I’m excited to see what the future holds! And thankfully, the long weekend has me feeling somewhat refreshed. What better time to jump back into things?
I’ll be tweeting more about my journey over on my personal Twitter (@murphytrueman) – let’s share our experiences and chat all things dev!
