Over the past years I’ve grown. A little bit at a time, sometimes painstakingly, but I’ve grown nonetheless. This is my official disclaimer that I am just some nerd in your computer that writes a blog about software I think is cool. I am just a CompSci student and nothing on this site should be taken as fact. Do your own exploration! Correct me when I’m wrong!
Be uncomfortable
If you ever find yourself in a comfortable spot in your journey, immediately stop what you’re doing. If you’re not being challenged, you’re not learning. It’s easy to stick with what you know and not pursue anything else. I call this the valley of complacency. Once reaching the valley of complacency it’s easy to assume that what you know is all you really need to know; after all, its gotten you this far right? It’s easy to think “eh, I don’t need to know X, it’s Y!” Your goal should be to always be learning. There’s so much to learn in the technology world, there will always be new and challenging things to dive into. Learning new things can even help with burnout and help keep you motivated. Following the path of “always learning” can make you grow inhumanely (as long as it’s healthy.) It’s both embarrassing and humbling to read older posts I wrote and realize “ah, yikes that’s a horrible way to do that.” Growth can be painful! Just remember you grew.
You don’t have to do the extreme
Keep in mind however that doing the exact opposite of stagnant can become unhealthy. Working 10-12 hours a day on projects (paid or not) is a prime condition for burnout. Like all things, it’s best done at a healthy and moderate pace. This ‘healthy pace’ is personal and up to you. I’ve known people to pour their every waking moment into their passion, but I would strongly advise against it. Life should not be about one thing. Diversify, meet new people, try new passions. For me, most of my time is spent with my family and friends. Only when others are busy will I make time to improve my skills. Skills in a field like technology are fleeting, relationships (true relationships) can last a lifetime.
Revising and improvements
I will be going through some older posts in the coming weeks and revising several of them. I don’t think this is ‘changing history’ as you can always clone my repository and checkout a previous commit to view my ugly mistakes.