The more I progress through Flatiron’s course material (I still have a very, very long way to go) and the more I find myself on sites like StackOverflow, Quora, YouTube, etc., the more I realize how expansive the world of coding, programming, and development truly is.
It is massive.
And it is overwhelming.
While this realization can be downright worrying at times, especially if you’ve been coding for three to four months and you see senior developers online saying things like, “You’ll start to get a handle on things after five years or so.” All you can picture is the very long road that lies ahead of you.
This road is never-ending and no matter what you do, you’ll never arrive at the end. At face-value this can be a depressing realization, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that this is one of its best attributes.
So many people go into a specific job or field and after five years or so plateau, whether from a lack of motivation or perhaps there’s nothing left to learn. In the world of programming and software development this will never happen. I repeat, NEVER happen. There will always be a new language, framework, or technology to learn and keep up with, along with ever-evolving customer demands for what they expect from the industry.
This is perhaps the most attractive part of this field. As someone who is a self-proclaimed, lifelong learner, this means that I’ll always be occupied and learning, applying and perfecting what I’ve learned.
So fellow learners, do not despair, but instead relish in the process because it’s not going anywhere.