Set the board before you play
If your files, folders, and names aren’t right, you’re fuct before you’ve even begun. I spend days organizing environments so the rest of the project doesn’t collapse like a bad Jenga tower.
My first experience with a computer was joy followed by terror. I was five or six, playing Aztec Challenge on a Commodore 64 at one of my dad’s buddies’ places. The opening level involved the hero running up to a giant pyramid while dodging spears being thrown at him. I remember thinking 'This is so cool!' but this was prior to the invention of the Adlib Sound Blaster, so the audio coming out of the PC speaker when the spears killed the character scared me, but I also loved it.
Then came the Amiga, Dragon’s Lair , Test Drive , Lemmings , Dune II , and some shit “game” that I copied line-by-line from a programming book. The end result was a Pacman style game that involved ASCII characters running away from other ASCII characters. It sucked. While Appetite for Destruction blasted in the background, computers became my world. I learned DOS the same way that the Beatles first learned new chords when they were kids. I rode my bike across town to hang out with other kids who knew something I didnt.
Growing up, I wasn’t confident. I didn't think I was smart, so I coasted through life doing grunt jobs. I was physically strong, so I told myself 'I have a strong back and a weak mind, so I may as well lift heavy things'. I delivered furniture, I drove 5-ton, I delivered compressed oxygen and liquid nitrogen to the hospitals, I did roofing until I landed in the fitness industry. I started working in the warehouse, then I delivered treamills as swamper, then I was driver and then one day I was given an opportinity to work the sales floor. This was a huge improvement for me, and for a short while I was happy, but I still felt like there was something else.
Then, like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, my life got flipped turned upside down. My first daughter was born, and two months later COVID hit. The world shut down and something inside my clicked. I needed to step step the fuck up. And with that realization, came opportunity...
A friend with a software company was hiring. My wife saw the ad on Facebook and said, “You should reach out.” One five-minute Zoom later, he said, “Let’s give it a try.”
For a month I worked both jobs — 6 to 8 AM, I answered tickets. 9:30 to 6, I worked my day job. I told no one at work. After the month, I was given the 'Green light', they wanted me full-time. I called my wife; she said, “Quit your job. You'll regret this if you don't”. So I did. I walked upstairs, gave notice, was given a small guilt trip (which fuelled me) and never looked back.
The first year it became so obvious how green I was. I didn’t know the left mouse button from the right mouse button. A “CNAME” sounded like shitty rapper. For the first few months, I was floundering just trying to figure it all out. Thank goodness I had a strong sales and customer service background otherwise I dont think I would have been able to survive. With each passing day, I learned something new about Software. day I was lost, but I kept showing up—because for the first time, I could be home to watch my daughter grow up. That was all the motivation I needed. The first year it became so obvious how green I was. I didn’t know the left mouse button from the right mouse button. A “CNAME” sounded like shitty rapper. For the first few months, I was floundering just trying to figure it all out. With each passing day, I learned a little more, and a little more. Slowly, I began to understand who I could be in this industry.
Then came the darkest period of my life. My wife got sick while pregnant with our second child. I don't just mean 'she caught a cold sick', I mean she lost 35 LBS in the first month of her pregnancy and we had no idea why. She spent 18-19 hours a day locked away in our bedroom just throwing up or shitting herself. She couldnt stop. She survived on slurpees, Tim Hortons cream of brocolli soup and Worthers Originals. Eventally we learned she had Hyperemesis gravidarum. This would eventually be followed by what has been described by her doctor as 'one of the most extreme cases of Crohns Ive ever seen'.
She became so sick that I planned her funneral and prepared myself to raise my first born as a single father. I dont know if Ive every recovered from those days. At 28 weeks into her pregnancy we were told that we needed to move to the Ronald McDonald House as the town we lived in couldnt support her if our baby was born prematurely.
We stayed there for 9 weeks. During that time, my employer supported me the entire way through. He let me work from my laptop whlie I tended to my family. It was in this situation that I made another decision. I was going to dedicate myself entirely to this career, and this company. Their dedication to me would be returned with my loyalty. So I started dedicating every spare moment to learning about software.
I became obsessed. I learned everything I could about development. Frontend, backend, devops, infrastructure, API's, libraries, frameworks, security, everything.
The part of me that wanted to be a detective really enjoyed the work the most. Most of the time its not enough for me to just fix the problem, rather, I need to investigate and understand at a very high level as to 'why' it broke in the first place.
I love the tech world. I can't even begin to explain how happy and lucky I feel to do this every day. Ive worked enough shit jobs over the course of my life to know when I have a good thing in front of me, Ill never do anything else for a career ever again. Im a lifer.
If you’re reading this, I don’t want you thinking I’m the most gifted dev alive. I want you thinking this guy never quits. Determination beats genius every time.