Why I should give up programming
For a long time I've been wanting to be good at programming and web development. I've tried a lot of different sites for this. And also worked in pure HTML/CSS.
This has not gotten me very far. I feel like I've scraped the surface of a lot of languages and have become familiar with syntax in general. But no project has really emerged or been completed. It's frustrating, but I have to many other projects in my life, and tend to move between the smaller, non-necessary ones in some kind of circular interval. Thus nothing beside the stuff that really needs doing gets anywhere.
When I happened upon the text Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years some month ago, my initial thought was "this sounds perfect for me!". No stress, the pressure is off. In ten years, even I could make it. Reading the text however, an unexpected realization dawned on me: I should probably give up my attempts on programming altogether.
In the text Peter Norvig presents a recipe for programming success in a 10 point bullet list. I think it was that list that shoved me over the edge. Ran me into the wall. Punctured my balloon. Choose whatever metaphor for having your naive visions killed. That list, and when he concludes (with scientific references, mind you) that about 10 000 hours are a good approximation of how much time you need to spend to become really good at something. What would that mean to me, to my life situation? Let's say I could cram out one hour a day for programming; it would take me roughly 27 years to accomplish 10k hours. I'd be 70.
The thing is, a sense of relief actually came over me. I really like writing code, I find a lot of syntax beautiful to look at and construct. But to be honest, it will never be my primary source of income or even my main free time activity. Not with the current trajectory of my life. The thought of once again change my career is just encumbering. I graduated as a Registered Nurse at 37 years of age, a Nurse Anesthesist at 42. It takes a lot of years to get good at anesthesia, so this will likely be my main occupation for the foreseeable future. And I need to accept that, despite my dreaming, visionary, restless personality. In many ways it's a great path, because it's challenging and full of new opportunities to learn along the way to proficiency. Thus the risk of me getting bored is very slim.
My brother has a career in tech, and quite a succesful one. When I complained about never being able to work more flexible hours or from home, and started asking questions that implied I might want to shift into tech he responded with some sobering words of advice:
Whatever the ads and websites says about kickstarting your career as a programmer, it's seldom that easy. And the salary won't automatically be great. Instead, he suggested I should look into ways of accomplishing some of my goals within my current career path. If I want to be able to work from home or with a more flexible schedule, see if it's possible to combine my current employment with some academic role, e.g. research assistant, researching nurse, clinical assistant professor.
His advice, of course, is wise. And actually goes in line with what Peter Norvig states in the first paragraphs of his text. The thing about that it's not that easy to just learn programming and start a career, I mean.
To summarise: now that I've found Bear, and it has helped me to actually get a website running and evolving, I feel that the rest of my ambitions in programming can slowly fade out. Not counting tweaking the site with HTML/CSS. But the Pythons, the Golangs, the C(++), the php and so on. It makes me sad to write this words, like parting from a good friend. But also relieved. Time is such a precious treasure, and I have so many other projects I want to dedicate myself to.
Thank you, Peter Norvig, for clearing that up.