#InsideLife of a 'Tech Guy' that cannot code

After 4 failed attempts at learning to code, I think I finally know what I want to do.

Hello guys,

Have you ever seen a baby walk for the first time? The parents scream with excitement. Somebody goes to grab a camera, they want to catch this special moment on video. You will likely hear things like this.

Parent A: We’re so proud of you! Our smart beautiful baby!

Parent B: Look how strong he is! He’s only 7 months you know…

But after this baby walks 3, 7, 10 more times over the next couple weeks, it becomes meh. If you happened to be present to witness it, the conversation becomes a little more like this.

Newcomer (you): Oh, he walks now??

Parent: Ahh for sure, he’s been walking a long time…

You see, now this baby is expected to walk so it is nothing new. It only becomes newsworthy again if he runs. Or on the other hand, if he falls and gets injured.

This is quite similar to creating content (or any skill really). Once you set a bar of excellence, you have to always clear the bar. It’s not great or special, it’s expected. Ronaldo will not make the news for scoring a penalty, he will make the news for missing one.

The challenge with consistently putting yourself out there (e.g. writing a newsletter like this) is you have to figure out a way to keep clearing the bar. And it is pressure. I’m not a fan of pressure. I try to be intrinsically motivated (doing things for my own sake because I enjoy them), rather than extrinsically motivated (doing things because of people or for external praise and validation) but knowing someone is observing anyway makes it a bit more difficult.

After the engagements and feedback from my last newsletter, I started to think ‘How can I top this?’. I had made a mental note of about half a dozen topics to write about when I started this newsletter, but suddenly they didn’t seem good enough.

With no progress, I reminded myself that I write for myself so there was no need stressing over it. I had long stopped thinking about it when I remembered today’s story.

A few weeks (months?) ago, I was on one of my phone calls with my bro Henny. As usual, we talked about what we were learning about and up to. I mentioned that I was taking a programming course. Henny burst into laughter.

‘Hameed, how many times have you tried learning programming? 😂’

‘Brooo like 5 times 😂😂’

We ended up talking about the background, previous failed attempts, and what I was trying to achieve this time.

My first attempt at learning coding was just before entering university. I planned to study Engineering so I did some research about what languages I needed to learn. The answer I found was Python. I signed up for a Python course on codecademy and devoted myself to it for a couple of weeks. I think I actually enjoyed it. And then we resumed school, started classes and I forgot all about it. 😅

I didn’t think about it for another year and half or so. I was in my second year when we were doing a Computer Science python course. It was a bore. We typically had like 300 students in one long hall, no light and a lot of noise. I honestly don’t think those CS lecturers had a clue, but they stood in front of the class and wrote some things on the board. In all fairness, they probably tried their best. I remember there was a time when they actually began to project a laptop to the board and try to make us follow on our personal laptops.

That was about the time I stopped attending the class. I didn’t find much value in it, so I just stayed in hostel and ensured someone signed attendance for me. Besides, I wasn’t convinced that the exams would be difficult. Then we did tests, and I think I scored 9 out of 30. 😂 Honestly it wasn’t a bad score because many people scored less. We complained about the results and it was regraded. I think I scored 19 this time, fair enough.

We continued the course for a few more months, and I got along mostly by copying other people’s assignments and cramming some code. At the time, what really made no sense to me was functions. Why couldn’t we just do what we wanted to do directly? Why did we have to ‘return’ and ‘call’ something? (coders will get this). In hindsight, it was a fairly easy concept but I just didn’t care. I scammed my way through the course and got 60, a B. For a course I didn’t care much about, that was a good result.

And so I forgot about programming for another two years.

In my fourth year, I was on an internship in another city so I had some free time. I convinced myself to spend less of my evenings watching HIMYM and actually learn something productive. I decided to do a web development course on Slatecube (they have since pivoted) and it was fun for a couple of months. But there was something else I had been working on. I got some timely advice from one of my egbons to write GRE (the exam usually required for graduate school applications) before returning for my 5th year. He said it was easier to write it still as a student than after a couple years in the workforce. Besides, the result was valid for 5 years so what did I have to lose?

So apart from work, I was spending time on web development, GRE prep, and a lot of HIMYM. I needed to prioritize, so I chose GRE and HIMYM.😂

That was the 3rd attempt. Some programmers will argue web development is not coding, but I can’t be bothered.

A couple weeks into my 5th year (with GRE out of the way), the coding bug was in the air again. With many people around me actively taking courses, FOMO led me to sign up for AI Saturdays. I even dragged my cousin Ade along. Then led by Teju Afonja, AI Saturdays is a non-profit organization that teaches AI skills to anybody willing to learn. They spend basically all-day every Saturday in classes until they become pretty good. Ade and I went for the first (or second) session and signed up for the Beginner class. It was like something out of a movie. They were taking Carnegie Mellon University’s online course and talking about something called Jupyter. We were so lost. How could this be the beginner class? 😭

We took a break for Zuhr and started laughing at ourselves. I didn’t see the point of going back in and he didn’t either. He convinced me to at least finish one day and know we tried. We went back in, pretended to learn for a few more hours, and took an Uber home when it was over. I don’t think we ever went again. 😂

I take the concept of opportunity cost very seriously. Basically, time (or resources) spent doing something could have been spent doing something else. So time used learning coding was time I could have used to watch movies, read books, write or do some other work that I would find more interesting. With that mindset, I never saw myself again as someone who would build a career out of coding.

As a child, I was never one of those who wanted to take apart computers. I was one of those who wanted to use computers to play games. With this analogy, I see technology now as a tool. A means to an end. Since then, I have dabbled in Geektutor’s #30DaysOfCode (thanks to Olasubomi), Andrei Neagoi’s ZTM, and an introductory machine learning course (which was a requirement for something else entirely). But they were usually a means an end. I have built one live website (which I am exceedingly proud of) but will likely not build any others in the near future.

I am much more interested now in managing products (already took a PM course), building communities, and using technology tools to solve business problems at a basic level. I still am very much an advocate for tech, and think anybody who has an opportunity to learn to code should immerse themselves in it. But building a career out of writing code is perhaps not the most optimal path for me (at this point).

I surprise myself sometimes, so do not be too shocked if you hear one day that I have somehow become Software Engineer. 😂 

For today, I will learn only as much as I need to be competent at work, and to minimize expenses on any side projects that involve technology.

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If you found this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends. Have them read it and subscribe. I try to share personal stories and lessons I am learning on business, human relationships, and Islam. And on some days (like today), I will veer off track and write about something completely different.

Gracias, and see you around.

Hameed