BOOKNAME = the_mediocre_programmer
TITLE = title.txt
METADATA = metadata.xml
-CHAPTERS = intro.md chapter01.md chapter02.md chapter03.md chapter04.md chapter05.md chapter06.md epilogue.md appendixa.md
+CHAPTERS = intro.md chapter01.md chapter02.md chapter03.md chapter04.md chapter05.md chapter06.md epilogue.md gratitude.md appendixa.md
TOC = --toc --toc-depth=2
COVER_IMAGE = images/cover.jpg
LATEX_CLASS = book
-# Appendix A
+# Appendix A {-}
Write down my own journey through programming?
There have been many things in my career that I have tried to learn, but there have been many more that I haven't learned. Part of those is because the computing landscape changed. At school I learned the Pascal language. I got reasonably good at it but over time those skills faded. Right now there's very little need for being a proficient Pascal programmer so continuing to develop my Pascal skills would be purely for my own enjoyment. I find other things enjoyable so those skills lay dormant. Should Pascal arise from its moribund state I can revisit the decision. But for now I'm content that I've made the right call. Later in my career the Java language came to prominence. I spent many sessions learning Java until I realized that I didn't enjoy the language. It felt too cumbersome to me and the directions it was taking weren't ones that I cared to pursue. So after some reflection I stopped learning Java. Was this all wasted time? Hardly. During my sessions I learned more about Object Oriented Programming and how objects fit together. I learned more about recursion while trying to solve a problem for one of my projects. These skills transcend Java, so when I started learning Python I was more up to speed on how objects worked so I could better understand what Python was doing and how it was different from Java. And should the need arise I can revisit my decision to learn Java and see if it's something that interests me again.
It's OK to give up on learning something for a while. We are complex beings and our interests change. We also exist in a complex industry of changing technologies and whims. What was interesting and necessary at the beginning of the year might be uninteresting and unnecessary at the end of the year. It's up to us as programmers to understand our learning process and adapt as our needs and desires change.
+
+## Approach with curiosity
+
+As beginners we engaged the computer with curiosity and enthusiasm. We don't know what to expect or how long it will take so we take everything at face value. As we learn we trade our curiosity with certainty, and our enthusiasm with expectations. The excitement we got from learning becomes the drudgery of having to continue to learn. But we can re-capture that beginner's spirit by looking at each opportunity to learn as a new experience. We can let go of our expectations of how our learning will progress and instead approach each learning session with curiosity for what we will learn during the session. We can re-kindle the spark that we had when we were beginners with infinite possibilities, and that spark will sustain us through the periods of uncertainty and drudgery.
+
+With each focus container we can begin again, with no preconceived notions of how it will end.
-# The tales at the inn
+# Epilogue: The tales at the inn {-}
-Discuss how this is a continuing journey and how every day is another link in our journey.
+It's often a cliche for an author to say that the book they wrote is the one they wished they'd read when they were learning the topic of the book. Perhaps it's a cliche because it's true: this is the book that I would have liked to have when I started this journey. Too often I would wonder if I was measuring up to whatever invisible barometer I'd created of the ideal programmer. Many times I would see the success of others and wonder if I was somehow defective in my learning. What was I doing wrong that others were doing right? Why were they successful in ways I couldn't achieve?
+
+I've come to realize that every programmer's journey is unique. Your journey is going to wind and dart around in ways that mine did not. You'll have experiences that I won't share, and I'll have experiences that will be difficult for you to replicate without a time machine. But neither of our experiences is more valid than the other experiences of other programmers. The gaps in our knowledge are not an indictment of our abilities; they are places on the map that we can explore.
+
+No traveler can be at all places at all times. They must travel to each destination, as quickly as their transport allows, and stay there for as long as they can before traveling to their next destination. And they do so with whatever companions they can find in whatever communities they can build. They build relationships and trust with themselves and others and note their strengths and weaknesses. And each day they press onward. Like the traveler we too must choose our destinations and our companions. We can find those who, like us, are traveling down the same road and help us on our journey. We can exchange stories about our successes and failures and see that each day is another link in our journey.
+
+I continue my journey each day and I hope that as a programmer you continue each day for as long as you are able. We might not be on the same exact roads together but we have the same goal: doing the best we can in each moment.
+
+I wish you well on your journeys, and hope to hear the tales of your travels when we meet again.
--- /dev/null
+# Gratitude {-}
+
+This book would not exist without the folks who accompanied me on my journey, both as instructors and as colleagues. My thanks to all of my instructors in school for trying their best to teach me programming in it various forms. I am also indebted to all of my colleagues over the years who shared their knowledge with me and trusted me enough to help them along the way. I am also blessed to have many communities that help sustain me, including the [Michigan!/usr/group](http://mug.org), [PyOhio](http://pyohio.org), Coffee House Coders, and the Ubuntu Michigan Loco. Also to those who don't fit in these neat categories; know that if we spent any time discussing programming or other matters that our discussions are deeply appreciated.
+
+I also am grateful for the work of Leo Babauta of [Zen Habits](http://zenhabits.net) which provided me the ideas of mindfulness and focus containers. They have been transformative in my own work, as this book demonstrates. I committed to spending 10 minutes each morning to write each section, and the results are the work you see before you.
+
+My deepest gratitude goes to my wife JoDee and my parents for their support and belief in me. Words cannot express the love and thanks I have for you.
This book is a personal journey for both of us. It's a memoir of my time as a programmer and my feelings along the way. I've thought many times about giving up and finding a different career path but doing anything other than being a computer programmer scares me even more. Does that mean I'm stuck in a perverse ouroboros of self-pity and self-doubt? Hardly. It means that I need to dig deeper to understand why I chose the path of being a programmer and realize that it took a lot to get here and it's going to take a lot more to get where I want to be. It's a commitment to seeing things as they are now and moving forward from wherever I'm standing.
-Let's start the journey with figuring out what lead us here and where we are now.
+Let's start the journey by figuring out where we are and remembering what lead us to this place.
projects / themediocreprogrammer.git / commitdiff