THE JRNY 005 - It's Time for Me to Admit It, I Don't Like Coding
Hey Reader 👋,
Today's song of the moment is: 10 On Me - Levi Bent-Lee
Levi Bent-Lee?! Isn't that a YouTube guy?! Yes, yes he is. One day I was on the YouTube homepage and one of the recommended videos was Iron Chef Dad Turns In-N-Out Gourmet. on Jet Bent-Lee's channel. I then proceeded to look at Kai Bent-Lee's channel then Levi Bent-Lee's and discovered this song. It's not a masterpiece, but what can I say, I like it !
My Current Relationship With Coding
Listen, for people who have been following me for a while or know me in real life, you guys already know this. I've always talked about it multiple times in the past: I don't like coding. However, there's a difference in what I used to say and what I'm saying now. It's in the construction of the statement.
I didn't say I HATE coding, I didn't say I DISLIKE coding, I simply said that I do not like it. Which are totally different. In one case, I'm essentially saying "get as far away from me as possible" (hate); whereas in the other case, I'm saying "meh, it is what it is". Meaning that I wouldn't do it in my free time, I'm not excited to do it, but I don't mind doing it. And that's my current relationship with coding.
What exactly improved my relation from hate to don't like you may ask? It all boiled down to 2 events.
1. Successfully Completing a Coding Challenge
At some point, I decided to apply to this cool start-up and part of the application process was to create a REST API (the thing that makes app function that users don't see). There were bonus points if I created a user interface (the part that users interact with) to go with it and consequently, I ended up creating a whole app.
I really wanted to try my hardest and prove to myself that I could actually code something decent so after about 2 hours of fighting my urge to procrastinate, I finally got the sufficient motivation to start the damn thing... and start I did.
I proceeded for the next 4 days (for some reason, I gave myself a hard submission date of 4 days) to code the fuck out of that app and on the last day, I even stayed up until 2am to finish my submission knowing that I had to wake up early the next to go snowboarding.
It felt great. For someone who always thought that he hated coding and wasn't really into it, getting that engrossed in the project felt awesome ! And after that submission, I realized that I didn't hate coding anymore. I even thought I might actually like it, but something showed me otherwise...
2. Finding Something That I Actually Do Like
The following week, I was so pumped about my future. With my rekindled love for coding, I could just imagine how my life would look like. I'd have my 9-5 job at an interesting start-up, I'd code all these cool apps that I thought of during my free time (which would increase my coding skills —> promotions —> $$$) and eventually, I'd code a cool app that would make it big or code a bunch of medium-sized apps that would make me enough money to not have a 9-5 job and give me time to enjoy more activities (such as coding more apps). I was ready to go, my engine was roaring, I even decided on the first app I'd work on except...
I just wouldn't code. All day, I'd fantasize about my future life, but once I finished work, it took ALL my mental strength just to code 2 hours (doing this one time is OK, but it's not sustainable and would most likely lead me to be drained). No matter how many times I tried to convince myself I liked coding, I just couldn't bring myself to actually do it. What gives? I thought to myself.
Now, while all this headache inducing situation was going on, one of my friends reached out to me to ask if I'd like to start a podcast. Nothing big, just a thing for us to talk to each other, catch up since we can't see each other during quarantine, discuss ideas, etc. When opportunities like these come up, I usually always take a lot of time before giving out my answer because I'm notoriously known to get all excited over a project, thinking that "this is the one", only to abandon it 2 weeks later. But in this case, I simply said yes the moment he asked. Why? Not because I knew that I'd like it (although I've always been interested in starting one), but simply because it wasn't time consuming (only once a week) and, more importantly, I had already found "the thing I wanted to do": coding. So this was a pressure-less activity that was mainly a relaxed conversation with my friends that happened to be recorded.
On the following Friday, I went into the podcast session feeling pretty excited for it and after we recorded our first test episode, I knew that I loved podcasting. Every week since then, I've always been excited for my Fridays knowing that I'll be recording another session. And that's when I thought to myself "oh shit, so THAT'S how it feels to actually like something". Like, our podcast has no chance of making it big. It's in French, we won't have huge guests, we're 3 nobodies. But I don't care ! Just recording the podcast in itself is already the reward for me. We just plan to share it because it might help people.
And that's why I know that I don't like coding. I don't have the same excited feeling for it as when I'm about to start a podcast session. As I said, I don't dislike it, but I don't like it either. It'll pay my bills for now, but nothing more. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to love coding. Everyone who is truly passionate by code is lucky that their passion can be very lucrative. But it's simply not for me.
Closing Thoughts
Now that I've definitely gotten that out of the way (aka hopefully, I won't try to convince myself anymore that I should code in my free time and then feel bad because I don't do it), I'm looking forward to see what else pops up in my mind for "things that I like" 😁 and most of all, I look forward to the moment where I'll move past the "what should I do" phase to the "how do I make a living out of this" phase hehe.
Alright, that's it for me,
PEACE.
Hey you ! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post.
If you like something in the article or simply want to discuss with me or give me some constructive feedback, feel free to email me @ onlythetruenjhs@gmail.com
We'll talk more next time and until then, don't forget to enjoy your life! ✌️
— Nicholas