I saw a video from the American basketball coach Buzz Williams that is worth sharing. In the video he goes into 4 things you should do in life that I found interesting to write about. How do I infer those 4 statements and why do I think they are important for everyone but especially people trying to grow their audience in a sincere way.
Read more than you think you should.
While I personally don't enjoy reading is supposed to help people reducing stress, enhances memory, improving concentration, and slowing cognitive decline later in life. From a developer perspective it is good to know that there are things you could to to improve memory and concentration, especially when the barrier of entry is low.
Write down everything, about everything, all the time.
If I take this statement at face value I know there are 2 ways I could interpret it and both cases hold actually benefit. My first thought was something that Aaron Francis wrote on his blog that honestly fits perfectory for this statement, namely "Become known for a thing". Make sure to give Aaron's post a go!
The other way to interpret this is really simple. Share your journey for the world to see. Believe it or not there will be people looking up to you. These people might never sent you a message but are quietly following your journey. Yet again I can refer you to a conference talk Aaron did in 2023, Publishing Your Work which touches this subject way better than my post will do.
Over the next 10 years, build as many relationships as you can, and learn to connect the dots between those relationships.
While the stereotype for developers is generally someone being socially awkward, possibly with a hoody in a dark room. However, I think we can all agree that a lot of developers are connected with others to learn and share their progress and stories. This doesn't mean that everyone is super social but most of us do like the idea of connecting people at similar points in our life and we love to connect with people who are where we want to be at some point.
You might have heard of the quote "You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with" by I believe Jim Rohn. Personally I've always seen this quote quite negatively but the last few years I feel it actually hits the nail on the head when looking at it from a perspective that tries to instill growth. As someone who wants to achieve a certain point in life, it is important to surround yourself with people who have walked the path.
Never turn down an opportunity to learn, or to work.
In life you have been dealt a deck of cards and there is a high chance you haven't yet achieved what you wanted to achieve. You might be in your twenties and feeling lost after finishing school, started to work and learning that what your doing isn't what you thought it would be.
You might be in your thirties, have a relationship and maybe a few kids. Family has the priority and you might feel like you lost time and you are switching careers and it all feels extremely far away. It is good to know that most people aren't where they are in life and because of all kinds of reasons they are also not taking the opportunities that they might get or have gotten to try and learn new things.
I've taking a chance to switch companies two years back because my family needed stability, yet I felt stuck for a while. After discussing this with my manager I decided to take a product owner course which I thought was great! It gave insights in what the job means, but we've also gotten into practical example which showed me that while the role should be somewhat the same for most companies. It's still a dynamic role with it's own challenges dependent on the company.
Simple put. If you get a chance and you have the bandwith to take a chance, please do so. Experiment and learn what kinds of things you enjoy and what you absolutely dislike.
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Check out the clip!