One helpful way to look at new programming ways
The world of programming is fast-paced. New technologies, frameworks and languages evolve at a blinding speed. If a programmer is not careful enough she might find herself stuck knowing only an old technology because she did not work on staying updated.
Staying updated is a hard task too. There is so much going on and no one can predict which one is going to have a lot of following and good documentation. Individuals create helpful frameworks and new ways of doing something almost every day. No one can possibly know everything that is going on in the world of programming all the time.
But that doesn’t mean you stop learning too. One must keep learning to avoid being obsolete and to add skills in your skill set. But many times, learning some new technology or language or framework feels like you are looking at something foreign and new which you have no idea about. That can be quiet overwhelming. I have felt that feeling as well and I struggle with it everytime I am trying to learn something new.
But recently I discovered a new way to look at this.
All those new programming ways are there because they are easier than previous ways.
It somehow makes my life easier and that is why someone took the enormous efforts to create the new way. Programmers are instinctively lazy. That is, if they can find an easier way to do something, they will find it. They don’t like doing the hard repetitive stuff. Come to think of it, humans, in general, are lazy. And that is why we are living in this culture-rich world.
Now, I find learning or at least attempting to learn something new easier. Because I have changed my perspective of it. I now know that after my initial struggle with learning something new and the feeling of being overwhelmed, I will be equipped with a new tool that will make my life actually easier. I will learn something that will make my programming much faster even if it is something that is triggering anxiety in me right now.
This has helped me. I need to keep this in mind forever lest I forget. Hope this helps you too.
