Why Does Dante Decode?

Introduction

Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing well. I thought I'd tell you all why I'm in tech.

Tech wasn't my first choice, it still isn't. My heart lies in the ocean, doing some marine biology stuff. I adore nature, sea life mostly.

I landed in tech by accident really and found out I was actually decent at it.

Tech is something I absorb quite easily, and with some effort, I can get pretty good at what I'm focusing on.

But there's more to it than just that...

First Encounter

Back in high school during one of the computer classes our teacher introduced us to Visual Basic. It was VB6.Net back then.

After some lessons, I started playing around in VB and managed to create a decent system with login functionality.

When the time came to decide what my focus would be for Advanced Level, I of course was set on Marine Biology. However, the powers that be decided otherwise. I wound up doing subjects I wasn't invested in.

That's undoubtedly didn't go well, but that's a story for another day...

I decided that if for university I wasn't studying Marine Biology, I wasn't going at all.

Second Encounter

After that debacle, I went back and revisited Visual Basic, got really good in it and made more things - even a game. I then caught wind of Python and when I got to work with it I immediately fell in love. I went hard on learning and figuring out what I could do with it.

Tensions rose at home that I wasn't doing anything with my life, just playing on the computer. To silence the noise and do something I would actually enjoy, I took up French. For three and a half years my sole focus was that language. During that time I discovered that I really liked learning languages and cultures and made a promise to myself to learn more. Today, I teach French.

When I had done all I could with French in my country, the noise started again. Then I recalled - this coding thing I did was really interesting, I'll revisit that again...

Third Encounter

To kill two birds with one stone I took up classes in programming. In them, they took us back to square one - to where most of it started. The curriculum consisted of C, C++, Java and Visual Basic. I finished those studies, got my diploma and everything. I didn't particularly see the usefulness of those classes I had done... Probably fundamentals?

Turning Point

While doing the programming classes, I was also exploring what Python could do. The power of this simple little language revealed itself. After finishing the classes I realised a couple of things:

Conventional classroom structure in my country was leagues behind what was relevant
I learnt more on my own than any of these teachers could ever teach with their outdated curriculum.

I doubled back and worked on getting my knowledge of Python better. I wasthen introduced to Django and what a lovely addition that was. It did present me with a new challenge. At the time I had never created a web page, and Django is building websites with Python.

There was no escaping it. I got my hands on some tutorials and began what is known today as web development - HTML and CSS. For my use cases that was enough.

The Transformation

The onset of responsive design brought with it new interesting to sink my teeth into. I began learning and building sites with HTML CSS and a sprinkle of JavaScript.

That was actually fun, as much fun as I had with Python. A few years ago, I got my hands onto React, which was a gateway to Next.js

The rest, as they say, is history...

The Tech Writing

For as long as I can remember, I have always been writing something. The technical writing arose unexpectedly really. When I was learning, I would arrive at explanations that didn't make sense to me. That would drive me to research some more and try to explain it in my own words.

Unbeknownst to me, I was doing a good job at explaining these concepts. I got a part-time opportunity to write about Data Science, which was cool. I left that because I wasn't happy with the treatment I got.

It was after I joined Upwork and got some gigs writing that I realised I could actually do this. To summarise, the gigs involved explaining concepts I had never used before. I wrote the articles, submitted them and the clients were so satisfied they took me on for more.

Resources That Have Helped Me

With the journey I have told you above, there are numerous places I got help and guidance from. The ones I remember vividly are

A Byte of Python
Microsoft Visual Academy
Udacity
FreeCodeCamp
Bucky Roberts

I don't remember all the books and resources that helped me, sorry about that.

Today those places have grown extensively. We're now spoilt for choice for where to get information and help.

All this was before I understood how to read the docs. That has since changed and I frequent the docs of whatever stack I'm using...

Why Keep At It?

I have no fancy reason, nothing profound as to why. Except that:

During this journey, I saw 3 movies - which I still watch today. Three movies that had techies doing incredible things with a keyboard. That got me really excited. They are:

The Matrix
The Italian Job
Die Hard 4.0

What About Now?

I've come quite a ways from those days with Visual Basic. I rarely ever look back and appreciate the progress, but I have done quite a bit.

Now, you'll find me either in Nextjs with some backend, in Python creating some scripts or working with a CMS - most recently if you've been here in TYPO3. I was told about some interesting developments in TYPO3 which I will be looking into.

I was trying to figure out what kind of developer I would classify myself as. I am not just a frontend developer, not just a backend developer. I don't see myself as a full-stack developer either. What I do is somewhere in-between and not part of the standard. It's halfway there...

So hello there, I'm James. A Tutor, Writer and Half Stack Developer

As of this article, I speak five languages: English, Shona, Ndebele, French and Russian. Keeping the promise I made to myself.

For now, the hackathon is what I'm taking part in.

Thank you for reading, let's connect!

Thank you for visiting this little corner of mine. Let's connect on Twitter, Polywork and LinkedIn