It’s two years to the day I first bit the proverbial bullet and started TeochewThunder. As with yearly tradition, the month of October will be used for introspection, preparation, and, ahem, a little break.
Every once in a while, I find it prudent to remind myself - and others - why I chose to start this blog in the first place.
Someone told me that I should be spending more time honing my craft instead of little vanity projects like my blog. Blimey, mate. Is that what you think I’m doing, stroking my ego? If I needed an ego trip, all I need to do is stand in front of a mirror and flex my pectorals. I certainly don’t need to spend those hours writing code, making sure it works and making sure my tutorials make sense.
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| Check these out, baby. |
When you’re writing code for your own amusement, you can be as sloppy as you damn well please. When you’re writing it for the public eye and have to explain every bloody line, that brings your game up to a whole new level.
Think I’m not honing my craft? You’re watching me do it, right under your nose.
I kid you not. Looking back at some of the tutorials I’ve written in the past year, some of it might be charitably described as “amateurish”. Riddled with bad practices and excruciatingly inefficient in parts. But if I hadn’t bothered with the blog; indeed, if I’d just been happy to work nine-to-five and call it a day, none of this terrible, terrible content would have been written and I wouldn’t have learned from it.
So understand this - if you like what I’ve written and get value from it, I’m happy for you. If you don’t; you think my writing is abysmal, and my insights are naive and misguided, that’s OK too. Make no mistake: Ultimately I’m not writing this blog for you. I’m doing it for me.
Speaking of which, you could be forgiven for thinking that some of the code is horrible and a castrated monkey could do much better. But the idea behind the code is what really counts; and if you can implement those ideas with better code, good on you. Do it, and share!
Some more feedback I’ve received pertain to certain observations I’ve made, particularly those in the category Life as An Economic Digit. Apparently, people enjoy the brutal honesty, but some think I could be hurting my professional opportunities with the public criticism I’ve leveled towards companies such as Fixx Digital, and towards practices in the industry I regard as
It’s not that I don’t see their point, or appreciate the concern… but really, what professional opportunities? Like maybe some hotshot company will be interested in hiring me, but drop the idea once they see what I really think of some industry practices that they may have adopted, and get all butthurt about it? Are such companies even worth wasting time on? Or maybe I’m hurting my chances of being hired with great pay and a senior-sounding title? Trust me, that particular ship pretty much left the harbor some time back. Years ago, I made the decision not to spend time climbing corporate ladders and chasing meaningless fancy titles, and instead invested that time into building stuff, like an actual developer.
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| Maybe if I pretend not to see it... |
Rubbish.
Dudes, your roadmap to success and promotion was ordained the moment you joined the organization. Not getting into trouble isn’t going to significantly increase your chances of getting that raise or promotion. The best you could hope for is not to get fired.
I don’t have some fancy managerial position to lose, nor some glamorous job at a Fortune 500 company. Therefore I should feel free to call bullshit out as and when I fucking please. In fact, I don’t have an excuse not to. Because I care about this shit. Way more than I care about living in a nice house, driving a nice car and having a bombastic title on my calling card.
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