Unplugged Almost A Year Later

I wrote a couple of articles almost a year ago addressing a problem that I was having. My loss of focus. I was having problems focusing on complex problems in code and noticed that little things such as the TV show I was going to watch started to become a problem. The root of the problem (or so that I thought) was the Internet and my unhealthy consumption of information from news feeds, social sites and technical books. My first step in my mission was to unplug from everything for a few days, which turned into a few hours. While I felt my little experiment a success I was ignoring a significant fact. Unplugging wasn’t helping it was ignoring.

It seems as though being unplugged from tech is the new hip. While your mileage may vary my purpose of solving my issue was running away from the problem and not solving it head on. So after the “newness” of being unplugged came back I realized that my focus wasn’t improving the problem was merely on pause.

How Did I Solve My Problem?

My solution to the issue stemmed from coding. Yeah coding. I wanted to know all, about all, at all times even though I didn’t need to. The one thing that made me realize this was a Twitter conversation with another developer buddy of mine who says that he wasn’t going to code in the next 10 years. I asked him why and his answer was because “This is fucking hard”. That one sentence changed my perception because he was right. This is fucking hard. Developers (dedicated ones) give up allot to do what we do. Staying on top of everything is impossible.

This Is Fucking Hard Brought Back Not Only Focus But An Ahhah Moment

That one statement of “This is Fucking Hard” made me feel like a weight was lifted off my chest. I was spreading myself too thin. I was learning multiple languages, while jumping between them because I urged to move forward instead of pausing and taking my time. Keep in mind this one act of jumping languages was done during my free time at home while trying to move my knowledge forward.

Things have improved. I have a new found passion (Passion was never the issue but it’s the best way for me to describe it). I’m dedicated to PHP & the latest influx of Javascript frameworks. I’ve simplified my learning to hello world examples and basic knowledge while putting heavy emphasis on PHP frameworks. While this may seem allot I was doing 4 times the amount 4 months ago. I’ve not only gotten my focus back I feel a sense of new accomplishment.

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Personal reflection