For a long time, I believed blogging above me. Why would anyone care what I have to say? There is a point in software where a person, whether you call yourself a coder, developer, programmer, or engineer, how much they do not know.
There is a curve of self-awareness plotted on a graph whose axes are ‘what a person knows’ versus ‘what a person thinks they know’ that describes what is often referred to as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. At the beginning and first height of this curve, there are novices who think they know everything. They’ve conquered a few trivial challenges, and now they believe themselves to be Experts. I have a few instances where I was right here. They are not experts, and neither was I, much to Future Me’s chagrin.
Once a person gets some experience, they understand how vast the world is. If they are smart, they will begin seeking out real experts and more advanced resources. I spent the last few years here where I have been hoarding as many bits of information I could though at a rate a lot faster than I could actually consume and internalize them.
Nevertheless, I have persisted. At some point in my discussions with other engineers, I was beginning to understand that some of my ideas and insight were unique and interesting; I had started climbing the other side of the Dunning-Krueger curve. While I am still learning many things, I have come to realize that I have five years of experience and knowledge that can help others; I have a responsibility to share ideas, struggles, and the occasional epiphany as so many who indirectly helped me in my career had done before.
While I do not want to blog for the sake of blogging, I hope to share some interesting if rare insight into topics (such as concepts that I got hung up on and what cause those concepts to click) as I continue to explore the seemingly infinite realm of Computer Science. So, look forward to my first article tentatively titled, “What can Programmers Learn from Speedrunners?”
JD Lowe 