https://ruky.me/2021/09/10/work-on-interesting-problems-not-interesting-technologies/

Skip to content

Rukshan's Blog

  * Home
  * About Me
  * Contact
  * @justruky
  * GitHub

Work on interesting problems. Not interesting technologies.

Randoms
[55c2697a67][55c2697a67]
Rukshan
September 10, 2021

When I first began learning programming after teaching basic and
pascal, our computer class started us teaching Java. As for a 10 year
old it was hard for me to grasp the concept of object oriented
programming. It took me another 10 years to partially grasp the
concept of OOP, and another 10 years to completely understand OOP.

However, Java left a bad taste in me and I decided I'd never ever use
Java for a project. I haven't used Java for any of my projects. That
was until recently where I had to work on a project that was
completely made with Java. I had no other choice.

I picked up the project because I was genuinely interested in it, and
because it was extremely challenging.

Therefore out of interest to the project I had to learn some Java. I
haven't done anything with Java recently, and I was feeling as a the
10 year old learning Java for the first time.

So I picked up a Udemy course, and started learning Java all over
again. I refreshed my knowledge and now I'm feeling very comfortable
in doing Java, and everyday I'm trying to contribute to more to the
project with complex tasks.

The project has 20 people, and I was a contributor as well as a
playing a project manager role. Since I had fo coordinate around 20
people, to scratch my own itch I began writing a simple project
management tool. Which has now grown to a decent project management
tool with Kanban boards and more.

So the point I have to emphasize is that the best way to learn
something, to do something new, or build something interesting is to
work on interesting ideas, or ideas that you are genuinely
interested.

Here's why,

You enjoy what you are doing

When you work on what you like, you enjoy what you're doing. Even
though I hated Java, the project made me learn Java. If I was not
working on an interesting project then learning Java would have been
a pain.

Tech is cool, but not useful if you don't know how to use it

Working on things that interest you will develop the skills that you
might not get by learning an interesting technologies.

For example, you might learn K8, Cassandra but you that will not help
you to solve problems if you haven't worked on a problems, or at
least you might not get the chance to solve a problem in real life by
using these technologies.

It's good to learn a cool technology, but at the end of the day you
will become a person who knows few buzzwords and some cool technology
but don't have the skill to solve a real problem.

I wrote this not because I'm perfect, but I come across people who
know some cool tech but does not know how to solve a real problem.

I'd rather hire or work with someone who has more problem solving
skills than a person who knows some tech but no problem solving
skills.

LifeRants
Share on:
   

Join the ConversationLeave a reply Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Search the blog

Search for: [                    ] [Search]
Recent Posts

  * Work on interesting problems. Not interesting technologies.
  * When I used to collect computer viruses
  * Trying to be a project manager
  * I used to love Bootstrap. God, now I just hate it
  * How to setup SCSS on your computer

Archives

  * September 2021 (2)
  * August 2021 (6)
  * July 2021 (4)
  * June 2021 (2)
  * May 2021 (3)
  * April 2021 (1)
  * March 2021 (7)
  * February 2021 (8)
  * January 2021 (19)
  * December 2020 (16)

Categories

  * Buddhism
  * CSS
  * Health Informatics
  * Java
  * Javascript
  * Randoms
  * Startups
  * Tutorials
  * Web
  * Web Development

     
WP-Indigo by VitaThemes