The Zen of Coding

Tao Te Ching, Verse IX: Leave Some Space Empty As I write this I feel completely exhausted. I've been ill for a week. I have some home stuff that I need to do and I urgently need to do it. Maybe I shouldn't have spent the whole weekend doing Python. Whoops. But I was ill and so the blogging was easier to do. I think it's stopped raining so I should run to the shops. But anyway here I am so nevermind. I should eat too before going shopping anyway. Blogging and content creating can feel like screaming into a void Sometimes I wonder. Who is reading? Is anybody reading? On LinkedIn I get comparatively few likes - it's completely unpredictable - but it seems like so many people read. Like people stop me. I have been stopped by strangers who read my posts.  Or people who have never reacted go "Oh my god I love your posts I read them all." Anyway I don't do it for that. I do it for the love of software engineering. If my journey means anything to you or if you...

Tao Te Ching, Verse VIII: You Are Already Perfect I can't even start with this one.  Or where to go. It is a classic. It is so beautiful. "The highest good is like water". It is good for all things. "The Highest Good Is Like Water" When I found my passion and life purpose of software engineering, I knew that I had to do it, and I knew that I wanted to be doing it for All Things. Like water I strive to bring good into everything. "In meditation, go deep into the heart" I can't even stress to all of you how much I love meditation. I can't even stress to all of you how peaceful and how happy it makes me feel. In meditation, we simply come back to One. We simply come back to who we are.  We simply come back to what were already were, to who we are all along. And that's it. Meditation is resting in joy, resting in eternal bliss. Meditation is resting in peace and in eternity. Meditation is resting in peaceful eternity. Meditation is resting in l...

Tao Te Ching, Verse VII: Through Selfless Action, She Attains Fulfilment "The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead." Slow and steady wins the race. Throughout my coding journey I have always done things gradually but consistently. I have methodically learned every language I ever learned, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript and now I am methodically learning Python too - very methodically indeed, too. I combine Codewars problems, with rigour and thorough analysis, with Codecademy courses - I try and do a 50:50 split (this is in my evenings and on my weekends, in my downtime, on the train, and in moments when I am desperately blocked and cannot proceed at all without help - thank you so much). I was rigorous at all points of my coding journey and always consolidated things: on my blog on linkedin in my 1:1 doc with my manager (I had a learning updates doc for the first four months of learning on the job before bootcamp and I maintained it rigorously ). I guess what I'm trying...

Tao Te Ching, Verse VI: Go With The Flow "Use it; it will never fail." I am getting closer and closer to talking about this on my platforms and for some reason it seems that maybe today is the day. I have spent the last 15 years of my life suffering with an extremely debilitating health condition. That's it; the cat's out of the bag. I was expecting to reveal it some day but maybe not like this. I have spent the last 15 years of my life suffering with really serious non-epileptic seizures; they have definitely lessened in recent years and that's why I can work; they have improved dramatically in the last year or so as well and apart from a recent flare up they have been infinitely much, much, much, much better. I don't take anything for granted. I don't take the ability to walk down the street for granted. I don't take the ability to work for granted. I didn't take the ability to study for granted and I probably should continue not to take the abil...

Tao Te Ching, Verse V: Hold On To What You Love (in my case it's software engineering) I have been putting this one off four weeks. It's so hard to write about and to apply. But so it is.  I am taking every verse of the Tao Te Ching and applying it to software engineering, this is one of my favourite texts of all time, and software engineering is my deep great passion. I might even do part 2 of this text the "Hua Hu Ching" as well one day. ps. yes I am off sick today.  It's quite hard being off sick with ADHD - it can be really boring. I still want to do what I love. So I am doing some gentle blog posts but no real work work. I might do some Python courses though. What's this verse about then? This is not my favourite translation but this translation is readily available online so yeah there you go I'm using it for this blog. I would say "hold fast to the centre" is a very important thing. Really to me it means holding on to God, and holding on t...

Tao Te Ching, Verse IV: Become Completely Empty "The Tao is an empty vessel, ☯ It is used but never filled." ☯ ☯ I go on meditation retreats to become completely empty. I go on meditation retreats to let go of everything I am not. I go on meditation retreats to rest as that which I truly am. Love, peace, and joy.  Which by the way we can all do at any time. There is no need to go on a meditation retreat to find your true nature or to rest as Being, as peace, as yourself. But they are sure lovely. They blast open my heart every time and every day. Meditation Retreats and Software Engineering My first ever retreat I was obsessed with software engineering (lies! my first one was several years before and in a school that didn't quite feel quite right for me so I didn't go back). But my first proper one, my real one, the one that I go on now - was a week before my first engineering job started. I had thought about and worked on software engineering all the time for the pre...

Tao Te Ching, Verse III: Celebrate Everyone In Software Engineering, I don't think that we should put some people above others. One of the greatest aspects of being a software engineer is being humble and we should cherish this. If we place way too much emphasis on glorifying certain engineers, we take away from the talents of others.  It is for this reason that terms such as "10x" engineer or "rockstar engineer" can be problematic (a lot has been said about this but it is outside of the scope of this blog post). If we place too much emphasis on the glory of becoming a Staff Engineer, then people will not enjoy the journey (or even just on becoming a Senior). Edit: and also a Staff Engineer recently once told me (or reminded me) that Staff Engineers get to code less. Booo!!! This is rubbish!!! What a shame. We are here to enjoy the journey We are here to enjoy the journey.  A former colleague once told me that a crazy-senior ex-colleague of ours once told him: d...