Why Blog?
Or to put it another way, why you should care about this blog.
Just in setting this blog up, I’ve learnt many things, many things that I can share with people. Is this why I’m choosing to blog? Partially. But the really compelling reason is learning.
I’ve often heard it said that if you want to learn more about something, teach it. Through experiences on online forums, helping people with code, I find that this is a true statement. However, teaching in a classroom is beyond me – both in terms of time and in terms of relative skill levels. So I’m turning to the internet, a blog, to write about and share my experiences. Not because I think I’m qualified to teach anyone, but because I’m not.
So, we come back to the question, “who is this guy, and why should I listen to him?”
I’m a 24 year old developer currently living in Perth, Western Australia. I have a Bachelor of Science (Software Engineering) that I obtained from the Edith Cowan University. I have been working in the field of programming since late 2005. I have worked as a debugger/maintenance programmer for a desktop application for a now gone Perth startup, I have worked as a one-stop web development shop for a small company that also doesn’t exist, and am currently a backend developer for a web development company.
But none of that is important.
I have worked in Actionscript 2.0, Director Lingo, ASP 3.0, PHP, ASP.NET (C#) and Actionscript 3.0, all in major projects. I have worked extensively with MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server. I have developed both desktop applications and web applications, as well as web services and desktop Windows services. I am familiar with Windows OSes, OS X and Linux based systems. I can adequately administrate both IIS and Apache servers.
None of that is important either.
What is important is that I have made mistakes. A lot of mistakes. About 10 years worth of mistakes. From those mistakes, I have learnt a lot, and I have clear goals in life.
I have made lifestyle mistakes, scholastic mistakes, career mistakes and mistakes in programming. I have tanked a couple of large projects, and have sabotaged my own efforts at starting and maintaining a small business.
From these mistakes comes a passion for correcting what I can – and to do that, I have to learn. I have to upgrade my skills, I have to grow as a person. I intend to do that by writing about them. Both to sort my own thoughts out, and to recieve feedback and learn from that feedback.
That’s why you should listen to me. And tell me when I’m wrong, and tell me when I’m being stupid and tell me when I am getting it right.
I want to learn everything I can, and while learning, hopefully give something back.