The strive to do better

Late night thoughts after a coding session before going to sleep. 

One skill that I value above all others in software development and life in general is the inner drive and motivation to do better and to do more. It is a skill that can be honed over time. Once you begin to cultivate it, a snowball ensues getting faster and larger as time passes. I am immensely more motivated and driven now than I was a year ago, and the year before that. This is from reading books, writing code, doing presentations at code camps and user groups, getting involved and giving back the community as much as I take out. As well as pushing myself to learn the next step, and the step after that.

For me, it feels almost like a struggle, if I feel myself slowing down or reaching the pinnacle of a particular topic of knowledge, I find another one to begin learning and transition. It’s a zone in between comfort and frustration. It’s very hard to describe and must be experienced by the inividual doing the exploring. Too much at once causes frustration, not enough precipitates laziness and comfort. There’s a balance in between that can be tailored and tuned to.

This applies to all aspects of life, Continuous learning and improvement must always be on your mind. If you stagnate, then you go the way of the dinosaur. Especially in the software industry.

This concept can go from extremes from the macrocosm of your life, all the way to each individual line of code you write. Everytime you look at piece of your own code you should consider that it could possibly be written better at the same time you should be looking at your life and how you can be better to your surrounding environment and fellow beings.

 I may be getting a little too zen there however =)  Just a thought!