Is it too late to get into programming?
OR Anything for that matter!
Short Answer “HELL NO!”. Now, go and just start!. (Wait do, Read or Listen to my journey of getting into programming)
Until I was in 10th grade i.e 2013, I didn’t knew how to use the Internet, nor knew how to use the computer other than MS Word and paint, didn’t even know how to create an Email ID or create an account in Facebook when all my friends had theirs. This was mostly because I didn’t have any good reason to start exploring and the reason for that is that I didn’t have a computer at home and went to a school that taught PowerPoint for 10th grade 👏. P.S. — The Cyber Cafe Owner doesn’t know shit other than turning GTA games and connecting to LAN (Enough reasons now).
Fun Fact: Let go of using those above things, I didn’t even know that they even existed and some of them of which I knew, didn’t know what they did 😆.
Later that year, one of my good friend Shreyas introduced me to the Internet, he helped me create my first Facebook account and it was about that time my mind was filled with questions, I was like how did some text such https://facebook.com/bharat.styles generate this thing, which was filled with texts and graphics. And then it started, I started looking for answers.
And about this time I was in 11th grade, my mind still had that burning desire to know how it all worked and that made me choose Computer Science as a subject and for the First time in my entire life I had understood what some of the computer parts actually did and no I’m not talking about Keyboard or Mouse, I’m talking about RAM and ROM, and yes I didn’t knew what they were before other than their abbreviations 😆.
Then I learned basics of C++, HTML, and SQL during 11th and 12th grade and didn’t like C++ tho, and then in 2014 I built my first website for DoodleFoodle (more on that in future post) and no I didn’t build it from scratch but I used something like Square Space (specifically Zepo). Yeah I know it’s child’s play but for the knowledge I had, this was the best I could do in that given time period.
It’s was now the time I was heavily influenced by YouTube and was watching TED talks and all that shit, and I saw this Ted talk (not Ted X) of a kid who was about 12 years old and had his apps on App Store with thousands of downloads. And at that moment I was like “What the fucking hell!”, I too had the feeling of whether “AM I too late for this?” but then, after some time passing by I felt like things were going really good and I started at the time when I had to start and I wasn’t in hurry to build the next big app which would order toilet papers automatically, and I felt like would I be where I am today if I had changed something? Probably not and I’m very happy with myself of where I am today. Fuck that Kid.
Then after 12th grade, I still loved Computer stuff and was still looking for answers so, I took BCA (Computer Application) for my further studied (Little did I know this was not good choice) and yes I hated college and for good reasons and yes I still loved computers and programming, the problem was with the curriculum. Along with programming there these other subjects which I had no interest in and which were in no way related to Computers, Like seriously how is Indian constitution, English, Accounts related to Computers and above all that they started their curriculum from Basics, Like Childish Basic “What is a computer?” 😐.
So after the first semester, I talked to my parents about this and they were finally agreeing with me and my plan to drop out of college and start leaning by myself online, and during that time my good friend Rajat had introduced me to this awesome website called Udacity and I loved it!, The timing was perfect and suddenly there are these people called as relatives (Family members and close friends) and God know’s for what reason my parents thought it would be a good idea to ask them and here’s what one of them said “NO you can’t trust online people, they may take your money and run!” Typical Indian Mentality 😵.
And as expected I was not allowed to drop out from college 😐.
Now, I had to attend the stupid college with this shitty curriculum. But, that didn’t stop me from expanding my knowledge and here’s what I did.
I bought my first ever Laptop and got myself a decent cheap Internet and started learning whenever I got free time, Didn’t waste time after college, came home back asap and started digging. By the time I completed my second semester, I had learnt Python with Django and during the third semester I had built my blog and this went on for a while, I built a blog because I had just started blogging and I really liked it, so built a blog, hosted it on PythonAnyWhere (because it’s free 😆) . And while I was in my fourth semester, I had the opportunity to teach some of the ISE(Information Science Engineering) Students Python with Django (Not officially tho).
And now I was done with web development, and wanted to explore App development so, I paused web-development and started learning Java, took a free course on Android Basics on Udacity and learned all the basic fundamentals for app development, built a few apps and was lucky enough to get a Google Android Developer Scholarship and unlucky enough that I couldn’t give my all to it, because I was in the final semester and for some stupid reason, the college I went to (Sorry School), gave shitty assignments and punishments like we were kids who were in primary grade, like literally who gives assignments like “Solve that Question paper 5 times” or “Write that 10 times” 😕 , but not all the teachers were of that mentality but most of them were!. I was in this fucking hell where I had a Final year project to do, write those shitty assignments and also work on Google Scholarship. Most of my time was spent working on my final year project and writing assignments. I still remember staying up all nights just so that I could also work on that Scholarship I got, there was even time where I was broke and couldn’t figure out what to do, I was stuck in this mess and as the deadline for the project was nearing I had to spend all my time developing it 😢. And yes that scholarship went down the drain, I was way behind on it and it was almost about to end as the same time my college was about to and I couldn’t do anything about it.
Now Finally I’m out of college and never want to get into any formal education system for the rest of my life.
And I’m also done with App development, I’m moving towards Data Science.
I just started my Data Analyst Nanodegree on Udacity and It’s going good, Back on Python (I love Python ❤️).
So, why did I write this?
Looking back now, I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t started the time I had started and If there’s anything I want to change and it would be nothing (Except the shitty college I went to).
And no I’m not writing this to brag about myself, “It’s not bragging if its true.”. I just want to say that If a guy like me can do it then anyone can!.
The first book I’ve ever read was in 2016 (Other than Textbooks and yeah that’s super late 😆) and now I love reading, all I want to say is that “We start doing something at some point and all that matters is that we started it or we got into it, it doesn’t matter whether we started it early or late, it just doesn’t matter!”.
So is it too late? No, Never, It’s never too late!.
Fuck the haters, the doubters, the people who judge and that kid who started at the age of 8 by taking apart calculators and reprogramming them into computer games and other weird stuff!. FUCK THEM!, JUST START.
