For sake of establishing my overall purpose here, this post is primarily to explain my intent here on this blog.
I have always loved computers and electronics. They are my passion. Every job I have desired in my life has either been solely focused on creating new technology, or incredibly dependent on having greater technology than the opposition. That's not to say that every job I have done has fit this category, but any job I have done has certainly proven to me the benefit of such focus. At the end of it all, technology is key in the world, and if you want to be at the very root of it then I see three options: physics, engineering, and programming. These three fields create everything that we benefit from today in a modern society. If I have to explain why, then you're probably on the wrong blog. In short, however, the next paragraph will sum it up.
In the world of physics, life is about either discovering new principles or further elaborating upon those that we already have. Essentially, physicists tell us what is "possible." Yes, we can all sit back and say that just about anything is possible, but to put a finer point on it one might say physicists tell us why it is possible or how. More appropriate for this post, however, is they establish what is possible today. Once that happens, it takes the mind of a particular engineer to implement these principles. Engineers turn theories into reality. Give the right engineer the equations describing lift, and he'll design the wing that directs the flow of air at adequate speeds to push upward and cause the vessel to fly. As I'm not an engineer or a physicist, I may have fallen short in describing their contribution to our modern society. If so, I apologize. For most, if not all, of their creations, there is likely a computer system implemented to control them. That is where a programmer comes into play. I firmly believe that given these three minds, anything is possible to us. The three minds (or, more accurately, combinations of minds as almost nothing these days is a "one man job") provide the kind of division of labor that allow the end users, the consumers, to benefit from the "latest and greatest."
When I was younger, I always dreamed of being the engineer type. I wanted to be the guy who invented the newest machine that revolutionized how we do just about anything. In high school, though, as much as I loved learning the laws of physics and how to benefit from them, I don't think there was a single class in which I excelled more than computer programming. A very strong part of me feels that a lot of this is because my physics class wasn't quite challenging enough (not because of any shortcoming my teacher had, but more because of the particular physics class my school had to offer.) The only class I recall my school offering was "Physics: Principals of Technology." It was something students often took to get there their science credits. As a commonly opted-for class, the teacher had to cater his curriculum to the students. I hate to see a class go through this, but the simple fact is that a teacher's primary goal is to see the majority of his/her students leave with more knowledge in their subject than they had before- especially in a public school such as mine. Computer Programming, on the other hand, didn't particularly fit any real "core" requirements. The result was that people who took the programming class were, for the most part, there because they wanted to learn programming. As a result, the class definitely moved a lot faster than any particular core subject class.
This brings me to a very important point: I started this blog tonight because I found a new surge of inspiration. After high school, I stopped programming. I went on to pick up whatever jobs I could find, I got married, I joined the military, I got divorced, yada yada yada. I largely started programming again recently out of boredom, but found that putting my mind to something like this again was actually a rather incredible feeling. I recall a time when I saw my scores on any given test soaring above those around me, and yet for the past eight years all I've really learned was electrical work on construction sites or how to blow stuff up in the military (which, mind you, I love as a career choice.) Still, when I decided to get back into programming it, after nearly a decade, it was pretty much like learning it all for the first time and yet a few weeks later I have designed my first application that actually serves a genuine purpose that I wanted to expedite. It's fairly simple, really, but it's effective and useful and it is a product of which I'm quite proud. I have a very large number of files on my computer, altogether, and I'm very particular about the way in which it all gets organized. So far the program I created is all very direct- the user specifies the name of each file and based on the user's designated file name, it gets sorted in the way that I like. However, the principles I learned to make it happen showed me that I could very easily expand this programs capabilities to provide a few more options to the user(s).
So, why am I on Blogger? As I was searching for more video tutorials on various aspects of programming, I came across a video of a "child prodigy" who excels in programming. As I watched the video, where others likely see a genius I simply saw a child who was provided with the opportunity to focus on his passion. I've been around a ton of people in my life, and every last one of them excelled in something. I could learn something from everybody. The reason for that is just that we all hold our own personal interests. An interest in something makes us more inclined to learn. The opportunity to focus on that interest makes us an expert. My take is that the vast majority of us could have been prodigies in something, if only we'd been given proper stimulation and opportunity. Like the majority, however, I didn't seek out that stimulation on my own once school ended. I just fell into the normal day-to-day that consumes most people.
Now, I aim to change it. I aim to document my path from being nearly an absolute beginner (all the programming knowledge that I possess, I learned in just a couple weeks time watching some YouTube videos for absolute beginners) to whatever end-state I reach. As a pretty simple start, I began by watching videos on beginning in Java programming (in my case it was a series of videos released by YouTube user Jose Vidal.) It was a series of 60-something videos on the simplest concepts of Java, and those provided me with a proper foundation with which to apply my focus to expanding in whatever direction I choose. So, people, the real point is get out and learn. This isn't inherently some "success story" or anything like that, just a thought. That thought is that anybody can become great at something, provided they feel a sense of passion toward that subject. For me, that subject is programming. As such, I will be using this blog to document my progress, primarily so that I can look back over it and remember where I am today, where I now want to be in the future, and the kinds of ideas I had along the way.
As of today, my biggest dream is to bring automation into everybody's day-to-day life. I think that if we could all focus less on what we have to do and more on what we want to do, then we could begin to progress even faster as a civilization. I want to be a part of that goal. I want to be one to put out the applications that allow us all to finish our obligations fast enough to provide us with a little bit of extra time every day to focus at least a little bit on what we love most, whatever that may be. I believe that all the technology is there already, it's just a matter of making more specific use of it all. That's my aim, and whatever I post from this point on will hopefully be about my progress toward that end.
I have always loved computers and electronics. They are my passion. Every job I have desired in my life has either been solely focused on creating new technology, or incredibly dependent on having greater technology than the opposition. That's not to say that every job I have done has fit this category, but any job I have done has certainly proven to me the benefit of such focus. At the end of it all, technology is key in the world, and if you want to be at the very root of it then I see three options: physics, engineering, and programming. These three fields create everything that we benefit from today in a modern society. If I have to explain why, then you're probably on the wrong blog. In short, however, the next paragraph will sum it up.
In the world of physics, life is about either discovering new principles or further elaborating upon those that we already have. Essentially, physicists tell us what is "possible." Yes, we can all sit back and say that just about anything is possible, but to put a finer point on it one might say physicists tell us why it is possible or how. More appropriate for this post, however, is they establish what is possible today. Once that happens, it takes the mind of a particular engineer to implement these principles. Engineers turn theories into reality. Give the right engineer the equations describing lift, and he'll design the wing that directs the flow of air at adequate speeds to push upward and cause the vessel to fly. As I'm not an engineer or a physicist, I may have fallen short in describing their contribution to our modern society. If so, I apologize. For most, if not all, of their creations, there is likely a computer system implemented to control them. That is where a programmer comes into play. I firmly believe that given these three minds, anything is possible to us. The three minds (or, more accurately, combinations of minds as almost nothing these days is a "one man job") provide the kind of division of labor that allow the end users, the consumers, to benefit from the "latest and greatest."
When I was younger, I always dreamed of being the engineer type. I wanted to be the guy who invented the newest machine that revolutionized how we do just about anything. In high school, though, as much as I loved learning the laws of physics and how to benefit from them, I don't think there was a single class in which I excelled more than computer programming. A very strong part of me feels that a lot of this is because my physics class wasn't quite challenging enough (not because of any shortcoming my teacher had, but more because of the particular physics class my school had to offer.) The only class I recall my school offering was "Physics: Principals of Technology." It was something students often took to get there their science credits. As a commonly opted-for class, the teacher had to cater his curriculum to the students. I hate to see a class go through this, but the simple fact is that a teacher's primary goal is to see the majority of his/her students leave with more knowledge in their subject than they had before- especially in a public school such as mine. Computer Programming, on the other hand, didn't particularly fit any real "core" requirements. The result was that people who took the programming class were, for the most part, there because they wanted to learn programming. As a result, the class definitely moved a lot faster than any particular core subject class.
This brings me to a very important point: I started this blog tonight because I found a new surge of inspiration. After high school, I stopped programming. I went on to pick up whatever jobs I could find, I got married, I joined the military, I got divorced, yada yada yada. I largely started programming again recently out of boredom, but found that putting my mind to something like this again was actually a rather incredible feeling. I recall a time when I saw my scores on any given test soaring above those around me, and yet for the past eight years all I've really learned was electrical work on construction sites or how to blow stuff up in the military (which, mind you, I love as a career choice.) Still, when I decided to get back into programming it, after nearly a decade, it was pretty much like learning it all for the first time and yet a few weeks later I have designed my first application that actually serves a genuine purpose that I wanted to expedite. It's fairly simple, really, but it's effective and useful and it is a product of which I'm quite proud. I have a very large number of files on my computer, altogether, and I'm very particular about the way in which it all gets organized. So far the program I created is all very direct- the user specifies the name of each file and based on the user's designated file name, it gets sorted in the way that I like. However, the principles I learned to make it happen showed me that I could very easily expand this programs capabilities to provide a few more options to the user(s).
So, why am I on Blogger? As I was searching for more video tutorials on various aspects of programming, I came across a video of a "child prodigy" who excels in programming. As I watched the video, where others likely see a genius I simply saw a child who was provided with the opportunity to focus on his passion. I've been around a ton of people in my life, and every last one of them excelled in something. I could learn something from everybody. The reason for that is just that we all hold our own personal interests. An interest in something makes us more inclined to learn. The opportunity to focus on that interest makes us an expert. My take is that the vast majority of us could have been prodigies in something, if only we'd been given proper stimulation and opportunity. Like the majority, however, I didn't seek out that stimulation on my own once school ended. I just fell into the normal day-to-day that consumes most people.
Now, I aim to change it. I aim to document my path from being nearly an absolute beginner (all the programming knowledge that I possess, I learned in just a couple weeks time watching some YouTube videos for absolute beginners) to whatever end-state I reach. As a pretty simple start, I began by watching videos on beginning in Java programming (in my case it was a series of videos released by YouTube user Jose Vidal.) It was a series of 60-something videos on the simplest concepts of Java, and those provided me with a proper foundation with which to apply my focus to expanding in whatever direction I choose. So, people, the real point is get out and learn. This isn't inherently some "success story" or anything like that, just a thought. That thought is that anybody can become great at something, provided they feel a sense of passion toward that subject. For me, that subject is programming. As such, I will be using this blog to document my progress, primarily so that I can look back over it and remember where I am today, where I now want to be in the future, and the kinds of ideas I had along the way.
As of today, my biggest dream is to bring automation into everybody's day-to-day life. I think that if we could all focus less on what we have to do and more on what we want to do, then we could begin to progress even faster as a civilization. I want to be a part of that goal. I want to be one to put out the applications that allow us all to finish our obligations fast enough to provide us with a little bit of extra time every day to focus at least a little bit on what we love most, whatever that may be. I believe that all the technology is there already, it's just a matter of making more specific use of it all. That's my aim, and whatever I post from this point on will hopefully be about my progress toward that end.
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