We all have heroes we look up to when we are kids, right? Ever since I was pretty young, I used to look up to other developers and wonder when will I get to do all these amazing things they do. Then I grew up, became a software engineer, and I’m already doing things that they do. But I genuinely feel there are certain things missing. In this post, I’m just brainstorming my thoughts on this.
More of a Person, than a Developer.
I have always had a vision to own a website someday and keep posting about the crazy things that I experiment (which now I don’t because of my heavy schedule with work). I wanted this website to reflect the kind of developer I am. I believe every developer or a tech enthusiast in general is unique in their action plans, their ethics, their vision for the future. I have my own vision and I believe I’ll get there someday. But, that’s not just the only side to me.
In the pursuit of becoming more of a developer, I ignored the other sides of me that adds value to my life in some other way. I’m a musician who loves to compose music in my leisure. An art enthusiast who loves to look at art, pause and ponder about the intent of the artist. I’m a travel freak who loves to travel to different places, meet new people and absorb their culture. I’m also a bibliophile who loves the scent of the book as I open them and read. All of these things add up to making me as a Person.
What is (my) Person?
A person, according to me, is a Quest. It’s a perpetual quest to understand the world, understand self and absorb the culture, perpetuate life in this ever-changing world. If I had to bluntly categorize the things around me in terms of metrics, I would categorize things into two distinct categories, things that can be quantified and things that can’t be quantified. You could easily quantify your finances with currency and richness in terms of money you make. This quantification give you a distinct measure of where you stand in the society (If you are into such measurements).
However, there are certain things that you can’t quantify. Happiness, Friendship, Love to name a few. These don’t have quantification since they are subjective measures. We can not objectively decide how to measure love, friendships. Since they are immeasurable, there is a certain mystery around them, and it leaves us room to be poetic, prophetic or romantic around them. This is the kind of mystery that adds color to my life, since it keeps me going to understand those mysteries better. Questioning these mysteries leads me to ever more profound answers that makes the process more interesting.
Closing Thoughts
All these unquantifiable mysteries adds up to my quest to be more of a person. Lately I had been living the life of a just-developer and when I see it now, it feels a lot two-dimentional. My personhood, that adds more depth to this two-dimensional lifestyle, had been missing all along.
Therefore, I would spend my time making music, involve and lose myself in art, involve myself in gardening (not yet sure though), and also just be more of a happier person overall. I would reflect this attitude over to my online handles and try to involve with diverse people doing diverse stuff and try to learn as much as possible from everyone. Being a developer is a just a side to me among a lot of other sides that I have. Acknowledging this fact will help me live a fuller life, I believe :)
Good day.