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My Life Lessons From Coding

My Life Lessons From Coding

Download Audio: My Life Lessons From Coding

Barnett Msiska

Ever since my parents bought a computer: of sorts, back in the early 90s, I have been fascinated by the art of programming them. I say a computer of sorts, because it had no resemblance to what we are now familiar with, in as far as what a computer looks like.

A Relic From The Past

To describe it in not so many words, it was a computer build into a keyboard form factor. You connected this machine to a TV, and it used to run programs stored on audio cassette tapes. I know, right? It is possible you have no idea what a cassette tape is. My parents had picked this computer gadget from a garage sale of an expatriate couple, that was living in Malawi at the time.

Not to say that this was the state of technology at the time: I am not that old. By then, the floppy disk (Another relic piece of tech), was the rad storage medium that was all the rage. This couple had this machine from an earlier time. 

And so the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 became my introduction to computers. At 3.5MHz processing speed and 128Kb of RAM, it was a relic even at that time, but I didn’t know better. The remarkable thing is that, it was the best thing to have ever happened to me.

I recall the machine came with four games on audio cassette. Total Recall, Robocop, Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble. I still vividly remember the sounds it used to make, as you loaded the game in computer memory from cassette, before you could play. It was a screeching sound, similar to what Internet modems (Yet another tech relic) used to make when making a connection, and about 10 minutes later you could play the game. Great times!

Apart from the games, the machine came with something else: An instruction manual to program in BASIC. I would spend hours looking at this code, and was totally fascinated by it, and used to type out the programs in the book and marvel upon the executed results. The most complex program I can remember implementing, was programming an analogue clock.

A Lot Like Life

I have grown in leaps and bounds since my days of waiting 10 minutes for a program to load into computer memory, and now I even have Internet access! Coming from those days, when I could not even comprehend the idea of interconnected computers, to the present day of even interconnected social lives, I am filled with wonder on how far things have come.

My interest in coding aside, there is something remarkably akin to life when you are coding. And I mean, when you really get into it. Coding is essentially a metaphor for problem solving, and I believe as well as a metaphor for life.

When you code you are trying to find a solution to a burning problem or need. Maybe you want to save people time, or you would like to connect people, or make the world a better place. Whatever pain you are trying to solve, within the process of doing that, you encounter smaller problems within the context of programming.

It is common for a coder to try and find the most efficient way to solve real life problems, within the confines of a set of strict programming rules. Life is the same way, you have life, then you have the smaller problems, with the rules like how to stay healthy and strong, where illness and inevitable death are part of the rules of living.

When solving problems, in life as it is in coding, you encounter bottlenecks. These are situations that make it hard to move forward. In life they are known as problems or challenges, but when you are programming they are bugs.

I have encountered my fair share of bugs when coding, but in hindsight the resemblance to real life is very striking. And I am compelled to draw parallels with life situations, and those similarities lead me to the following insights.

The Kind Of Questions You Ask Matter

I believe solving any problem, whether in life or when coding, rests on your ability to ask the right kind of questions. There is a popular phrase in computing called “Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO)”. This phrase refers to the fact that as “smart” as computers may be, they will only give you responses as is appropriate to the input you provide.

Solving any problem is always in response to the right question. In life, if you are in an unfulfilled relationship for example, unless you ask yourself the right questions about the nature and status of that relationship, you are not in a position to make your way out of it, or change your circumstances.

If you are coding and you encounter a super-bug, it makes a whole world of difference whether you ask yourself the question, “Where am I going wrong” when contrasted to asking the alternative question, “Am I taking the right approach?”. The first question draws you deeper into your current way of thinking, whilst the second question has the potential of making you pivot into a whole new direction.

Therefore, the level and quality of questions you ask, is critical when facing life or when coding. It is therefore important to always reevaluate the questions we ask ourselves.

Do Not Be Quick To Apportion Blame

It is easy to blame someone else or something else, for the things that go wrong in our lives. Some people blame family, others blame friends, or their boss, or even the environment. The tendency to shift blame also creeps up when coding.

I often have to bring myself back from taking the path of the blame game. If I encounter a bug, it almost comes naturally to think that it’s the framework’s or the platform’s fault, and not my code that is to blame. In almost all cases, it ends up being my fault. Often it will be a small mistake, but it is notable that, I was quick to look at anybody but myself, as the first instinct for blame.

If a coder is part of a team, this can be a real thorny issue. Understandably, especially in life, there are many instances in which things that happen to us are not our fault. However apportioning blame does not help the situation, perhaps part of the solution to the problem of the rush to apportion blame, is to take our share of the responsibility even if the situation was not entirely our fault.

Sometimes It Is Necessary To Step Back And Let Go

At times when you are coding, you become too focused on what you are doing, that you fail to notice problems and solutions that are right in front of you. What is happening in that moment, is that you are too close to the situation to see it objectively.

When we are too involved with what we are doing, our own biases and inner deep perceptions, can sometimes get in the way of finding optimal solutions to problems. It is the same in life as it is in coding, that you can get caught up in your own negative patterns of thinking, and the best way out when this happens, is to step back and let go, if only for a while.

It's The Little Things

Coding requires a lot of patience, because sometimes you hit a bug, and it will be days on end, before you find a solution. What can be irritating at times is that, in thousands of lines of code, the issues was just one character that you left out, for example, a comma.

This is also the case in life. It’s the little things that can end up tripping us up. It might be as simple a thing as not getting enough sleep, or gossiping about other people, that might have great impact on our livelihood on a grander scale.

Paying attention to the little details can save you a lot of headaches when coding, and so it is in life. Once you take care of the little details, the bigger picture takes care of itself.

You Are Never Alone

I remember a time, when I was fighting the biggest monster of a bug I have ever encountered on a software project I was working on. I was a solo developer on this project, but once I hit a brick wall, I reached out to online communities, and the response was overwhelmingly remarkable.

In developer online communities, and as you will find in most communities online, there are always people willing to help. It is a wonderful phenomenon that strangers will pitch in to help you with your situation, whatever it is, without expecting anything in return.

My belief is that this is not only a feature of online communities, but an aspect of what it means to be human. You will always find people willing to help you out, whether online or off, and all you have to do is ask. Furthermore, bringing in people is an opportunity for a fresh perspective to any given situation.

Never Give Up, There Is Always A Way

In my experience of coding, there has never been an issue that did not get sorted out eventually. As daunting as it may seem at the time you encounter a speed bump, there is no doubt in my mind that there is always a breakthrough, on the horizon, sooner or later.

Coding teaches me that, as in life, there is always a way, and all we have to do is trust that things will come right in the end. Isn’t that what faith is all about? Another interesting lesson from coding is that, the code that had given me the most problems turns out to be the best code, because it is always more refined. It therefore follows that obstacles make what we produce better, and this has also brought me to the realisation that great things take time.

I’ve had personal challenges in my life, where at times it seems like things are taking forever to materialise or get resolved. But when I look at my experiences with coding, and how I can draw many parallels in my life, it gives me courage to soldier on, and trust that it will work out in the end, as long as I condition myself to believe that there is always a way. I invite you to have the same kind of faith in your life and your activities.

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