It’s been a tough day for an overachiever like myself. See, I’m the kind of person who loves progress. I don’t even mind if they’re small steps forward as long as they’re steps forward. Some days programming can be tough on that kind of mindset for a beginner when progress can be slower than I’m used to. I’ve essentially had to redefine my idea of progress at times because “progress” can sometimes be just getting through one error and on to the next, not necessarily solving my entire problem.
I was talking to someone yesterday about how I was feeling with my current project, and they came up with the perfect analogy. Sometimes programming is like walking through the desert with a bottle of water. You get these little wins that feel like taking a sip of the water. When you get something to work, it’s exhilarating and feels incredible. But when you’re muddling through problems, it sometimes feels like you’re still walking through that desert, aching for a drink of water.
I imagine it’ll get easier with time and practice. I think the more mistakes you make, the more mistakes you remember not to make in the future. But to be a master at anything, you have to accept making the mistakes in the beginning. It is frustrating though, and nothing quite mitigates that. I’ve always been someone who likes producing results, and after a full day of coding and debugging, sometimes I don’t always get the results I wanted by the end of the day. It’s a continual practice of patience and understanding with myself and with my code. It really does take a lot of emotional endurance to weather the frustrations of programming.
That’s why I wanted to write this article though. I think it helps when you talk about these frustrations with someone else who gets it, and I’m hoping that any programmers who read this article will know that they’re not alone in their frustrations. I’m really fortunate in that I have a close friend who’s also a programmer, and he’s usually the person who can take me from super frustrated to back at it in just a few minutes. When I talk to family and friends who don’t code, they never quite understand what I’m talking about. At the end of the day though, I just recommend having a routine of how you deal with the frustration and stress, a support group of at least one person who knows exactly how you feel, and honestly lots of practiced patience. Programming has made me a much more patient, thoughtful, and analytical person. It makes me stop, think about life, and not be reactive when things go wrong. In programming, if you get an error, it’s just a helpful reminder to try something else. And when things go wrong in life, maybe it’s the same.
