The Zen Mind is the Beginner’s Mind

Assertion one: Technical knowledge and experience has a pretty short half-life. Example from my life: From 2005-2011 I worked on a large financial Linux-based web application. I learned a tonne about being a sysadmin, a developer, someone who deploys and maintains the app in addition to building it. However, that was also essentially the pre-cloud computing era. While the experience is valuable, the world essentially moved on. Should I choose to focus on remediating that, I can, but don’t for a second think that I don’t have to to be useful.

Assertion two: Older developers have a tendency to be overly critical of younger developers — this is the “it wasn’t coded here” phenomenon in different guise. The zen mind is the beginner’s mind here, while I do bring wisdom to the game, if it’s slowing me down and turning me into a talker rather than a do-er, then that’s a problem.

Assertion three: Brains change with age. More on this as I learn more. Right now I’m keenly feeling that I need to really address focus, and act as if my attention is a more limited resource than when I’m 25.

Assertion four: Not referring to pace or intensity, but to remuneration, there is room for exploratory coding, coding for brain health, coding for fun, and coding for curiosity. There is no shame in coding for other reasons than being a young, paid, gunslinger. Comparing yourself to others is generally a fraught practice, and it’s your ego, whispering “you don’t have it anymore” that is getting in the way. Don’t internalize weakness or infer worthlessness from how the market values you. Make your own way. Savings helps here. Modest living helps here. If you don’t spend it, you don’t have to make it. You can ship at 50, 60, 70, or 80.