What I’ve learned about real life from programing

I’ve learned that work = time. I’ve “tried” a number of things in my life from music to tennis or whatever I thought I would be good at. The past three months I have put my heart into being a good programmer and it’s finally paying off. Everything is coming together and it just took time. Lots of time trying to get better. It will take a lot more. The things I fail in are usually because I don’t spend enough time perfecting or honing my craft. The other thing I learned so far is to take feedback! I usually shy away from criticism of any kind, but error messages in programming, I’ve learned, are my friends, not foes. I trust error messages to tell me the truth, straight up. My relationship with errors have become important to my ability to create apps. Like a good partner, they tell me the truth (and in Ruby, I see, without hurting my feelings). Programming has become my comfort zone. I’m sure this will change, that this is a fleeting feeling of control. But it’s always nice when hard work pays off.