Nina Berberova in her autobiography brilliantly described how she chose her profession and what it means to have YOUR OWN CRAFT. I don't want to retell it - just read the original at this link - https://mir-knig.com/read_187744-4#.

Berberova made her painfully conscious choice at the age of 10, while my similar consciousness woke up at 39, during yet another reorganization at my current workplace.

The question "so what can you do?" suddenly arose. Hiding behind a diploma didn't work. An economist - that may be a profession, but not a craft. A doctor, a teacher, a salesman, a welder - that's a craft. But an economist at a bank who knows Excel is a parody of a craft.

For many years I hid in a quiet place, and now I'm naked like a crab without a shell. Who are you? What can you do?

I desperately wanted to have MY OWN craft. So that, like Berberova at 10, I could stand in the corner punished, out of breath, in tears, but firmly know in the depths of my heart that I am a PROGRAMMER.

Yes, I am a programmer.

My soul responded especially noticeably to this word when I read Hacker magazine. The informal "you" address used in Hacker kept tugging at my soul. Like Goblin's "well, you'll certainly ask ... and I'll promptly answer you ...".

Or everything inside was glowing with quiet joy when I listened to the Android Dev podcast (https://habr.com/ru/company/google/blog/275421/) with Denis Neklyudov and Danya Serdyukov. There it is - my lake, my pack. I am a Programmer, an Android developer!

That by that time I had been programming for 23 years on everything possible somehow didn't reach me and didn't convince me of anything. A self-taught impostor, without education and without work experience.

I forced myself to go through Java interviews once a year. Also naked there, but the experience is excellent and strictly mandatory for a full life. And I didn't have to change employers. Fortunately, the company is big and in our city there was a department where I came in handy.

In short, we're programming with all our might. Craft!

2022-08-08

LaborGit:
Dzen:
Max:
VK: