Your Bootcamp Won't Teach You This
Experience is the Best Teacher
Three weeks into what should have been a "two-day project," I was staring at my screen, surrounded by coffee cups. I was dealing with unexpected edge cases. My junior developer self would've been horrified.
My current self? Just another Tuesday.
That memory hit me during a recent conversation about project estimates. As I tried explaining why developers always multiply their time estimates by 2.5, I got that familiar puzzled look - the one that says "How hard could it really be?"
And that's when it clicked: some things in life you just can't learn from reading or listening. You've got to live them.
Here's the thing about experience:
You can't download it. You can't speedrun it.
It's like trying to explain what an orange tastes like to someone who's never had fruit. Sure, I can teach you the technical stuff—how to manage projects, handle clients, and write clean code.
But those gut feelings? That sixth sense that tells you "something's not right here"?
That's pure experience.
I see a lot of people these days trying to hack their way to expertise. They're looking for shortcuts, wanting to skip straight to the end of the book. I get it - we're living in a world of instant everything.
But some things just don't work that way.
Think about learning to ride a bike. I can explain the physics, show you videos, give you the perfect step-by-step guide.
But at some point, you've got to get on that bike and eat dirt a few times. Those scraped knees? They're your real teachers.
What makes this whole thing even more interesting is how personal it is. Your journey won't look like mine.
Even if I hand you my exact playbook - do X, then Y, then Z - you might need to discover that Z actually comes before X for you. Because what works for me might not click for you until you've had your own "aha" moments.
That's why I've started thinking differently about teaching. Instead of trying to pour knowledge into people's heads, maybe our job is to help them become better learners.
To help them recognize patterns, trust their instincts, and understand that every failure is just a lesson in disguise.
Experience isn't just about putting in time - it's about what you do with that time. Are you just going through the motions, or are you really paying attention to what worked, what didn't, and why?
That's the difference between having ten years of experience and having one year of experience repeated ten times.
When you're frustrated that things aren't clicking fast enough, remember: some lessons can only be learned the long way.
And that's exactly how it's supposed to be.
Quote of the Day:
"First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do." - Epictetus
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