Aspiring Developers Need to STOP LYING to Themselves

Rant about how black-pilled aspiring developers who choose to be victims are poisonous to all other aspiring developers.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Middle Ground Between Bootcamps and CS
• 0:45 The Trap of Surface-Level JavaScript
• 2:16 Follow-Through: The Essential Developer Trait
• 4:18 Confronting Excuses in Tech Job Search
• 6:24 Harsh Reality: Be Critical of Yourself

Transcript

Don Hansen: 0:00

Coding bootcamps had too much surface level knowledge. Cs programs have too much theory. Right, there's a perfect middle ground that you could truly achieve with the freedom to achieve it as a self-taught developer. The problem is it's really hard to solidify that path for yourself. It's really, really difficult because there is no templated path. I don't envy being a self-taught dev. It's really difficult. I failed being a self-taught dev. It's really difficult. I failed as a self-taught dev. I almost quit a year and nine months into it until I went to a coding boot camp and then I got a job six weeks afterwards. Right, and that was a while ago, by the way, but I almost failed at it.

Don Hansen: 0:39

The self-taught path is really, really difficult and most people will fail it. It's not because you can't be hireable as a self-taught dev. It's because the same bullshit Mernstack tutorials keep getting pushed in front of the faces of aspiring developers over and over and over, and so most of the people that you're competing with suck as software engineers at a beginner level and they just memorize how to piece together libraries in the JavaScript world and they just are shitty software engineers and they don't focus on getting better. This is what the JavaScript ecosystem does does to you. It teaches you to just piece libraries together. It teaches you to depend on abstractions like how many tens of thousands of aspiring developers are going to continue just becoming really shitty software engineers, spending a ton of money doing this and not diving deeper like they should? This is the really tricky thing with the JavaScript path. Like it can be very like it's a great path if you keep this in mind and you force yourself to dig deeper and figure out how things work. The problem is so many people can just build stuff with abstractions I mean at a surface level. So can AI at this point, at a surface level. So can no-code solutions.

Don Hansen: 2:06

What good are you? What's up, dewey? Good to see you back. How are you? Sounds true for other degrees. I think like having a four-year degree in general just shows commitment, because you got to realize there are a lot of us. It just is about how you come across and man, we can.

Don Hansen: 2:26

I'm not going to. I'm not going to rant a ton today. I want to answer questions, but, um, a lot of people do have commitment issues. Like a lot of people don't have follow-through. A lot of people aren't meant for to be software engineers. A lot of people are not going to make it in this field. They're just not. Um. And one thing you do have is follow through. None. You know, you have good weeks, you have bad weeks, but you have follow through. That is like, if you don't have that, you're not going to make it, you just aren't.

Don Hansen: 2:52

And you would be surprised that the number of people trying to get into software engineering because they just want more money that holy shit. They are tested severely on their attention, their habits, everything about them to be able to commit to this for years and they fail. And so what do you hear about these stories about people complaining on reddit and twitter usually reddit, because reddit is garbage. But you just hear people complaining and complaining and they're just blackpilled constantly. And I did this for years. I dug into these people's situation for years, especially when I was, when it was good, when, like, it was easier to get a job, and I dove into those situations of people complaining and I'm like you know what? Let's have a conversation, let's hop on a Zoom call, let's look at your portfolio. Okay, so you're not getting a job because you're a woman. No, it's because your portfolio is complete shit and you don't know what you're doing whatsoever. Oh, you're not getting a job because you don't have a CS degree. Okay, let's take a look at your portfolio. What have you, like, taken upon yourself to build up these skills and showcase that like you can compete with these CS degrees? Oh, wow, okay, you can't do a for loop. Okay, let's, let's move on. And okay, so you can't get a job because you can't get a job because of this, you can't get a job because of that.

Don Hansen: 4:07

It's always fucking excuses and you hear this replicated throughout a ton of losers on the internet who want to just be a victim instead of being hypercritical about what they're fucking up. Do you know how many people I pissed off on linkedin, on youtube, whatever, by saying, okay, so you say that it's impossible. You say that you can't do this. I want you to like. If you want me to have a real conversation, if you want me to hop on a call with you, even if you're paying, I don't even accept people that pay, that are victims. I just don't. If you want me to hop on a call with you, I want a list of 10 things you are royally fucking up in the job search, because I could list 10 things of mine that I royally fucked up. Why do you have such a big ego that is keeping you from becoming a software engineer? Do you actually want this?

Don Hansen: 4:58

You need to drop your fucking ego and be critical about all the ways you are fucking up, because you are doing it royally. Almost everyone does, and if you can't acknowledge that, eventually you're probably just going to contribute to the same black-pilled bullshit you see on Reddit. You're going to become one of those people and just give up. The market's too hard. Good, get the fuck out of the way. Let people that actually want it go for it. Get the fuck out of the way.

Don Hansen: 5:22

But a lot of people I think a lot of people really need to be hypercritical about what they're screwing up. And I'm not just going to rip on people that don't like that, are trying I don't do that that are like really trying, they're struggling and they know that they're fucking up Like I'm not. I have no interest in ripping on people like that. But the people that say, like this is impossible, you absolutely need to see us agree. Self-taught devs aren't getting hired. Couldn't boot camp? They're not getting hired. All of that is bullshit. You just see, like you know, I've seen tens of thousands of results of, like, different paths and different journeys. It's like you just see so much of it. You just know a lot of this is bullshit.

Don Hansen: 5:59

But you have to talk to people. You can't just like take people's word for it. You can't just go on Reddit and take their word for it. You have to dig into their situation. You have to dig into their day to day.

Don Hansen: 6:10

You have to like like if someone's saying they are just trying, they're putting all this time and they just don't have enough time to learn Like, literally having people break down hour by hour what they're doing and track it down, write it down.

Don Hansen: 6:23

People are not doing half of what they say they're doing. This is like if you're stuck, if you are really stuck in trying to become a web developer, this is what you need to do to yourself, to be hypercritical of these things, and I think it gives you a little bit of freedom and a weight off your shoulder, because what isn't motivating is having this abstract, arbitrary idea that the market doesn't want you in it, idea that the market doesn't want you in it. That has a weight that will keep you from lifting yourself up and building yourself up these false expectations and this false analysis of yourself. These are the things that tend to get people to give up on the journey. Not the harsh reality or not the harsh Self analysis Of what they're screwing up. It's always the false expectations and false analysis that gets people to give up on becoming a developer.