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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Episode Transcript

Don Hansen (00:00):
Coding bootcamps had too much surface level
knowledge.
Cs programs have too muchtheory.
Right, there's a perfect middleground that you could truly
achieve with the freedom toachieve it as a self-taught
developer.
The problem is it's really hardto solidify that path for
yourself.
It's really, really difficultbecause there is no templated

(00:21):
path.
I don't envy being aself-taught dev.
It's really difficult.
I failed being a self-taughtdev.
It's really difficult.
I failed as a self-taught dev.
I almost quit a year and ninemonths into it until I went to a
coding boot camp and then I gota job six weeks afterwards.
Right, and that was a while ago, by the way, but I almost
failed at it.
The self-taught path is really,really difficult and most people

(00:44):
will fail it.
It's not because you can't behireable as a self-taught dev.
It's because the same bullshitMernstack tutorials keep getting
pushed in front of the faces ofaspiring developers over and
over and over, and so most ofthe people that you're competing

(01:05):
with suck as software engineersat a beginner level and they
just memorize how to piecetogether libraries in the
JavaScript world and they justare shitty software engineers
and they don't focus on gettingbetter.
This is what the JavaScriptecosystem does does to you.
It teaches you to just piecelibraries together.

(01:26):
It teaches you to depend onabstractions like how many tens
of thousands of aspiringdevelopers are going to continue
just becoming really shittysoftware engineers, spending a
ton of money doing this and notdiving deeper like they should?
This is the really tricky thingwith the JavaScript path.
Like it can be very like it's agreat path if you keep this in

(01:50):
mind and you force yourself todig deeper and figure out how
things work.
The problem is so many peoplecan just build stuff with
abstractions I mean at a surfacelevel.
So can AI at this point, at asurface level.
So can no-code solutions.
What good are you?
What's up, dewey?
Good to see you back.

(02:11):
How are you?
Sounds true for other degrees.
I think like having a four-yeardegree in general just shows
commitment, because you got torealize there are a lot of us.
It just is about how you comeacross and man, we can.
I'm not going to.
I'm not going to rant a tontoday.
I want to answer questions, but, um, a lot of people do have

(02:34):
commitment issues.
Like a lot of people don't havefollow-through.
A lot of people aren't meantfor to be software engineers.
A lot of people are not goingto make it in this field.
They're just not.
Um.
And one thing you do have isfollow through.
None.
You know, you have good weeks,you have bad weeks, but you have
follow through.
That is like, if you don't havethat, you're not going to make
it, you just aren't.
And you would be surprised thatthe number of people trying to

(02:54):
get into software engineeringbecause they just want more
money that holy shit.
They are tested severely ontheir attention, their habits,
everything about them to be ableto commit to this for years and
they fail.
And so what do you hear aboutthese stories about people
complaining on reddit andtwitter usually reddit, because

(03:15):
reddit is garbage.
But you just hear peoplecomplaining and complaining and
they're just blackpilledconstantly.
And I did this for years.
I dug into these people'ssituation for years, especially
when I was, when it was good,when, like, it was easier to get
a job, and I dove into thosesituations of people complaining
and I'm like you know what?
Let's have a conversation,let's hop on a Zoom call, let's

(03:36):
look at your portfolio.
Okay, so you're not getting ajob because you're a woman.
No, it's because your portfoliois complete shit and you don't
know what you're doingwhatsoever.
Oh, you're not getting a jobbecause you don't have a CS
degree.
Okay, let's take a look at yourportfolio.
What have you, like, taken uponyourself to build up these
skills and showcase that likeyou can compete with these CS
degrees?
Oh, wow, okay, you can't do afor loop.

(03:58):
Okay, let's, let's move on.
And okay, so you can't get ajob because you can't get a job
because of this, you can't get ajob because of that.
It's always fucking excuses andyou hear this replicated
throughout a ton of losers onthe internet who want to just be

(04:18):
a victim instead of beinghypercritical about what they're
fucking up.
Do you know how many people Ipissed 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 realconversation, if you want me to
hop on a call with you, even ifyou're paying, I don't even

(04:39):
accept people that pay, that arevictims.
I just don't.
If you want me to hop on a callwith you, I want a list of 10
things you are royally fuckingup in the job search, because I
could list 10 things of minethat I royally fucked up.
Why do you have such a big egothat is keeping you from
becoming a software engineer?
Do you actually want this?
You need to drop your fuckingego and be critical about all

(05:01):
the ways you are fucking up,because you are doing it royally
.
Almost everyone does, and ifyou can't acknowledge that,
eventually you're probably justgoing to contribute to the same
black-pilled bullshit you see onReddit.
You're going to become one ofthose people and just give up.
The market's too hard.
Good, get the fuck out of theway.
Let people that actually wantit go for it.
Get the fuck out of the way.

(05:22):
But a lot of people I think alot of people really need to be
hypercritical about what they'rescrewing up.
And I'm not just going to ripon people that don't like that,
are trying I don't do that thatare like really trying, they're
struggling and they know thatthey're fucking up Like I'm not.
I have no interest in rippingon people like that.
But the people that say, likethis is impossible, you
absolutely need to see us agree.

(05:43):
Self-taught devs aren't gettinghired.
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, differentpaths and different journeys.
It's like you just see so muchof it.
You just know a lot of this isbullshit.
But you have to talk to people.
You can't just like takepeople's word for it.

(06:04):
You can't just go on Reddit andtake their word for it.
You have to dig into theirsituation.
You have to dig into their dayto day.
You have to like like ifsomeone's saying they are just
trying, they're putting all thistime and they just don't have
enough time to learn Like,literally having people break
down hour by hour what they'redoing and track it down, write
it down.
People are not doing half ofwhat they say they're doing.

(06:25):
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 hypercriticalof these things, and I think it
gives you a little bit offreedom and a weight off your
shoulder, because what isn'tmotivating is having this

(06:46):
abstract, arbitrary idea thatthe market doesn't want you in
it, idea that the market doesn'twant you in it.
That has a weight that willkeep you from lifting yourself
up and building yourself upthese false expectations and
this false analysis of yourself.
These are the things that tendto get people to give up on the

(07:09):
journey.
Not the harsh reality or notthe harsh Self analysis Of what
they're screwing up.
It's always the falseexpectations and false analysis
that gets people to give up onbecoming a developer.