a turning point

So, where to begin? I am a Forensic Science grad working in biotech, who's looking to transition into a developer role (yes, I know). I thought that it would be really interesting to document my journey into tech through a series of short blogs as a means of tracking my progress, but also for extrinsic motivation (the embarrassment of giving up after I’ve set such a public goal). Why the name The Iteration Game? (the name of my previous site).

Great question. Most people are familiar with the 10,000-hour rule, which goes something like 'to achieve mastery in a craft, you must dedicate 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to it'. Whilst this may or may not be true, the notion of repetition to develop proficiency is undisputed. For some of us who are undecided on what to master in, this may seem beyond our reach. So what's the alternative? Another excellent question, thank you for asking…10,000 iterations instead of 10,000 hours."Solve via iteration. Then get paid via repetition" – Naval Ravikant. Whilst this can be interpreted as business advice, it applies to the way we navigate through our lives. The most successful people are those who go quickly from failure to failure, adapting and iterating in the process to continually progress. In my case, it's to continuously build, destroy, and rebuild my career in order to find one that I can dedicate the magical 10,000 hours to, however many iterations it may take (very dramatic, I know). I hope to explore the tech landscape to identify exactly what sort of developer I want to be.

Starting again is somewhat daunting. The idea that your efforts in directing your career trajectory have been futile is no fun. I've spent 3 years doing a Forensic Science degree, 1.5 years in the biotech industry and now I want to transition into tech? (warning: anecdote)If you're climbing a mountain and come to the end of the trail, thus preventing you from completing your ascent, the right thing to do would be to turn around and pick a different path, irrespective of the progress you've made (or give up, but that's not an option here). Virtues (you can debate whether that's a virtue or not) are easy to speak about anecdotally but difficult to act on. If I truly believe that starting again would be the best thing to do if one reaches a dead-end, you'd assume that I would act on that, right? Well, that's the plan.

This is going to be fun.