For this week’s blog post, I decided to write about this section of the textbook because I feel like this is an issue, I can see myself having when I get into the field. If I were to summarize this section in two statements, it would be “don’t let success go to your head”, and “never let someone take you away from something you love”. In this section, the author talks about what we should or should not do when we get a promotion. The author cautions us to be careful and warns us against blindly accepting a promotion because while in our new position we may never have to code, and if we do not practice on our own time, it can be easy to let our coding skill become dull. In addition, the more we move away from programming, the more we become disinterested in programming. This relates to a previous section in the book about nurturing our passion. If we don’t continually nurture our passion, we may lose that passion. As an alternative to the promotion, the author recommends that we work with our employers to find other ways to reward our hard work such as a pay increase or role change so that we can continue coding.
First and foremost, I agree with most of what was said in this section. Where I see myself having an issue later on in life is I feel like I am the type of person who when they receive a promotion will blindly accept the promotion and not think too much about the implications or effects until it is too late. In which case, I can also see myself having the problem of not being motivated enough to continue practicing programming during my own time and let my skills dull. So, reading this section made me realize that I probably will want to find some way to keep motivated before I go out there and get a job in the field. I am not sure what it will be or what it may look like just yet, but I have time.
After reading this section, I also thought it was really interesting because throughout this section, it seems like the author was making an emotional appeal to our sense of pleasure and focuses on the idea that a lot of people that go into this field go into it because they enjoy the work. That is why I am going into it but that may not be the case for everyone.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Just a Guy Passing By by Eric Nguyen and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.