“I was nearly sure last night. He’s becoming real.” “But we’re all real!” At least, you are, and I suppose I am." “But he’s becoming more real. Extremely real. Nearly as real as Death, and you don’t get much realler…”
I read that line in Mort by Terry Pratchett, a comical coming of age story, and it stuck with me. If we’re good engineers, we’re always on the move so to speak. Nothing is static in our world, our technology, our data, our understanding is always in flux and we’re always becoming better engineers. In a sense we’re becoming more real versions of what we aspire to be.
I think my point in writing this down is to detail how I’ve become more, what led to a drive to be more, and how I planned for it.
Where I was
In 2021, I thought I was a pretty decent engineer. I was working primarily in C# and migrated all our code out of VB.NET. My team had made an app in Angular 2 with Ionic. Then I changed jobs and saw I was wrong; I had gotten comfortable where I was. Seeing things in a new sector, different ways of doing things made me realize I was doing things well, but only within the confines of where I was.
From that point forward I decided I needed to become a better engineer, I could no longer let myself be stagnant. I started by throwing myself into the deep end on docker and began helping manage the docker cluster. From there I expanded into getting deeper into the company infrastructure. I’ve gained multiple certifications, pioneered using technology such as Liquibase, and in general tried to become knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects.
What does it mean to become?
So what does it mean to “become more real”? In the novel, Mort is becoming the embodiment of Death, but what does that mean when applied to a normal person? I believe that we all have some ideal version of ourselves we see in our mind (we can have this ideal view whether ambitious or not) that makes us strive towards more. Each of us right now is just a fragment, an imperfect, out of focus phantom of what we really want to be. Each day we take steps to become the “more real” version of ourselves that we want to be. And as we take these steps, our vision is altered, and a new ideal version of what we want to be comes into focus.
Sometimes its hard to see the steps to get from the person you are to the person you want to be, so how do you get there? I think there are a few simple steps you need to take. First you have to make sure your inquisitive spark is strong. I know it can be hard at times, especially if you’re working a job you don’t particularly enjoy, but the inquisitive spark is one of the core components to being a good engineer. If you’re not inquisitive, you’re not an engineer at heart.
The next step is to organize yourself. Make a list of the new things that pique your interest and think how that ties into your future vision of yourself. With that list, make a plan. Make a SMART goal for yourself; it doesn’t have to include everything, but should be progress towards your future vision. My personal preference is to plan for the year, so I create a list of goals for the year in December or January. I then take those goals and break them down into smaller goals that can be done in a month or so.
[!TIP]+ A quick aside on goals… Your goals should be a challenge to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t hit all of them. Also don’t be afraid to change them. If an opportunity or exciting new technology comes along that you want to invest time in, change your goals while making a note of why for your future self.
At the end of the year, step back and reflect on your goals. Look at the ones you did hit and ones you didn’t hit. Try to remember (or find notes) about why you didn’t hit a goal. For example, I was ready to take the Redis developer certification when I received an email that they were discontinuing the service. Some times things happen. The thing to keep in mind is you have to keep your vision of who you want to be in the future in mind. Everything else should be adapted and decided upon to fit this north star.
The final thing you need is discipline, one of the hardest things to achieve. It takes a great deal of discipline to commit to a goal and see it through. Some days are harder than others. I’ve been there. I probably wouldn’t finish this post if I didn’t have the discipline and knowledge that I’ll be satisfied with myself for keeping to the schedule as well as I possibly can. You don’t have to be 100% every day, but you need to be something 100% of the days.
Remember you’re becoming a realler version of your future self all the time, whether you realize or want it to happen or not. Now’s your opportunity to change who you will be in the future. Take stock of who you are and what you know (and what you don’t know) and decide what kind of engineer you really want to be.