There are two things about graduate school someone who’s been through it will tell you:
- It’s a learning experience
- If you want to enjoy it, don’t write about it
At the end of the day—after lectures, papers, computer system diagrams, reading textbooks, and writing code—the last thing I wanted to do was write about it. Well, I wanted to write about it, but was unwilling to do it when there were video games to play and people to talk to.
While I still have a final project to do, I’m done with coursework. I've discovered something about me after six years: while I like software development, I still like writing. I like the problem-solving aspect of software development. I like reading technical blogs. However, I feel like all the smart kids are writing the smart things about smart coding practices. I may have something to contribute in a year or so, but I’d rather write about other things.
Further, I pigeonholed myself by focusing this blog on grad school and computer science. I've had many ideas for things to write about, but never felt like this was the forum and I don’t want to have another vehicle for miscellany. Between all my work, personal, and social media accounts, I have enough to keep track of. I guess this is another “by two”: I’m going to write about a lot of things unrelated to software development.
For instance, there’s a lot of what I consider cliche around the concept of finding your passion and then doing that for a living. This assumes you have one. More to the point, it assumes you have one you can do for money. Would that we lived in a society where you could do something because you love it and not just to stay alive. I’m not even sure I have one passion. Like you, I’m interested in all kinds of things.
What I’m interested in these days, of course, is writing. Well, I've been interested in writing for many years, but came up with ways to ignore and deny it. I think one of the reasons I like software development is because it’s writing. It’s not like writing fiction (Some engineers may think some of the code I write is made up. Plus, I do have dubious character development in my for-loops sometimes.), but Ruby is my language of choice and it’s rather expressive. With Ruby it feels like I’m writing closer to English.
I now finish this, my first post in a long time, giving myself a 0.6 probability of following it with another. This may seem pessimistic, but given my last post is two years old, I’d say I’m stacking the odds in my favor.
