Don’t Panic

So… a few thoughts. The moral of this story is:

don't panic
Don’t Panic! Do. Not. Panic. Remain Calm.

I am relearning old (to me) stuff (JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, bootstrap, mysql, WordPress) and learning new (to me) technologies (React.js, Angular.js, Ember.js, Node.js, git) at home, alone, utterly alone. So very utterly alone with my screen full of letters and number and brackets. Developing alone, learning to code alone, is a touch racket. It is not for the faint of hearts. Software is a pain in the ass to troubleshoot. A royal, girthy, unlubricated pain in the ass. The only reason I can do this without jumping out my window is because I’ve got many many miles of software troubleshooting on these old tires of mine. I know when they’re gonna grip and I know when they’re gonna slip. I also don’t bother jumping out the window because I’m only on the second story and I’d only manage to break a leg, which would only worsen the situation. But I digress…

What was I saying? Troubleshooting, right. I have to continuously remind myself that I have the skills to figure out any problem I encounter. Last week it was completely uninstalling mySql from my Mac. Not as easy as it sounds, I first had to figure out that the problem I was having had to do with machine migration and how mySql doesn’t like to do this. Am I digressing again? Maybe I’m postgressing? Maybe I should have been postgressing.

Working from home makes you kinda loopy.

Yesterday I broke one of my dev environments. I really broke it good. And I was kind of afraid I’d have to rebuild the whole environment from scratch. I have an itchy trigger finger and if things aren’t working, I’m liable to just chuck it and start over. This time, my friends, I kept my cool. I just sat on it for a while. I thought about all the ways it was broken, and I had a lightbulb moment where I figured out how to fix it. See? I got this. Easy peezy.

I really need to remember that I have the skills to do this. My ego has been messing with me something fierce. I think it’s time to put the “Don’t Panic” sign up behind my desk.

Deep breath, go do a head stand. put the code down and go hug your child. The code isn’t going to get more broken if you ignore it for a day.


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