I’ve been wanting to create stuff on a computer ever since my dad got us our first PC back in the late eighties. Every year spent in school was one year keeping me from what I really wanted to do, program all the time. When I landed my first job at Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) I was on top of the world, programming shit for a living!

I am not a very intelligent person and I’m an average coder. Once I took a test to see if I was suited to be a programmer, I failed miserably. It was mostly logic and mathematic questions, neither one are my strong points. Luckily you don’t have to be very intelligent nor good at math to make a living as a developer. I am living proof, working on my 14th year in the industry.

Survival of the weaker

How is it possible to build a career as a developer without having the basic skills needed? I make up for my short comings with two things: determination and passion. I solve problems by taking them on head first and work until it is resolved or avoided. Sitting down and figuring things out is not my strong point. My approach is to just never give up, regardless of how many hours or weekends it might take. Stubbornness and a love for coding are what I use to compensate for lacking in other departments. It also helped me grind to a staggering halt when I was working on a project for the Palm Pilot. My inability to stop and my determination and stubbornness cause me to burnout. Since then I have become better at avoiding these scenarios, but I have urges for a relaps. It feels like I’m an ex-alcoholic, I can at any given point return to working my self into illness.

World collide

Being an average developer can be tiring as my approach to work is different from those with better academic skills and a more analytical nature. My view of the world collides quite often with those who enjoy programming for the intellectual challenges it provides. Me, I just want to make stuff that gets used by people. It can be tiring to not be of the engineering type, as they tend to dominate our industry, but it also leads to better solutions when you take best of both worlds I guess.

My point? You shouldn’t fear programming as there are lots of ways to do it and you don’t have to be all that smart to make a living as a programmer.