What is development?

Development is the process in which someone or something becomes more advanced through growth. In the tech world, the term 'development' is often associated with tangible things such as applications or features which get improved over time.

Source: Cambridge Dictionary

Truly, developments on the technical level can be exciting. So exciting, in fact, that we can often lose ourselves in the sheer grandeur of positive technologies being developed each and every year. Technology is rapidly evolving and changing the way that we live.

It's easy to get excited when thinking about the development of new technologies. It's also easy to get so lost in it to the point where we forget that, we're not just developing new applications, new widgets, and new ways to learn things: we are also developing ourselves. My hope is that this article provides readers with inspiration that motivates others to share their thoughts and experiences.

Development is not only tied to technological aspects.

It's easy to get engulfed in developing technology to the point of where we forget the person behind the keyboard. The person who created that really cool website. The person who finished their first HTML tutorial. Who is that person? It's you (or, maybe, soon to be you if you're about to start your development journey!). You completed it and you might not feel like the person who created something so awesome as a web app. Sometimes, this is what imposter syndrome does to us. It's all too common in the tech industry. People in the tech field tend to be really good at not giving themselves enough credit. After all, we tend to be our own worst enemy (and our harshest critic).

Beginners who complete a tutorial, even if the tutorial seems like a simple task to them, may often not realize the true impact that their newfound knowledge has on their own personal development. For example, you may have followed a tutorial on 'How to Build a To-Do List' today, and while you did not create the tutorial itself, you followed it through. You finished the app. You learned something. Give yourself credit!

Learn to start giving yourself credit for everything that you accomplish along your journey.

Learning about Burnout

I have often read stories about how burnout can be a real thing in this field. I am still pretty new in the field, so while I am aware of burnout becoming a possibility in the future, I have yet to experience signs of it. Before I even get the chance to experience it, I think it's important for me to educate myself. Is it possible to avoid? Is it inevitable for me as a developer? These are questions that I need to find answers to.

Well, I went on the search for answers. I feel that this is a very important topic that I should touch on a bit in this article as well, as it relates to the topic of developing yourself. I found some helpful advice regarding burnout, and will also provide links to additional resources at the end as well! Some advice I gathered was:

• Try to be aware and identify the signs of burnout early. The sooner you identify the signs of burnout, the sooner you will be able to take measures to help prevent burning out.
• The answer is not always the same for everyone. What works for one person may not work the same for you. Some people help mitigate burnout by trying to limit the amount of programming work they do. Others may not like limiting the work they do, but instead might prefer to find ways to make their work more interesting.
• Taking a break is okay. Taking a break is okay. You might find yourself in a situation where you're dealing with a lot of compiler errors. Get some rest and try again the next day (if your situation permits it, e.g. a personal project, not a project with a strict deadline.) Try learning something else for a bit, then return to the previous issue.

The First Sign of Burnout

• Stress starts accumulating, motivation starts to decrease. The reason this happens varies from developer to developer. I will provide a few example scenarios below.

  Example: Being overworked and underappreciated. This may be a scenario where a developer has spent a significant amount of time creating a project that goes virtually unnoticed. While the developer probably wishes that they could present their project to the world, maybe not many people saw their hard work for whatever reason.

  Example: Getting stuck troubleshooting. This scenario may apply more to people who are just starting out, but it may apply to others as well. When just starting out, learning how to program can be overwhelming. There are a ton of options to get started in creating something. With many options comes many things that can go wrong. Dependencies mentioned in a tutorial might now be obsolete, and a new developer may not understand how to fix that issue quite yet. Something that senior developers may view as simple may (currently) be complex to a developer who is just starting out. An error code that doesn't get resolved may be the reason for the burnout of a new developer. Realize encountering an error is inevitable at some point in your journey as a developer. Errors are an opportunity for growth. Overcoming them increases your level of problem solving.

Chronic burnout

Chronic burnout is when feeling demotivated and stressed become the norm (src). Every day, a developer with chronic burnout would likely not want to work on anything at all. It would be a stressful struggle to get through even thinking about programming anything.

How to add some 'fun'

So, what can you do to add a bit more fun in the development process? Document everything. It doesn't matter if you just started learning today. This is what I'm starting to do as I'm learning new things. I'm starting to draft up articles to discuss details about what I'm learning. This way, it helps me retain information that I learned, and perhaps helps teach others in the future as well.

Did you learn how to do something cool in CSS? Share it with others! There's always someone who knows less than you, and there's always someone who knows more than you. That's totally normal and okay! What you learn from one person becomes something that you can then teach to others. Educating yourself opens doors to educate others who eventually turn into educators themselves.

Sometimes, writing an article about something that you want to learn can be a way that you teach yourself. Perhaps you want to learn React, so you start writing an article about it. You could start off by covering what made you interested in trying to learn React, then cover your experience on setting up your first React project. After that, you could detail any issues you ran into, how you overcame them. By the end of your article, you will have built your first React app successfully, and will have shared your process with others. If you did run into issues that you had to overcome, sharing that experience could help others who may experience similar issues as well.

TL;DR - Believe in yourself

Whether you are starting your adventure as a developer today or if you're someone who has been developing things since Windows 3.1 existed, everything you do is an accomplishment. I'm not saying to go commit 31 new lines to the README of your project's GitHub just to get a dark green box for the day, but, just remember that you are the star of your developmental journey. Posted your first repo to GitHub? You should feel proud. Remember to support yourself every step of the way, be your own fire that drives you to success. You can do this.

Have a hard time believing in yourself? Consider documenting your journey and sharing that journey throughout blog posts. Get involved in a community. Sharing your journey (including the ups, the downs, the accomplishments, frustrations, etc.) can be a great way to stay motivated and to help avoid or manage burnout. I can guarantee that someone out there would appreciate reading about your thoughts while you're going through this journey. In fact, it's very likely that someone else feels similar to how you're feeling. (Note: If you end up feeling inspired to write about a personal dev experience because of this article, please feel free to tell me in the comments or tweet me so that I can check out your article!)

Also, remember to take pride in everything that you learn. One day, you may be the one who is teaching others who are new and feel overwhelmed in the field.

Helpful articles

There are a few articles/sources that helped me while researching topics related to this article:

• Beware Burnout
• Developer Burnout Can Be a Serious Issue. Here Is How to Spot It
• Imposter Syndrome In Software Developers: Am I A Fake Developer?

Note: This article's images were created proudly with Canva.