Paying your dues

Day 165 / 366

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

As a kid, I once joined basketball classes during summer vacations. For the first week all the coach made me do was practice dribbling the ball. It was too boring. I wanted to actually play basketball, and make some cool shots. But we beginners were not allowed to do that.

The same thing happened when I took guitar classes. The first 2 weeks were just playing the C major scale. Or what you would recognize as “Sa Re Ga Ma…”. One day at home I looked up how to play chords and a simple song online. The next day I tried to play what I learned in the class, thinking it would impress my teacher. On the contrary, he was disappointed and asked me to simply go back to the Sa Re Ga Ma.

Years later, when I got a chance to train interns and my juniors how to write code, I realized why my teachers were like that. I know now how important it is to get your basics right and to build a good foundation. And I see them making the same mistakes I made when I was young. They would try to quickly jump ahead, and use the internet or ChatGPT to do things fast, thinking I would be impressed. And I find myself giving them the same look that my teachers gave me. A look filled with disappointment. Things have truly come full circle.

There are no shortcuts in life. You’ve got to get the boring stuff done.