A Man Told Me to Learn C
When I was a young lad still in high school, I lived and breathed video games. Naturally the dream job of choice one day would have to been a computer programmer. At the time, I was already a wiz at Turbo Pascal. Naturally, I wanted to move beyond that and start learning about languages and tools of the professionals.
So there I was one day at the library. I spent a lot of my youth in libraries. As usual, I started with the computer section (in the 005 or so part of the Dewey Decimal system). I was looking through the titles on the shelf when a man started talking to me. I had no idea that he was even there until he asked me, “Are you learning to program?”
I said yes and told him of my dreams to get into games programming. Then he continued on, “You have to learn C if you want to program games for a living.” Then he went on to tell me about his career. I don’t remember much of what he said, except one thing. “I had a nervous breakdown and took a year off work.” He didn’t look like a psycho of the sorts but that threw me for a bit of a loop.
I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but I did take his recommendation. I dove deep into learning C. I wrapped my head around much of the concepts easily, until the chapter on pointers. Eventually I made the mental breakthrough to understand it.
Looking back, I was glad that he took the time to tell me how to get started. All that work into learning C has paid off. However, I think that really wasn’t the advice that he wanted to give me. Perhaps I looked too bright-eyed and innocent, and he didn’t want to burst my bubble. Sometimes, the truth about how the world really works is just not so easy to talk about. It is so much easier to just have safe discussions and conventional advice. I thought that I was already pretty radical at the time as I really didn’t know anyone else in my peer group (with a few exceptions), who pursued programming with just as much fervor.
Was he trying to give me a warning about the path that I would follow? I think that I understand now that he really didn’t have a nervous breakdown. I think that eventually we come to a point where we just need to really question ourselves: why are we doing what we are doing; are the things I am doing with my life congruent with my values; what things are important to me. It really didn’t matter what your calling is, this line of thinking or “life reset” happens to a lot of people. It is during these Odyssey years that we pursue the goal of knowing thyself.
Some people change as a result of the Odyssey. Other people go back to the way they used to be, with a clearer purpose and sense of themselves. I can’t help but think about Michael Jordan’s first return to basketball, after a year of being in minor-league baseball. That’s the kind of return from Odyssey that I want to have for myself. I so want this blog to be an artifact of my Odyssey and catapult me into the next phase of life.
Tags: advice, C, jordan, Odyssey, programming
