Computer Science major.
I had no idea what I was looking at. I struggled. I failed. And maybe more importantly, I hated it. Coding was not for me.
this class humbled meMY STORY · THE LONG WAY AROUND
I failed programming.
Then AI changed the question.
More than 20 years later, I came back to the thing I thought was not for me. Not because I learned how to code, but because the barrier between an idea and something real got a whole lot smaller.
01 THE PLOT TWIST
This wasn’t always the plan.
I went to college thinking I was going to study computer science and engineering. Then I took a programming course.
Management instead.
I changed direction, got a management degree, and started doing work that made more sense to me: people, teams, organizations, and solving real problems.
this was a better fitA life I’m proud of.
Nonprofits, social services, and leadership. I built teams, ran programs, managed budgets, earned my master’s, and did work that mattered to me.
I have no regretsI still wanted to create.
I wanted to build something outside of a program or project for work. Something that started in my head and became real enough for other people to see and use.
some unfinished business→ THEN AI CHANGED THE QUESTION
Can I learn how to code?
Can I make
something useful?
I can explain what something should do. I can test it, break it, change my mind, ask better questions, and keep going until the thing on the screen behaves like the thing in my head.
Apparently, that’s a kind of building too.
Hector Cuevas02 MAYBE YOU’RE WHERE I WAS
You have an idea.
Maybe you’ve had it for years. But somewhere between the idea and actually building it, you hit the same wall I did: “I don’t know how to code.”
I can’t tell you where this ends, and I can’t give you the blueprint. I’m still drawing the map while I walk it. But I can show you where I’ve been and what happens next.
If someone who failed programming can come back more than 20 years later and build working software, I’m curious what you could build too.
20+ YEARS · NONPROFIT SPACEMA · ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP0 YEARS · SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
See what I’m building ↗