So You’re Not a Programmer…Yet

I have to admit, I’m afraid to call myself a programmer.  I spend about 10% of my time at my day job programming, and I have three apps on Google Play that I wrote entirely myself.  Still I have this feeling of being a great imposter if I were to refer to myself as a programmer.  I have always had this feeling that there is something special that they teach professional programmers in school, and there probably is.  It’s probably all of best practices that self-taught programmers like myself have learned the hard way (or haven’t learned at all yet).  But I said all of that to say this:  don’t be afraid to jump in headfirst to programming.  Become an imposter.  Believe in yourself.  The knowledge is out there, you just have to find it.  

There is a bravado associated with people who know how to program, the higher the level, the higher the bravado.  This is intimidating for the would-be programmer starting out, because programmers have done such a good job of making themselves out to be geniuses.  No doubt some of them are, but that fear of being wrong and of someone putting you in your place can be paralyzing.  Don’t let it in.  Carry on and remember that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of the program is in the testing and using.  If you can write applications that function as intended, you are a programmer.  Period.

Why Do You Want to Develop Android Applications?

Before starting, it is critical to establish, at least in your own mind, why you are interested in developing Android applications.  For this purpose, I think it is helpful to separate the crowd into a two main categories:

• Category 1 – Those starting for their own reasons:
  • I want to start my own business
  • I want to learn a new skill to put on my resume
  • I want to delve into a new career path (I hear people are hiring Android developers)
• Category 2 – Those starting for exogenous reasons:
  • I am a high school or college student creating applications as part of my coursework
  • I am a programmer at my day job, and my boss really wants me to learn to develop applications for a project.
  • I’m homeschooled and my Mom thinks this will look good on college applications.  Kudos to you by the way, and good luck with your applications.

If you fall in Category 2, then my job is pretty easy.  Either you are motivated to learn Android, or you are not.  Either way you’re going to grin and bare it.  If this is you, feel free to stop reading this and go on about your day.  We’ll catch you next time.

Likewise if you are starting a new career or if you are gathering skills for your resume.  You’ll do well to follow future posts, but the motivational aspects bringing you here are pretty cut and dry.

The only subcategory remaining is the App Entrepreneur wanna-be.  You my friend are a horse of an entirely different color, and we are going to have alot of fun together.  You are an unreasonable dreamer, and you feel like an imposter just mentioning the idea to friends and family.  Do you know how unreasonable you are?  There are X million apps out there, everything that you could possibly want to do on your phone has been done already.  And on top of that, Y% of all new small businesses fail within 2 years (or 1 year or 6 months, whatever the statistic of the day is).

You may fail, that much is certain.  But imagine a game of darts where you get to pick off your bad shots and keep throwing them until you get them in the bullseye.  That’s what we’re dealing with here.  Day after day, app after app, release after release, you get to pick your shots.

Now you need to think about your reasons for going down this path, even if you are a good ways along it already.  Write them down if only for your own edification.  If you are comfortable, I would like you to share your reasons and motivations with the community in the comments to this post.  Alternatively, I would love it if you emailed them to me, and we can have a one-to-one on the topic.