Click here to be linked back to the 'article that started it all'.
I am genuinely disappointed I stopped logging my progress with CS in relation to 10,000 hour time limit. I guess if I start again and consider it a type of social experiment on myself providing a kind of online diary detailing my hours as they go down over the next couple of years, almost like a dev blog but of a person, then it may provide some structure and a bit of evidence to what can be achieved with 5 years of your life.
I worked out the other day, assuming you're about 20 you have about 12 periods of five years left in you. Which if you consider that you have had about 4 of these periods so far, thats a long-cat long time.
As I'm sure a few of you know I study self-help books as well for another project I am working on and one of the most consistent messages that comes up in regards to making something of yourself is to 'always be working towards the big picture'. For instance you have always had an obsession with building finger boxes but you think oh I don't have time.. etc etc.. So instead of reading 'phat hoes magazine' on the way to work buy 'finger box boxers magazine', read it, make notes, study it! Keep gearing every little element of your life towards that big dream of yours. It gives your life real purpose to have a focus point, you can easily push through the mundane bullshit of day to day living much more contented than your fellow drones because you have a purpose, you are going to be the best finger box maker in the world, and sure whilst conditions may not be perfect now, you're making them perfect, you are doing what you can with what you have.
All motivational speeches aside the problem still remains to spend your time becoming a better finger box crafter and to become that master of the art that you envisage yourself to be you are going to have to put the hours in every day to get there. So thats where I am at, conditions are not perfect, work seven days a week, relatively no spare time but I have been inching forward. I veered off the pre-determined path of 'just study hardcore coding and become beast'.. That didn't work I fell at the first hurdle I found it too steep a learning curve so I had to go back a few steps and re-plan what I need to do.
THE RE-PLAN
The re-plan basically consisted of me re-evaluating the way my mind works and optimizing my work schedule around that. I found that my mind (probably due to computing) has become very used to immediate gratification. It wants to see something physical straight away and a long time studying theory is like death to my mind at this point. I therefore tried to find what is something that will give me coding experience but have a tangible, immediate outcome that's usable and still a productive use of my limited time. Website Design, is where I settled, it has all the elements my mind needs to settle into a routine. Its difficult enough to still be considered a challenge but is simple enough that I can get the results I want relatively quickly.
With my new direction I had to incorporate it into my bigger 'overall' plan which is to become a 'master' of computer science (I appreciate, a ridiculously broad goal - but it will become clearer the closer I get to the goal I'm sure -_-). So I decided to take the 10,000 hours and break them up. Logically I would break them up into 1,000 hour sections. My first and only clear goal is to be able to create modern looking website with relative ease. So that is that 10,000 hours is the real goal. 1,000 hours is the day to day achievable goal.
I will create a main blog that details brief diary like entries that summarize what I learnt when I was learning every time that I sat down to learn. Taking off the minutes/hours of the total hours. So if any of you are interested in the day to day progress I am making watch this space as I will post a link to my diary blog here soon enough. My first major focus will be on website design so expect the majority of posts appearing on this blog for the next few months to be mainly on that theme, I will however mix it up where I can.
