Matthew Lang

Proof that technology and search companies are not the only corporate bullies when it comes 'brand protection'.

Just disgusting Specialized, and yes, the actual Roubaix cobblestones are what first come to mind when I hear the name. Not your bike.

I've read quite a few articles about teaching kids how to program and write code. There's the argument that the world has embraced technology to such an extent that it's hard not to have your life touched by technology in some way. Some advocates of teaching kids to program say that it should be part of the school curriculum from a very early age.

I agree with teaching kids about technology and how to control it, but I believe this should only start at a point where reading and writing have been mastered. The point where kids can read basic instructions and write about their experiences.

I think my oldest son is at that point. So next year, I'm going to start teaching him how to write code. It won't just be about writing code though, I aim to educate him about basic terminal commands, show him how computers work and how their used all over the world in different ways.

I'll be blogging about it along the way, maybe one post a month, with a guide to what he has been working on. It should be fun, and it will be nice to get to spend time with him as well.

Resistance is a natural response when you're faced with a big challenge or project. It can be all too easy to simply shrug off the challenge and look elsewhere for something else to do. I have to admit, there have been a few days over the course of this year I did exactly that. Looking back, my reasons for resisting to step up to the challenge were varied.

Decisions

We make hundreds of decisions everyday, but when a decision is part of a long term commitment, it can be difficult to sometimes make that decision. What if I make the wrong choice? Can I change my mind at a later date?

The details of decisions cost me a lot of time this year. The decisions I was making were not huge decisions, they were simply decisions that would have a small effect on the outcome of a project.

I should have shrugged of the resistance to not making a decision and just committed to a choice, an outcome. If I made a mistake then it's just time lost in finding the right decision. We can't make good decisions all the time.

Confidence

Or should I put it as lack of confidence? Despite having worked on many software development projects over the years, my confidence isn't 100% when faced with a challenge or a problem.

As a kid I would rarely put my hand up to answer a question in class for fear of getting it wrong and looking stupid. It's weird because a couple of weeks ago at my oldest son's parents night at school, the teacher told me that my son lacked confidence in answering questions in class. Bit of a family trait then.

Anyway, regardless of the size of the challenge or problem, I started to see that the way to build confidence when faced with a challenge is to do it a little bit at a time. Just a few small wins can do wonders for your confidence, and as long as you're making significant progress, any bumps on the road will only knock your confidence slightly, which is easier to recover from.

Small steps

And that leads me onto steps, or small steps in this case. When faced with a challenge, it can be easy to view it as one challenge, one step, one action if you will.

One giant step can make most people think twice before committing to a challenge. However, breaking this giant step down into smaller steps can make it look more manageable than the action of one massive step. As I said previously about confidence, taking something and breaking it down into the smallest bits you can manage can make that giant step look much more easier to accomplish.

I resisted for so long on a couple of projects this year due to the above factors, but having worked through one of these projects, I was surprised to see that I could make it work. Overcoming those factors that contribute to resistance can all of a sudden make that death-march project look more appealing and doable.

I'll be honest, I'm not a completely confident person. For those that know me personally this will come as no surprise. Right from when I was a kid, I struggled with answering questions in class, school debates and generally making my voice heard. Even after over 15 years of education and many different job and roles in the workplace, those confidence jitters still get to me. When it comes to public speaking, I avoid it entirely if I can.

It doesn't get any easier when I'm writing either. As I type this, my hand is itching to select all I've written and delete it.

When I am working on a post to publish, I just don't have the courage of my convictions. I've tried in the past numerous times to put my thoughts together on a number of topics but in the end I've just deleted the post and looked for something else to write.

Half the battle I face is actually articulating my thoughts into words, written or spoken, so that they present an argument or reasoning that others will not react with offence. The other half of the battle is following up those words with replies or explanations to others. If you're going to voice your opinion on a topic then you need to be able to back that opinion up and explain it.

It's only in the last couple of years that I've managed to start making progress on building up my confidence when it comes to public speaking. My stint in an agile development team done wonders for my confidence. I found that daily stand ups and retrospectives were great opportunities to voice my thoughts within a group. I'm still not there when it comes to public speaking, but I'm gradually chipping away at it and building up my confidence.

Am I ready to do a talk at a conference? Hell no.

A local meet up or user group? Maybe.

As for the writing side of voicing my thoughts, it's definitely easier than speaking. I do find it much easier to just write. Whether those words get published is down to me and whether I feel confident publishing those words. I'm happy for the moment to let just a trickle of my writing find its way here on my blog. It might only be one or two posts a month that test my confidence but with each one I'm raising the bar slightly.