Rebooting
- 5 minsRebooting? Did you ever have a blog or something like this before? Why now? What is this blog all about? Who is it meant for?
To be fully honest with who may be reading this, I had these exact questions when writing this first post. As if somehow, even before any good or bad keystroke, in the end, this like my other previous attempts seemed already doomed to failure.
But why did my other attempts fail? Did I overthink? Was I afraid of having no audience? Why is it important to me to write about tech at all? Should I bother attempting one more time? How is this going to be any different?
Whoops, that’s a lot of questions, but don’t mind my manners. I didn’t even introduce myself.
My name is Jorge Santos, I’m 34 years old and I’m a software developer happily living in Valongo, Portugal. I’m a husband to a lovely wife and a proud father to an awesome son.
🥷 a little something about myself
This is not going to be another “How I Met Your Mother” story, but still, I consider that this is relevant for you to understand my perspectives. I’m the youngest of three brothers, from a typical Portuguese working-class family. We had a happy but challenging childhood, and with hard work and huge sacrifice, my parents got my brothers and me the chance to go to school for as long as we possibly could. Early in my childhood, my experience with what you may call a “computer” began when I first played Bomberman on my middle brother’s ZX Spectrum (as many of my age probably did). At that time, my brother gave me my first programming lesson ever:
To load up the game, you need to pick up Bomberman’s tape, insert it into the cassette player, rewind it to the beginning and then you need to write
LOAD ""on the ZX and then press《ENTER》
After a few times with some assistance, I managed to memorize the sequence and play on my own. I’m not going to lie: it felt good.
I commanded the computer to do something and it did. At that time, that was somewhat of a form of power or weird magic. So, as the initial excitement with Bomberman wore off, I started to gaze at ZX Spectrum itself: a lot of keys, of which I only used a few. If only those that I knew started a game, what could the others do? Curiosity sent me off to explore the hidden gems of the ZX, but with little or no help, not much to tell here besides my typing skills; I loved to type in full pages of books onto the text editor. It seemed to me like a cool job for someone to have.
A few years down the road, I hit a crossroads when I had to decide my path at school at the age of 14: either to continue the usual course where all my friends were going or try something different. Something new.
I enrolled in the first technological course of my school (pilot program) besides all regular classes like math, chemistry, etc. I had programming classes, learned how to structure programs, how to design a database, etc.
I absolutely loved it.
That decision made at 14 years old, took me down a path that unveiled itself before my eyes: I then entered college (ISEP IPP) to study Informatics Engineering (BSc) and then got my Software Engineering degree (MSc) and loved every single bit.
My merit and interest in these studies gave me opportunities at prestigious companies like INESCTEC and 3Maps, which I grasped with all my strength and will.
🔄 rebooting, ok, but of what?
Throughout all these years of programming, I’ve read tons of blogs, forums, Q&A platforms, messaging systems, newsletters, podcasts… you name it. From reading all those sources, especially platforms like Medium, Dev.to or Hackernoon, it became obvious that I wanted to share my views and personal experience about tech like many others did. The blogs that I read weren’t always on point, but at least they dared to put down in writing their perspective.
That made me think. I want to write a dev blog. And I did. Three times already.
Now I see clearly what was my initial problem: I was too concerned about what others might think. I restrained myself from my ideas because they might not be on point to everybody. And then, it hit me: you need to write as if you are the only possible audience, arrange a working system for yourself, and maintain consistency.
So now, let’s hope that I maintain consistency and that this reboot can last as long as the system works.
❔why now?
As a software developer and overall tech nerd, my daily routine consists of reading lots of forums, blogs, posts, and Q&As about programming, problem-solving, or market-related topics. In this constant exploration, I came across an interesting post on Medium that got me thinking: you should never leave the work marketplace and you should always seek to promote yourself. That way, you are always assessing your value, and putting yourself to the test. A good idea to promote your work nowadays is by writing about tech: keeps you on your toes because you must know the topic you’re discussing very well. Along the way, you might even learn something new. For me especially, it will work as a developer journey log for when I miss a special time or moment in my professional life.
🤓 who is it meant for?
As mentioned before, the main audience of this blog will be me in the first place! But of course, if this reaches someone and can cause a positive impact, I hope it reaches passionate developers like myself.
That’s a wrap for now, hope I didn’t waste your time and hope to hear from you soon ❤️
Jorge Santos
🥷 Web | 🗺️ Maps | 🚲 Cycling