Hey everyone. Just an update on the Salesforce Certification. I am planning on releasing articles about it after getting the certification, so that I don't have to worry about scheduling two post in one week. Hope this makes sense!
Over the weekend, I have this thought about what I have notice in the last 6 years of being a developer and the post I made weeks back:
The main thing I notice is that a lot of people are saying:
It's hard to finish a project because of I am tired every time I work on it...
or
It's demotivating to keep working on this...
Something similar above in a sense, and talking about how it is hard to get into this market in tech.
To be fair, it IS hard. As a matter of fact, anything really in life is difficult in some spectrum. It's only a matter of if you are willing to do it.
Easy said than done right? (Even for me!)
Sometimes, we have a hard time being consistent because we don't see the reward right away or that we don't see the worth of doing something. For example, if we want to get good at LeetCode, it would make sense to so some problems consistently to get good at it.
However, the more you do it, the common thought you may have along the way is "What's the point? I am training for nothing at the moment".
I have this thought every time when I am practicing for interviews. Although back then I didn't have any interviews line up, I thought about being proactive and start practicing Interviews to improve my speech overtime. That way, when the time comes, I would be ready.
However, during the process, I have thoughts about not doing it because there is no reward to it since I don't get it immediately after practicing.
Speaking of, it reminds me of this specific scene from Tales of the Jedi:
The idea is that Anakin trains Ahsoka though Clone Troopers instead of what everyone else trains on, which is droids. The main purpose of the scene is to not only escalate the difficulty drastically, but to also prepare for the worse and expand on what we can do to improve and stand out from the crowd.
If you were studying CS or similar during your college years, you will hear this formula every time:
Undergrad: we study CS --> Junior year: we study LeetCode and Interviews and get an internship ---> Senior year: We get a Full time Offer.
Let me tell you something.
Why?
Not only everyone is following this though, but that creates competition and there is no diversity in that since recruiters have to deal with a candidate that has similar skills that they reviewed 100 times. Just because one person got into Google, does not mean you can too. Sure, there are people who can do that, but that's rare if you think about it and it's something I hope I can tell myself back then.
Going back to the scene. Ahsoka talks about how this is difficult because how Clones are better than the droids. Anakin taught her about being able to protect herself in a scenario no one saw it.
Guess what? She survived Order 66 because of this unique training.
What's the Point?
Think of it this way, we are following what everyone is doing. Maybe instead of following the formula verbatim, we make it unique to ourselves.
Will that be difficult? Of course it is.
I want you to listen to this scene in Loki about Burden Versus Glory:
The one that stood to me was "most purpose...is more burden than glory...you never want to be the guy to avoid it because you can't live with the burden".
What does this mean as a developer?
Sometimes the things that we want, we have to sacrifice a lot of things in life in order to achieve what we want. Maybe you are very social and go to parties a lot. Instead of that, maybe cut down a LOT of that time into investing in practicing programming skills and building your portfolio.
Sure, you may not see the result immediately, but you have to push yourself and have a good mindset to succeed.
What should I do?
Every week, @jess releases a thread on dev.to "What is your win this week" series. I encourage everyone to comment on the accomplishment that you made (EVEN IF IT IS VERY SMALL like going outside for example).
Why?
The reason is it allows us to reinforce positive thinking instead of thinking negatively. Otherwise, we would not be going anywhere. Again, it will not be immediate, but overtime you will see the result in a gradual way. Thus, being able to be more motivated on the things you want to accomplish.
Like Mobius said: "You gotta keep the big picture in mind...the hard thing to do, was the thing that needs to be done."
Of course, in this scene it is extreme because the TVA prune timelines in order to enforce a singular timeline. Remember, we are not following the quote verbatim, we are getting ideas from it that will help us.
For this case, if we want to be good at LeetCode, we want to keep consistent on practicing. Meaning, sometimes you will have to sacrifice something in life in order to keep that consistency going.
You may be wondering: What if it leads to nothing after all?
Then look back, at LEAST you have shown through your profile that you are studying hard at Leetcode and that you know the fundamentals. It's better than asking yourself that question when you have NOTHING on Leetcode.
Progress is better than none. Nothing in tech is easy and there is no comfort when we try to achieve what we want. Maybe you want to be in Google or that you want to be a Professor. Remember, there is more Burden than Glory. It's only a matter of having to choose your Burden to reach your Glory.
Speaking of Marvel, the Avengers: Doomsday Trailer came out of this time of writing this post lol
Top comments (68)
Well written, Francis. When you look at someone who has succeeded (for example, someone who works at Google), you only see the peak they reached. You do not see all the journey and hardships they went through to get there.
BTW, I also love the "What is your win this week" series 💛 It's so wholesome and helps to keep focus on small goals and successes instead of frustration that you're not where you want to be yet.
Thanks Klaudia! It's always a good idea to acknowledge small wins since it will compound into bigger wins :D
(Also, I saw your message about discord. I will prob create a poll sometime in the future about that).
Thanks :D
Francis, "more burden than glory" is a another way of saying something I've been living without a word for lately . a stretch of applying to things that gave nothing back and choosing to keep applying anyway. The Loki quote just nails it.
Indeed. Thanks Daniel!
i'm learning motion design so I work on my portfolio almost every week - improving it bit by bit. it's something new that I never tried before & looks cool so ig that solves the motivation problem.
the only issue with me is releasing the project when its good enough (and that good enough is the whole reason) but i will definitely release all 4 projects in 2-3 months 😭
i have never watched x-men, doomsday will confuse so many people
If you think about it and people using AI, every project looks perfect...
I would love to see the project! I would never know if it's perfect to my eyes lol
I watch the Fox X-men and it's good. X-men 97 is also good, though I haven't got around that. Annnd yea, Doomsday will be confusing since this is his first appearance where he does something (Fantastic 4 Post Credit doesn't count for me lol) 😭
Why?
Why do I never see what your win is in my feed and don't I receive notifications?!!!!
Notification is kind of broken idk. I had to be proactive on DEV just to see it manually lol
The hardest part isn't LeetCode... it's convincing yourself on day 47 that day 48 is still worth it 😂 Really enjoyed the perspective on choosing the burden.
Thanks a bunch! (Still doing leetcode to this day lol though I just started)
Hi! I hope you're doing well.
I'm currently working as a Frontend Developer and alongside my frontend work, I also want to focus on strengthening my REST API development skills.
As a personal project, I'm building a Mental Health Awareness API using production-oriented practices. However, I feel that many of the APIs I've built so far have been quite random and I'd like to work on projects that better reflect real-world backend systems.
If you could suggest some production-level REST API projects or share any guidance on what kinds of APIs are commonly built in the industry, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!
Hey Sagrika. Hope you are well. Unfortunately, I am not really familiar to which API is commonly used in the industry in particular because most companies used their own data and go from there. It also depends on your project specifically because Mental Health is broad. What is your ultimate goal specifically of using your API?
Here users can securely register, authenticate, manage their profile, track daily moods and write personal journal entries. using concepts such as RESTful API design, authentication, request validation, error handling and PostgreSQL database management, with future plans to add features like safety plans, emergency contacts, wellness tips and notifications. I wanted to build a personal REST API project that follows real-world backend architecture.
I think that is a good start. I don't think you need an existing API as far as I know. I hope you get to share your project on DEV!!
sure╰(°▽°)╯
I agree that consistency matters when the reward is not immediate. I’m less comfortable with framing social life and rest mainly as things that should be sacrificed. That can easily turn burnout into evidence that someone is “working hard enough.” A sustainable routine may achieve more than constant grinding. How do you decide when persistence is discipline and when it is a sign that you should change direction?
Hey Ravi! Great question!
Persistence the way I see it is ensuring you are doing the thing consistently. Discipline is based on you and if you are willing.
If everyone has discipline, everyone can be persistence. That persistence continues if you have enough discipline to keep going. For example, right now I am doing my Salesforce Certification for the Administration. I need to consistently study not because I want to pass, but I need to get the certification for work since it is required. I have the discipline to keep going because I know the importance of it and I find ways to be more engaging, so that I won;t be bored, in which decrease my will to keep going. Discipline varies each day for me.
For changing direction, I would say if it doesn't work in the long run. This is tricky because you can't really apply to every context and it depends on if the environment around you changes as well. I would recommend setting a set time. For example, for Computer Science, look into when students tend to "give up" and see if you can get pass that. If you get pass that and you enjoyed it, keep going. If you get pass that and you don't enjoy ii, maybe reconsider. If you didn't pass it, we know the answer lol.
Hope this helps Ravi!
That does help, especially the certification example ;)
Even if it's just a small win this week, it can become a big win in the long run. 🎯 So I think we should focus on the small wins right in front of us.
Agreed. Thanks Hyper!
As a star wars AND marvel fan, i really enjoyed this read xD
Thanks Alexandra! Hopefully Doomsday is good, but excited to see Spiderman: Brand New Day next week!!!
Also excited for spiderman. Doomsday felt kinda... Empty?
I mean to be fair, Dr. Doom first appearance in any movie oof. My friend told me that movie is going to be like "Action figures fighting each other" lol
And he is totally right. There wasnt the excitement of endgame or infinity wars 😭
It's either the biggest flop or okay at best at this point the more I think about this 😭
I am smelling a flop - even in the previous movies after quantomania, i have seen them, but i haven't really connected with them. The last thing i liked was Loki S2, and that was back in 2023
Loki was great imo and so was MoonKnight. Most movies now are just "eh".
Reading this from outside the formula entirely. I'm a freelancer in Indonesia —
never did LeetCode, never interviewed, no recruiter has ever looked at my
profile. My clients are small businesses: uniform makers, printing shops, a car
rental. They don't ask about algorithms, they ask why the order form breaks
when two people submit at once.
So the burden looks different here. Not "skip parties to grind LeetCode." More
like: no salary, so a slow month is just a slow month, and the thing I'm
building skill in is stuff nobody writes articles about — WhatsApp order flows,
making a site load on bad connections, explaining to a client why the cheap
hosting is the actual problem.
Your point about everyone looking identical to recruiters — I think it holds
even harder down here, just inverted. Nobody's competing with me on this stuff
because nobody wants it. That's the whole advantage and also the whole problem.
Anyway, good post. Good luck with the Salesforce cert.
Thanks for sharing!
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