Nike Was Right: The Only Coding Advice You Actually Need

I am pretty sure anyone who opens this would wonder what a shoe brand has got to do with coding? But...

I am pretty sure anyone who opens this would wonder what a shoe brand has got to do with coding? But just hear me out on this one. Let me start by saying a story that even led to me writing this in the first place.

I spent about three hours yesterday staring at a blank VS Code window on my pc. Well I was not literally staring at it for three hours because that would be a bit psychotic. I had my VS code opened and I was ready to work on a project I had in mind.

But a friend sent me a TikTok video and I made the mistake of opening it. I read the comments and laughed for about 15 minutes. TikTok comments are actually always funnier than the videos themselves. Anyway I ended up just doom scrolling on TikTok for about three hours and then switching through my social media apps. I then just got bored of everything and realized that I had successfully wasted my time. I then asked myself what I was even looking for. I could have used that time for something extremely productive.

The Trap of Waiting to be Ready

We look at what experts are doing and we feel small. We think we need to be perfect before we even type our first line of code.

But while we are waiting to feel prepared, the time just slips away. This kind of overthinking is the biggest thing that slows us down. We are not actually researching. We are just procrastinating because we are afraid to fail.

This is how procrastination slows us down. We overthink everything and we wait for a feeling of being ready that never actually comes. We think we need to watch one more tutorial or read one more article. But while we are waiting, we are just standing still. And standing still is not a good thing, because as you are standing still, some are crawling, others walking slowly, some walk briskly and most are running.

The Nike Philosophy

I started thinking about that famous Nike slogan lately. "Just do it".

It sounds simple, but it is actually the best coding/ life advice ever. In the world of tech, we often try to learn everything before we do anything. We want to master Python and Git and every other tool before we build a single thing.

The truth is that you only learn by doing. You do not learn to swim by reading a book about water. You have to jump in. Coding is exactly the same.

• You learn when your code breaks.

• You learn when you spend an hour fixing a weird path error.

• You learn when you finally make that first messy commit.

The Cost of Overthinking

If you wait until you feel like an expert, you will wait forever. Procrastination is just a fancy way of saying you are afraid.

Just getting up to do something is what actually gets the job done. Doom scrolling and overthinking will only make you feel worse.

I am learning that it is okay to be confused. Most of us are just Googling things as we go anyway. I don't know who needed to hear this but if you are like me and you procrastinate a lot, JUST DO IT anyway. And you will eventually get better at whatever it is :)