16 years ago on my first week in my design college, I have no understanding of tech, and was in fact afraid of it.
My classmates were all photoshop wizards but I was there simply because I like drawing – with pencils and pens. When the lecturer asked us each to get a thumbdrive (or a pendrive), I had no idea what it was – luckily I was not the only one. The few of us who have no idea what a thumbdrive is end up tasking a classmate to buy for us.
At that point, I have never imagine myself able to appreciate computers, softwares or tech. While I eventually learned to be good a Photoshop and sorta forced to learn some basic html and flash – I still envisioned myself to be some kinda illustrator that relied mostly on my hands instead of the mouse.
While I am now neither a developer nor a techies in the traditional sense (not specifically enthusiastic about gadget, latest OS etc); I genuinely appreciate and enjoy some of the technical concepts in web dev and the internet in general. Being able to speak the lingo of sorts, work with smart developers ( who are willing to communicate and taught me things) is something I really enjoy and will probably continue to for as long as I can foresee.
I don’t have PASSION for it – unlike what I had for art and design – but I just genuinely love the joy of putting technology together to solve problems and create great products.
I always think that me getting into tech is accidental; that it is a result of me joining a company I wasn’t initially excited about but end up transforming my life.
Recently I have started to think that this is inevitable.
Long before I stepped into the tech world, I was in the advertising world. Burning the midnight oil, and being fed of the tales of how great advertisement and designs changed the world. Sounds familiar?
I bought into this idea in the very beginning, I mean it is a really novel thought – only to realize years later how advertisement is mostly a self praising industry that exist in a bubble. With the exception of few ads that made it to everyone’s memory, most ads are useless and forgettable – regardless of the amount of budget, creative juice and sleepless nights poured into it. We are just living in a world overwhelmed by ads, and ad in its singularity will never make a dent to change the world in any way.
With a lot of doubt over the “change the world” narrative, I bumped into the tech industry. Finally hearing stories from the valley and beyond, on how tech companies literally changed the world. Even the small, bootstrapped indie companies making small niche softwares, their work makes people’s life easier and it can actually be felt.
Quoting Steve Jobs – you can only connect the dots backward. Coming from an industry filled with fake narrative of changing the world, I can now see why embracing tech is such a no-brainer for me.