Ever since I could remember I always loved to learn and help others. Be it to learn how things work, why something was designed a specific way, and/or what made this thing function the way it did. All of those questions fuelled my curiosity and passion to learn, to understand, and to help others understand or solve their problem. There is something satisfying about knowing how things work, why they work, and being able to answer people’s questions with an appropriate answer. Plenty of people are not too concerned about the how and why, and are just happy that it works; this is absolutely fine as well. For me however, the more I understand something the more I can leverage it to my advantage getting the absolute most out of it. This is probably another reason why I became a Software Engineer and continued to study after my Bachelor degree to obtain a Master degree.
I encountered a small technical issue yesterday and was browsing Stack Overflow to see how others resolved their problem and what the exact root cause was. There was a perfect answer to the issue with a equally perfect explanation as to why it was failing and how the fix solves the issue. Sometimes when I see the answers to questions on Stack Overflow there is just an answer with little to no explanation as to why it fixes the issue. These answers I feel are not that great because really you don’t learn and understand how to fix the problem, you just use a solution without understanding the problem properly. You don’t learn anything. If I do encounter just an answer to the problem I try to read up further as to why this solution works. In the long run being able to understand the problem completely and how the solution fixes it is far more beneficial.
On a daily basis I try to learn something new, be it a new functionality that I didn’t know in Java, C++ or C# had or how to use my body to ensure that I can easily incapacitate an attacker with minimal effort using BJJ. By me constantly learning something new every day I can better myself which in turn I can try and assist others to better themselves or provide a solution to a problem they have encountered. This desire to learn has helped me in my career so far as a Software Engineer, as you need to constantly develop your skills and research new and upcoming technological trends to stay relevant. It is a challenge to try and better yourself day in and day out, but when you go to bed at night and you think about what you have learnt that day or how you have helped someone, it makes going to sleep that much easier.
Christopher Tom Kochovski 