a journal of my way to coding.

There are very few moments I remember as vividly as that day of January 1999 when I first decided to move to the USA. Then I came to the abysmal realization that much of what I’d done in my professional life until then was of very little value in regard of this project. A French Law degree? Basically useless. Accounting degree? Different principles and presentation of financial documents. My years in Customer service and sales back office? Of little interest, as far as I could see. And so on and so forth. So here I was, knowing I’d establish my life in a new country with almost no way to make a living. At 36, this was simply dreadful.

Two possibilities were deeply attractive: programming or cooking. I have always been a closet geek; there was always some kind of computer around to tinker with. Starting with a Sinclair ZX81, in kit, I went through a lot of machines along the way either at home or at work, mostly PCs and a slew of more exotic rigs. Mostly self-taught, I had dabbled in Basic, some CPM, ancient SQL on AS400 and MS Access 2.0, a bit of Pascal, among other languages. Games, RPG and simulations would draw me in, so the world of personal computing was familiar, and I had a pretty good head for it. I even worked at one time for Commodore France, translating game software manuals from English to French. PDF files did not exist yet - the manuals were printed material (Gasp!). Realistically though, my competence was at tinkerer level, a good one perhaps, but not much more than that. It would have needed a lot of work and money to reach a marketable level. So cooking it was, and three months later I started my training of Professional Cook in Lyon, working my first job as a line cook in New York in December 1999.

Fast forward to about 2 years ago. After some 18 years in the restaurant business, it was time for a breather which came in the form of a house we purchased, in need of some serious TLC. Building stuff are a powerful motivation I do possess, and for which I have good hands. Electricity, plaster, carpentry, painting, plumbing and so on will make my day, easily. It is more a hobby, almost at pro level, but I know it would not be a profession for me. As happens a lot, what was a 9-10 month project turned into a year and a half long endeavor. While all the work happened, the yearning for a change of career increased. I had done pretty much everything there is to do in professional cooking from New York City to Pierre, South Dakota and Doha, Qatar, from fine dining to catering and hotel; I was ready for another challenge.

An impacting factor was the advent of coding bootcamps. Back in 1999, those did not exist. The choices I had to learn code and to get a job in the field were mainly pursuing a Computer Science track and/or self teaching, both onerous in time and money. My first step was obviously to check my own motivation and interest. There is a great difference between cooking at home for one’s family and friends and doing a cook’s job in a restaurant kitchen, as much as there is between working as a developer and tinkering at home with a language or two. My first step was to look for free or cheap ressources online and just start learning, Python as it were. I also looked at Ruby and Java, though both did not really pique my interest. Code Academy, a couple of beginners books and other resources were my main scaffold. The pace was a bit slow, and I was working on the house at the same time. The few months spent on this process made me realize three crucial points.

First, it was exhilarating. I rediscovered a profound attraction for learning, for being insatiably curious, and for the research and sheer pleasure of resolving problems. My deeply ingrained fascination for building stuff was translating almost perfectly. Second, I still had it in me. The logic and capacity for analysis were functioning, a bit creaky and rusty, but present. A lot of what made me a good cook and a good chef would be relevant as well, and I may dig a bit deeper on this later. Third, viable, professional, job oriented training existed with bootcamps. The ROI when considering a decent bootcamp is real, the intensity and density of their curriculum is a factor, but manageable. Mainly, homeschooling does not agree too well with me. I tried but I still need some interaction with real life people in a real life environment; I still prefer having a schedule, classes, assignments and projects.

After some due diligence, my choice was Fullstack Academy. It blends good vibes, focus on professional outcome and a great track record. It is set on JavaScript and simple common sense makes it a great starter choice without going into the debate of what is best to learn first. It is a real full stack road to a tremendous lot of technologies. Being a multi paradigm language is another asset for the steps ahead. During my visits onsite, it was the place which felt altogether the most serious, fun, and welcoming of the few I checked. I went through the admission process and I am already in the third week of Foundations. The Junior phase onsite will start in three weeks, and I can’t wait to be there. In the meantime, most of my focus is centered on language acquisition, skill development, increasing my general knowledge of the field and its challenges. It is incredibly fulfilling. Looking a bit in the mirror, my first lines of Javascript were typed in November last year, and I am now putting together my first webpage with JS, HTML, CSS and JQuery.

Now an anecdote about my culinary training. After eight or nine weeks into it, we had to do a first internship in a restaurant, a real one, serving real, paying guests. Mine was in Boulogne, near Paris, and it started a little bit awkwardly. The chef de cuisine and me were about the same age, though he had come to the kitchen at 15 as an apprentice, and all the line cooks were in the 18 to 22 year old range. One of the first thing they all remarked on was my age, and how green I was, they did so and without kid gloves. After the first week, a chef came in to help out for a large party on that weekend. He was a big guy, with a big voice and maybe 25 or 30 years of experience under his belt. At staff lunch, he looked at me and just said I should quit and forget about it because I was too old. For him I would never get it or make it as a chef; the only way into the career was to start as an apprentice, like him, of course. No hope for me, just nail that coffin shut tight. A few days later, the salad cook I was paired with fell ill, and there was no one available to replace him - well, no one besides me. By the end of the internship, I was manning the station by myself. Through simple grit, blood and sweat, I got the station back on track and made it happen. My reward was just a handshake at the end and a “well, ya got the job done at least.”. Nevertheless, I still think it was one in the win column on many levels.

My first experience with Fullstack Academy happened at one of their Hackers’ Nights. Adam came to the chair next to me and we began to talk a bit about my presence, what I expected to do eventually, where I was at on JavaScript. When told I was a chef, he first remarked about how hard that job was and that a lot of it could be easily transposed to coding, like attention to details, organizing, stress management and such. It was refreshing. There were quite a few others as welcoming, interested and genuine as he was. All seemed wicked sharp. I do not know where all this is going yet, but it feels a sure thing that if I put in the sweat equity and focus and dedication, those folks will be there and will do in return the maximum to get me and every one in my cohort to where we should be as decent junior developers. How more exciting could it be?

“ In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice.

To be continued.

/*- by J. Lennon & P. McCartney, from the 1970 Let it Be album by the Beatles. Their last recording session and last single as a group.