Writing Prompts (Week 1) - Use tension to your advantage.

He was scared and tensed, unsure about his ability to pull it off. He hasn't done anything like that before, in fact he didn't think anything he had done has prepared him for this one task.

He has just been contacted by his friend who needed a payment gateway integrated in his website. His friend contacted him because he knew that Asher was a programmer but Asher didn't think he's got what it takes.

Asher is a student of the University studying Computer Science. He had always had interest in tech related things. Growing up, he had always questioned how things worked. How did common house appliances like television and radio work?

He was always fascinated when he saw computer gurus in the movies, typing some things in black screens and making things happen in far away places. He wanted to be able to do stuff like that too.

Asher consumed every information he came across, reading books recommended by some blog posts online. Also using tutorials offered by some tutors online, both paid and free versions.

It's been two years now since he started his journey into the world of programming but it still didn't seem like he's made any progress. He wondered Am I doing enough?, Am I going about learning this stuff the right way?

All these thoughts came to mind because he still couldn't fully understand how to build one of the big softwares that exists today. This depressed him, he wanted to be better, to do more, but everything seemed to just not be working well.

But Asher was missing the picture. He was an undergraduate who still had to attend classes, study, write exams and engage in other extracurricular activities. He was doing his best but he didn't realize it. It was right for him to want more so that he doesn't get complacent, but he also needed to put into perspective the progress he has made against all odds.

In the course of his research on various programming startups, he stumbled on an article which described how the video streaming giant YouTube started out. The article revealed that the first release of YouTube had only a few videos and those videos got selected at random for you. Bad user experience right? You simply visit the website and hope for the best. But that was only the first attempt.

Subsequently, YouTube kept improving the product to what we have today.

Also he saw an inspirational video about The Moonshot Solution. The video pointed out all the achievements recorded during the Apollo missions, these were things that had never been done before, they were literally learning on the job. And they were able to achieve outstanding results, although not without some failure.

Asher immediately got his Aha! moment. He understood that for every product that has ever been created, the makers never knew everything before they started. They had to start anyways, learn as they go and improve.

Asher accepted to help his friend out. This was going to be a Moonshot solution he thought. He took on the challenge, taking the tasks one after the other. He got in contact with developers from the payment gateway firm for questions and support in some areas. They provided the necessary support and the project progressed.

Slowly the tension of the unknown relaxed, to his surprise he was able to complete the required tasks one after the other. His knowledge was paying off. All his work is not a waste afterall. He had learnt enough to pull off such a job but he hadn't gotten the chance to put it all together. Now he had the chance.

Asher's implementation passed the User Acceptance Test (UAT). He went on to complete the project. He was elated, and proud of himself.

He wondered if the tension he felt at the start of it all was worth it.

Asher had learnt a vital lesson that would sustain him. He learnt that tension can be a killer if one allows it to cripple him but by harnessing it's power, it could propel him to where he wanted to be.

All this while he was prepared, he just never knew it.

Image source: Pixabay
This post is @original

Posted using Partiko Android