Failure.

I read something recently that said.... "When a person appears to be more skilled than you at a particular craft, it's not because he's better than you at it, it's because he's failed more times than you at it, and he never quits, but decided to get better by continuing to try." I can't quote the person, but I feel like that was such good advice. When studying computer science, this helps with momentum. This morning, on my drive to work, I was listening to a podcast, a guy explained that when he is attempting to work at something or accomplish a goal, he has no emotion nor does he measure how hard or easy it is, he does not think about it at all, he just DOES IT, because its discipline, and it needs done. This gave me so much fire and motivation... I like to think this way now. I am sort of a sponge these days, it can be hard, hearing so many advice from different sources... one person says this is the way, the other says that isn't the way, but this is the way... I learned to be yourself and go with your instincts. It's what makes us humans incredibly unique and successful, each persons mind is special in their own way. I had a friend from Formation tell me he failed his Uber exam, and I told him... well you are becoming the best at it now, each time you fail, you are getting better, and when you succeed, you are being fooled. Bill Gates (my hero) says.... Success is a lousy teacher... it tricks people into thinking they are smart. He's so clutch with his words. I figured, I will still post on here to write about my life and/or feelings in tech as well. My Medium blog will be a technical blog. I am at a technical roadbloack right now, it's normal, it happens, and I love it. Little imposter syndrome... let me tell you. So I've been learning React, trying to prepare for my CodeSignal at Formation, on the Frontend... we have to pass these assessments in order to progress, so I've been dodging it, trying to learn React and JavaScript and the DOM, and today I attempted it after a few months of not looking at it, and I honestly could not answer one question. After all this learning React and trying to pass this assessment, I realized how difficult this can be. Feels harder than Algo Blitz, when studying Algorithmic problems (like LeetCode). On a good note, one of my fellows yesterday complimented me on my skill set by saying Matthew you've gotten better with React since our first meeting, so that felt good. I just try to get 1% better each day, if possible. The good news is that I realized my skill gap, and what's blocking me from passing this assessment. I need to understand JavaScript and the DOM better, and practice this more. This will help with my understanding of Frontend and React. I did one project previously on JavaScript and the DOM, but I am not sure that I understand what I did completely. I also had my hand held during that project. So now, I know what I have to do in order to fix this gap, and I will be working towards that now. That's good, at least I can diagnose my own weakness and try to improve on it, that's what engineers do! That's growth for me! Anyhow, I don't want to make this a TLDR, and I will blog on here from time to time, regardless of who reads it, I like to read my old post anyway! Thanks for reading if you still read these... don't hesitate to leave some feedback!