TL;DR
For a long time, I told myself I would start documenting my journey later. I thought I needed better projects, more knowledge, or more conf...
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I believe it's never too late to start something new. And you've already taken that first step. You're no longer just someone being supported by others, you're already in a position to support and inspire others as well. I'm looking forward to your future activities! 😄
Thank you so much 😀
That means a lot coming from you. You've been one of the familiar names I've looked forward to seeing in the comments, and I'm glad our paths crossed through DEV.
And thank you for all the encouragement along the way. It's been wonderful following your journey too, especially the AI Avatar project. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take it next 😄
This resonated with me for a slightly different reason.
The line about missing "the person I was while building them" hit particularly hard. Lately I've realized that I don't just miss some of my old projects, I miss the version of myself that used to build them.
Back when I was a student, I'd spend weekends making random small tools just because I thought they were fun. Most of them weren't impressive, some barely worked, and none of them would make it onto a resume. But they captured a kind of curiosity and freedom that feels harder to find now.
Reading this made me wonder how many of those moments I've already forgotten simply because I never documented them. Not the projects themselves, but the excitement, the ideas, and the way I thought at the time.
Really thoughtful article. I hadn't considered documentation as a way of preserving old versions of ourselves rather than just preserving our work.
I think that's exactly what I was trying to capture with that line. Over time, I've realized that what I miss most isn't always the project itself, but the curiosity, excitement, and mindset I had while building it.
I could relate a lot to what you shared about building things simply because they were fun. Those moments often end up meaning more than we realize at the time.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Aryan. You've become one of the familiar names I look forward to seeing in the comments, and I always enjoy reading your reflections. I also appreciate all the support you've shown along the way 😃
Thank you and likewise Hemapriya. I really appreciate your support as well... And your blogs are always a good read. Excelsior.
Really well written Hemapriya, kept me reading till the end.
Documentation also helps during the bad patches nobody talks about.
When you're stuck on something for 3 days straight and everyone around you seems to be shipping things effortlessly, motivation or advice from someone else doesn't really do much at that point. What actually helps is your own past self showing you that you've figured hard things out before.
But those are exactly the moments you have nothing to look back at. Because you never wrote it down.
I felt that recently and wished I had even just rough notes, not polished posts. Just "today I was stuck on X and here is how I got unstuck." Simple as that.
I really loved this perspective. I hadn't thought about documentation through that lens when I was writing the article, but you're absolutely right.
Sometimes it's not the big achievements we need to remember. It's the reminder that we've been stuck before, figured things out, and kept going.
Thank you for sharing this, Shubhra. It added another layer to how I think about documentation 😀
Really glad it did. Felt like something worth sharing after reading your post.
It's never too late. I wish I had started earlier too...I have a couple of rules:
I really like those rules, especially the second one.
Looking back, I did document some things, but there are definitely lessons and experiences I wish I had written down at the time. That's something I'm trying to be much more consistent about now.
So many of the things that take us time to figure out end up being the exact things we want to remember later. That's a great reminder 😄
I sometimes regret that I was too afraid of showing my thoughts and what I'd done. But there's no time to keep regretting. That's the reason why I recently started writing posts about my experience, thoughts, etc.
Everything on our journey is worth to record. Not just for other people, but for ourselves. I believe that as time goes on those records will be accumulated and become 'me' in the future at last.
Let's keep moving on.
Thank you, Rondo!
I loved this line: "those records will be accumulated and become me in the future." That's such a thoughtful way to look at it.
And I agree, there's no point spending too much time regretting what we didn't document. The important thing is that we've started now.
Let's keep moving forward and creating those memories along the way 😄
I'm really glad that line resonated with you😊
Let's keep sharing what we learn and building our journey one record at a time. 🚀
Reading this felt like a message from my future self 😅. We always think we'll remember what we learned, but six months later even our own code looks like it was written by a stranger. Great reminder to start documenting today!
"When I wrote this code, only God and I understood what I did. Now only God knows."🤣
First time I'm laughing 😂
Mission accomplished then 😂
I genuinely don't think I've laughed this hard at a DEV comment before 😂😂😂
Mission accomplished then 😂again
the stuff that feels too rough to share is usually the stuff that’s most useful to someone else. the polished posts explain the result; the rough ones explain the gap where most people get stuck.
That's such a great point, Mykola.
I think the rough moments are often the ones people relate to the most because they're still in that gap themselves. It's easy to share the outcome once everything works, but the uncertainty, mistakes, and lessons along the way are usually the parts that help others the most.
Thank you for sharing that perspective 😄
that gap is the real thing, yeah. once it's polished it stops feeling like the thing that would've actually helped you when you were stuck in it.
Documentation is compound interest for learning. You don't notice the value immediately. Then one day you're incredibly grateful you wrote something down.
I love that analogy.
I think that's part of what makes documentation easy to underestimate. The benefits don't always show up immediately, but over time those small notes, posts, and reflections can become surprisingly valuable.
Thank you for sharing that perspective 😀
I understand you so well! I'm still a student and when I started posting my journey or the small things I'm learning (which seemed big to me) I got almost zero encouragement or reactions on my posts which made me feel down and discouraged. But I decided to just ignore it! If people ignored my post, I move on and don't take it personally. And, I believe this (not the posts, but the resilience) will get me somewhere someday. Thank you for sharing your story!
Nada, thank you for sharing that.
Honestly, I think the resilience you mentioned is a huge part of it. It can be discouraging when you put something out there and it feels like nobody notices, but I'm glad you kept going anyway.
And for what it's worth, I think documenting your journey while you're still learning is incredibly valuable. One day you'll be able to look back and see just how far you've come.
Wishing you all the best on your journey, and I'd love to follow along and see what you share next 😃
Thank you Hemapriya! I'm excited to see what you're up to next as well!
Even when I started my journey in tech, I wasn't familiar with many of these concepts and often felt overwhelmed. Over time, I realized that the people we see today as accomplished and confident were once in the same position—uncertain, learning, and figuring things out step by step.
What makes them inspiring isn't that they never felt inadequate; it's that they kept going despite those feelings.
I really connected with this post because I was that person not too long ago, trying to find my way and understand where I belonged in tech. Thank you for sharing this perspective.
I could relate to so much of what you shared. I think many of us have had those moments of wondering where we belong and whether we're moving in the right direction.
I loved what you said about people continuing despite those feelings. I think that's something we don't talk about enough.
Thank you for sharing part of your journey with me, Keerthana 😀
I think you are very good
I want to collaborate with you.
my telegram is tiger951015.
😅14 years old, searching the dark web for malware kits, so I can make a keylogger (for myself), so I stop forgetting my passwords... Uhm, 15 years old, trying to make a game in CryEngine, thinking I'm the shizz when all I did was play sims with the placeable objects... Oh wait, 16, wrote an app that deletes explorer.exe (as a joke, it actually just moved it to desktop). 17, cracked my first software (Billquick surprisingly still uses the same SQL db for product key expiry as where the data goes). 19, wrote my first AI (not fancy stuff, literally half a million if-else loops), 20, my first trading bot (400% profit MoM for 4 years straight of backtesting) sadly my nvme died the night I ran the test, I still have it incase I someday find a way to retrieve it. 22, started Doccit (autonomous accounting suite) and since then it's been too chaotic to track, Git would do a better job than I can
Reading through it feels like a timeline of your journey, and honestly, that's one of the things I wish I had more of from my own early years.
Even if it wasn't all written down in a journal somewhere, you still seem to have a record of those different chapters, projects, experiments, and lessons along the way.
Thank you for sharing this 😄
Yeah, just memories of what I did along the way, the few things that stand out. It'd be a tough 1 for me to even track what I've done the past 2 months (Around 1M LOC, 13 repos) and that's just my personal projects, ranging from a .Net infrastructure, to my own (way faster and more secure) whatsapp, anydesk and file share systems. So it's not at the rate where keeping track is best done via Git, cuz it'd take me too long to journal it all.
That's fair 😄
At some point, Git probably does a better job of tracking things than any of us could. Sounds like you've had a busy couple of months.
"What surprises me now is that I don't miss the projects themselves nearly as much as I miss the person I was while building them."
This one hit me hard. I am 37 now, but man when I was 13 and got my dads old gateway desktop with Windows 95, found a Java book at my local library, and had to transfer all the Java IDE files on clear floppy disks from his computer to mine (no wifi back then) boy was i EXCITED. I still get small spurts of that excitement when I find a shiny new tech or project but not like I did back then, theres too much going on to be excited about something like that for very long anymore. Thank you for the great post!
Josh, thank you!
I think that's exactly what I was trying to capture with that line. It's not really the projects I miss, it's the excitement and curiosity I had while building them.
And honestly, the image of transferring Java files on floppy disks just so you could learn and experiment is such a great example of that feeling 😄
Thank you for sharing that. Reading it brought a smile to my face.
Your article is inspirational for the learners like me.
Thank you so much! That means a lot.
I'm happy to hear that you found the article helpful. Wishing you all the best on your learning journey, and I hope you keep documenting and sharing along the way 😃
Yes Hema, just joined Dev on May 21st this year and posted 13 topics connecting Cybersecurity with Biology and Cybersecurity with Psychology as well. Participated in DEV challenges Github Copilot challenge and June solstice. I am not an expert but came out of my comfort zone of fear and hesitation to join the community.
That's wonderful to hear, Sujala!
Honestly, I think stepping outside our comfort zone is often the hardest part, so it's great that you decided to do it anyway. I've been there too, and I know how much courage it can take to put yourself out there.
And 13 posts since joining is impressive! I also love that you're exploring the connections between Cybersecurity, Biology, and Psychology. That's such an interesting combination.
Thank you for sharing this with me. I loved reading about your journey 😄
You are welcome. Have a nice day.
Read this and kept nodding at 'saving your future self' – that's been my exact experience transitioning from React to AI over the past year.
I started taking messy notes when I felt completely lost, and those random code snippets and half-baked thoughts ended up becoming the foundation for a book I just published. Your post reminded me why that early documentation mattered so much.
Just wrote my first post about the React-to-AI shift too – felt like putting all those scattered notes into something useful.
Thanks for the reminder to keep going.
dev.to/kristinz/from-react-develop...
Thank you, Kristin!
I love this. It's such a great example of why documenting things can be so valuable, even when it feels messy or unimportant at the time.
I just gave your article a read and left a reply. Great read, and congratulations on your book as well!
Thank you for sharing your experience 😄
I loved this post. And i found it at such a right time. I am a 3rd year comp sci student and I have recently started documenting the things I learned so I totally relate with the things you mentioned. Your post gave me newfound confidence to actually stick to it .
Any tips would be appreciated 🫶🏻
Thank you so much! That means a lot 😄
I'm really happy to hear that you've started documenting what you're learning, and even happier to hear that the article gave you a bit more confidence to keep going.
If I had one piece of advice, it would be not to worry too much about making everything perfect. A short note, a small post, or a quick reflection is often enough.
And if possible, try to be consistent. Those small entries add up over time in ways we don't always realize.
Thank you for sharing this, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you document along the way 😀
Thank you so much girl!
All the positive vibes your way.
You made my day 🫶🫶🫶
Aww, thank you, Waasila 😄
I'm happy our paths crossed here on DEV. Wishing you all the best and every success on your journey. 🧡
I can relate to your regret. I just started a vibe-coding experiment journey, and we're documenting the whole thing from day 1, in a diary written by the AI-CEO, with the facts and discoveries of each session. For many it will surely be boring, sometimes technical, sometimes wrong (we know the mistakes AI can make), and for many experienced coders and AI experts it will probably be basic too.
I'd say I haven't been a student for a very long time, but I'm convinced that in a few years, reading back through the documents of this experiment, some good laughs and some nice memories will come back to me. Including interesting conversations on platforms like this one that I never thought I'd be hanging around on until 3 months ago 😁
translated by claude
I love that perspective.
Honestly, I think that's exactly what made me write this article in the first place. The value isn't always in what you're documenting today, it's in being able to look back years later and revisit that version of yourself.
And who knows? Some of the things that feel ordinary right now might end up being the stories you remember most 😄
Wishing you all the best with the experiment, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the journey takes you.
To be honest this is the first article I read word by word! And it is the very first time I'm commenting!
I'm learning, and I'm at the beginning of my journey. I always wanted to share some things that I found interesting. But somehow I never did!
Today I decided to finally share something in here, but still was afraid...
When I wanted to go back to my safe zone, I saw this article...
Thank you :)🌸✨️
Hiva, thank you so much for sharing this.
Knowing that this was your first comment and that you decided to share something after reading the article means a lot to me.
I can relate to wanting to stay in the safe zone. It took me a long time to start sharing too.
I'm really glad you decided to take that step, and I hope you'll keep sharing the things you find interesting. The community is better because people like you choose to contribute their thoughts and experiences.
I'll be looking forward to seeing what you share on your journey. Wishing you all the best and every success along the way 😀
Thank you for reading and for leaving your very first comment here 🧡
This hit close to home. I held off from putting anything out there for a long time too, scared it would come across as wrong or incomplete, scared of trolling, scared of what it would do to my reputation. I finally pushed through in the last few months. Started posting on dev.to and put my app up for sale on Gumroad, the exact kind of exposure I'd been avoiding for so long.
And like you said, none of the things I was scared of actually happened. What happened instead was the opposite. My confidence went up. People left thoughtful, kind, and useful comments. The fear had built up this whole story in my head that just never matched reality.
What you wrote about waiting for permission to be imperfect nails it. There's no version of "ready" that shows up on its own. Perfect is the enemy of good, and waiting for perfect just means waiting forever. You just start, and you find out the fear was bigger than the actual risk.
Sometimes all you need to do is just start. Start anywhere.
I could relate to a lot of what you wrote. For a long time, I worried about many of the same things, and it took me a while to start putting my thoughts out there too.
I'm really happy to hear that you decided to start anyway, both with writing on DEV and sharing your app. Reading your experience reminded me a lot of my own.
Thank you for sharing your journey and perspective 😃
Honestly, you have spoken my mind, just from the article title alone. I wished I had started documenting my journey as a programmer much earlier, I know how much it would have helped me, but as you said, we can't go back again, what matters is what we do now.
Over the past like 2 years now or so, I have been doing my best to be documenting what's going on, both in public and privately because been able to look at your old self through those posts, notes, messages etc, it just hits differently.
Lovely write up Hemapriya Kanagala
I love that you've been documenting your journey, both publicly and privately. I think having those records to look back on years later is something many of us don't fully appreciate until we've lost some of those memories.
And you're right, seeing our old thoughts, notes, and posts really does hit differently.
Thank you for reading and sharing your perspective, Yahaya 😀
What a beautifully written reflection! This is exactly what every beginner (and even experienced dev) needs to read. The fear of being judged keeps so many stories hidden in local folders. Your advice to 'leave a trail' for our future selves is a fantastic perspective shift. Thank you for sharing this vulnerability!
The idea of "leaving a trail" was probably the biggest message I hoped people would take away from the article. Looking back, there are so many moments I wish I had captured while they were happening.
I'm really glad that part resonated with you. Thank you for reading the article and taking the time to leave this comment. It means a lot 😀
Thank you! I think we can all relate …
I have started to document more for my current project… because I realised people like honesty rather than a perfect diary. I also get surprise of people’s reactions when I post just some simple tips. I guess you never know who you are going to be helping!
Thanks for a great article..
Thank you, Cathy 🧡
I relate to what you said about people connecting with honesty more than a perfect diary. I think that's something I've been learning too. Sometimes the posts we almost don't publish end up resonating the most.
And you're absolutely right, you never know who might find a tip, experience, or reflection helpful at exactly the right time.
Wishing you all the best with your current project, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of what you share 😃
I can relate to this. It's surprising how many projects and lessons that once felt unforgettable slowly fade from memory. Looking back, even a few notes or short posts would have been enough to preserve parts of the journey. Thanks for the reminder that it's never too late to start documenting.
That's exactly what I was thinking about while writing this. At the time, so many of those projects, lessons, and experiences felt unforgettable, but memory has a funny way of letting the details slip away.
And you're right, even a few notes or short posts can end up preserving more than we realize.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts 😀
Great reflection. Your point about documenting the journey rather than waiting for perfection really resonates. Many developers underestimate how valuable those early struggles, small wins, and learning moments become over time. The best time to start sharing isn't when you're an expert—it's now. Thanks for the honest and relatable perspective. 👏🚀
Thank you, Kamal!
You captured the message I was hoping to get across really well. Sometimes those small learning moments end up meaning much more than we realize at the time.
Thank you for reading and taking the time to leave this comment 😀
That's the thing really. Honestly it's a chore at first but I eventually loved it to the point I started looking at other people's README.md in GitHub. What I love is when sharing a project to someone or to a public stranger, they would immediately know what it was and what I was thinking that time.
But most of the time, it helps ME remember what I did. For sure I would not trust my brain to remember everything. Good README's is a blessing for your future self. So for anyone not building README's, start creating one today for your current projects. I'm sure you will thank your past self. I know because I definitely did. (See photo of my old projects in my Projects Hub Repo):
PS. By the way I've had this DEV article about README sections saved for some time now and I believe this would help anyone get started. I never applied some of the sections yet in my own projects but I will surely add more next time.
That's such a good point, Elmar.
I think a lot of people see documentation as something they do for other people, but in reality, future-you is often the person who benefits the most 😄
I also love what you said about being able to look at a project and immediately remember what you were building and why. That's a part of documentation I don't think we talk about enough.
Thanks for sharing that perspective and your experience!
That sounds like a really interesting experiment 😄
I can relate I have been thinking about starting something like this for the past 7 years, but never really began. Seeing your approach makes me want to finally start soon as well.
Thank you, Usman!
That means a lot. If the article encourages even one person to start documenting something they've been putting off, then it was worth writing.
And who knows? A few years from now, you might be looking back and be grateful that you started.
Wishing you all the best if you decide to begin, and I'd love to see what you create 😃
Have you documented your tech journey?
Do you have old projects, notes, blogs, journals, or posts that you enjoy looking back on? Or do you wish you had started earlier like I do?
I would love to hear your story.
This hit close. I spent years convinced I needed to be "good enough" before sharing anything, ended up with a graveyard of half-finished projects and zero record of how I actually got to where I am now.
Started documenting a few months ago and already noticed the difference. Not for the audience, just for me.
The compound interest analogy someone mentioned in the comments is perfect.
I think a lot of us can relate to that feeling of waiting until we're "good enough" before we start sharing. Looking back, that's probably one of the biggest reasons I wish I had started earlier.
I can also relate to what you said about having no record of how you got where you are now. That's something I've thought about a lot, and one of the reasons I wanted to write this article in the first place.
Thank you for sharing your experience 😀
Awesome write up, do you follow a schedule of posting or just kinda when ever you feel like it?
Thank you, Travis!
Not really 😄 I usually write whenever I have a topic that I keep thinking about and want to explore further.
The only thing I stick to consistently is my Dev Opportunity Radar every Friday. That takes quite a bit of work behind the scenes, from researching opportunities to putting everything together, but I genuinely love doing it.
Everything else is mostly written whenever inspiration strikes.
Just went and read #4 and yup I'm now looking forward to these
It's never too late to start. But the moment you do, the whole world opens up.
I love that perspective.
I think that's exactly what I was trying to capture in the last section. It's easy to focus on wishing we had started earlier, but the more important thing is that we start.
And you're right, once you do, opportunities, connections, lessons, and experiences start appearing in ways you never expected 😄
Thank you for sharing your journey. i recently started learning cloud computing and i'm documenting my journey along the way to keep me accountable
Thank you, Divine!
I love that you're documenting your journey from the beginning. Accountability is such a great benefit, and I think future-you will be grateful that you captured those early stages too.
Wishing you all the best with your journey! I'm looking forward to reading your future posts and following along 😀
Thank you for your kind words Hemapriya
Just keep going, epxloring, learning, to dicsover new things, it's never too late of course so just keep pushing the limits...
I agree 😄 Sometimes we can't change when we started, but we can decide to keep going from where we are today.
Wishing you all the best on your journey!
Thank you for sharing this
Thank you, Arman, for taking the time to read it and leave a comment 😀
Me too, I would love started sharing my learning ant projects before. but as you said: it's not too late 😎
Thank you 😄
I think a lot of us feel that way looking back. But I'm glad we can start now instead of waiting even longer.
Wishing you all the best!
It's never too late 🤐
Absolutely, we can't change when we started, but we can decide what we do from here.
happy to connect :)
Thanks, Kushal!
Happy to connect too. Looking forward to seeing you around the community.
I am in my early 50s with 30
Years in IT, and my son is in early 20s who is also in IT. I have been documenting my career one way or another primarily through blogs. I keep telling my son to do so. Journaling a career is something not just to build more blocks but to revisit what we have done to cherish!
Thanks for this excellent piece of well journaled advice.