Ever since I learned how to code when I was 8 years old, I have always dreamt of being a video game developer. This was the era of Galaga, Contra and Mega Man. It was when Super Mario Bros 3 was a feat of game software engineering. I didn’t know how they we’re built back then but I knew it wasn’t easy. This is based on the other games I’ve played before them. Pacman, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong we’re great games but they we’re not complex like the ones I grew up with. Even just considering the length of gameplay (although you could say those earlier ones we’re technically infinite levels) of Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Contra 2, you can tell that they we’re much more complex than their predecessors. I fell in love with these games because they require timing, concentration and most importantly patience. You need to be dedicated to become good at these games and slightly obsessed to enjoy it at the same time. It was truly an exercise in frustration. A great training ground for future software engineers if you ask me 😂.

We watched Soul last night and I was inspired to learn how to build animations in Unreal Engine 4. Took me a couple of hours just to learn how to navigate the view ports and learn basic controls on it. There is also a new project they’re working on called Metahumans. It’s a simplified high fidelity human animation creator that promises to be easy to learn. I’m using 2 available assets for it on this sample project. After playing with this the whole day I have to admit none of it was easy nor straight forward. After a whole day of hard work I looked up how much a 3D animator gets paid. Was shocked to learn that Disney pays only $55k to $118k for it. Seems rather low for such a highly technical and artistic skillset which I would reckon is a difficult combination to find.

The movie Soul tells the story of how inspiration should be the key motivator for what you do in life. New souls needed to acquire badges that represent different traits and personalities as part of their pre-life training. Each of these made the pre-born souls unique but unfortunately still incomplete. There is a special badge they need to find to complete their training: their passion. Skills and personality are important but passion is what sets people apart. A lot of people spend their entire life looking for their passion and never finding it. So finding one’s passion at an early age is nothing short of a miracle. I was lucky to have found mine when I first discovered coding at 8 years old. I have been addicted to it for over 3 decades now and have no plans of stopping.

As difficult as it is to find one’s passion, it is actually more difficult to keep it going. Getting good at your passion requires that you actually like it. I know it sounds counter intuitive but passions are not always something you enjoy doing. Most passions are difficult and require a lot of effort to get better at. There are a lot of people out there that will tell you that all you need to have is passion for what you want to do. Just have an emotional attachment to what it is you’ve always dreamed of and that would be enough to become successful at whatever it is that you want. What they conveniently forget to mention is that making a living out of your passion is not exactly easy and most of the time not even worthwhile financially.

What they conveniently forget to mention is that making a living out of your passion is not exactly easy and most of the time not even worthwhile financially

Real Talk – Mad Computer Scientist

Dedication and hard work is the foundation of all great passions. You need a spark that keeps you from being a lost soul in a literal soul crushing job. This was the metaphor the movie Soul was trying to explain when people are turned into zombie like creatures endlessly roaming a desert. Working a job that you have no passion for will make you long for more but what Hollywood and a lot of these motivational speakers from the internet omit from the lesson is that the workplace is not the only area where you can have passion. True, you spend most of your time at work and it only makes sense to be passionate about it but that does not mean you cannot have passionate endeavors outside of those 4 walls. In fact, when you turn your passion into a job, it actually slowly turns into a soul crushing activity. Not everything is going to be fun just because you are working on a job that is your so called passion. I remember early on in my career when I was working a consulting job thru my own start up company, I told myself: “This is the greatest job ever. I don’t have a boss to tell me what to do or what time I need to come in to work anymore!”. Of course this was not true. Now that I was a contractor it meant that I had to come in to work earlier than everyone else (or in my case stay much much later) otherwise I risk the possibility of being fired with no notice and no safety net. It meant that while I did not have a boss to tell me what to do, I had customers that scrutinized my every move and expected so much more from me compared to their in-house developers. This is where perseverance is required. You may be doing what you are passionate at but if you don’t have perseverance you will still end up being a lost soul.

You may be doing what you are passionate at but if you don’t have perseverance you will still end up being a lost soul.

Mad Computer Scientist

How do we then make sure that our passions are aligned with our capacity to persevere? Is this even something that can be measured and further improved upon? This TED talk from Angela Lee Duckworth seems to think so. She’s been trying to identify and measure what makes people “gritty”. She defines grit as the ability to have passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Basically a marathon run instead of a sprint in terms of achieving goals.

Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals

Angela Lee Duckworth

In just 4 minutes, Angela Lee Duckworth is able to convince you that grit is the silver bullet that is necessary to make your child a successful individual. “So how do I build grit in kids? What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?”. I love her answer: “I don’t know”. Grit seems to be a one of those attributes that surfaces out of people who happen to be successful. This reminds me of how “being agile” in software development happens to be a mindset rather than an amalgamation of different ceremonies written by false Agile prophets.

It might be just common sense but if you really want to build grit you need deliberate practice, focus working on your weaknesses instead of just your strengths and most importantly: SHOW UP EVERYDAY EVEN IF YOU DONT FEEL LIKE IT! It all sounds obvious but enforcing it and making sure you are mindful of it is a very difficult step. I personally have been in a weird place in terms of work lately. I at times feel that it’s easier to just call in sick or just hide behind meetings (which there are unlimited numbers of in my world) to mask my unproductiveness. But I try to always remember that if I just showed up this morning, it would be painful at first but it gets better as the day goes on. I would be filled with more regret of being unproductive if I decided to just phone it in and do nothing at all. I guess for me the alternative of doing nothing is more painful than the pain of enduring another unproductive work day.

My takeaway: keep your day job that pays you well. Just don’t make your job your life. You can always go find your spark outside of the 4 walls of your cubicle… erhm… home office. 😂