The Beginning

So, I’ve been a Microsoft .NET programmer for over ten years.

Ten years.

In this decade of coding professionally:

• I haven’t blogged about programming.
• I’ve barely tweeted about it.
• I haven’t contributed to one open source project.
• I haven’t answered one forum post or Stack Overflow question.
• I haven’t attended a local .NET user group.

I’m not bragging. Looking back, I wish I had done more outside of work.

If a programmer keeps his talent in the office, does he even truly exist?

Frankly, I’m afraid of what people will think of me and my professional skills. What if someone calls me out on my experience? This is the internet, so someone will inevitably do just that. That will make me feel bad and question myself. It will hurt. I know there are people that are better at each and every technology I work with.

Not contributing almost seems selfish; like I’m not a team player. It’s more laziness, than selfishness. It has been easier to do nothing. Also, television shows and movies are too entertaining and take up a lot of time that could be otherwise used.

Whatever the reason I haven’t been an active professional, I’m now making it a goal to change.

I’m going to try to blog! I’m going to try to tweet! I’m going to try a pull request on Git. I’m going to try to answer questions of random strangers I’ll probably never meet. I’m going to go to a local .NET user group and meet people, like me.

Maybe I can look back in 10 years and feel better about what I’ve done outside of work.