To An Aspiring Programmer

Hi Astraea,

I am a senior software engineer, and I program in Python every day at work.

After reading in your letter that you “fell in love with programming back in senior high school”, I have no doubt that you will succeed and become a successful programmer.

The love for programming is perhaps the most important thing for your journey. Programming can be tedious and difficult to learn, but how can you stop doing something you love?

Truly, the only important advice I have for you is one thing: keep going, and don’t give up.

I am reminded of this term from Buddhism: ekāgratā.

This translates to “single-point mind”.

If you keep your mind solely focused on your love for programming and the fact that you are capable of overcoming any issue, you will achieve great things.

Likewise, there is a very good book titled “The Pragmatic Programmer.” You can find it on GitHub. This book was immensely helpful for me.

Finally, program a lot! Failure is the foundation of success, so fail often and you will improve every time.

I have no doubt that if you remember your love for programming even in the most frustrating moments, you will become an excellent programmer.

Marcus