The first time I typed Hello World< /h1> on my laptop, I felt like Elon Musk.
The word was clear and bright on my screen as I sat on the tiny plastic chair in my room, admiring the little coding experience I had just learnt from YouTube.
I smiled. “This is easy.”
Emeka, my friend who was I the room with me, looked at me and said, “Don’t worry, in three months you will cash out.”
I did not know if he was mocking me or backing me up, but I just looked at him and believed him. “
I hope so, too.” Emeka laughed.
“Why are you laughing? I asked. Now I knew his first statement was a mockery.
“I don’t want to be the one discouraging you here, but why not just find a tech school and learn this stuff better there. Spend money to gain knowledge.”
I frowned and didn’t listen to him again.
I have always believed it was easy with the way the online tech bros talk about it and how they make millions just by sitting on their laptops and coding for companies outside the country and earning in foreign currencies. The post fine shoes and cars only, and makes those not into it feel lazy.
With everything I was seeing online, I thought if < h1>Hello World< /h1> was all it takes to code, then, as a fast learner, I am, it would make it fast and simple. And soon I will be buying all those fine things I do see online. But I later discovered that it was not easy. Not until my YouTube tutorial got to the main rudiments that was in coding. The YouTube tutor told me it was simple, but with every practice I kept doing to understand the teaching, my brain kept showing errors. It was too tough for me to understand.
I watched, re-watched different videos. Slept late in the night, but all I got was constant headache upon headache. I slept for a few hours that night, and I woke up the next day with red eyes.
When Emeka came to my house the next time, he asked me about my progress with the coding. I told him I had put it on hold for now until I found someone, or maybe raise enough cash for me to go and learn it in a tech school.
He laughed. ‘’I believe there are some tech skills you can learn from watching YouTube videos. I don’t just see coding as one of them.”
I replied, “I think so too now.”