Becoming a Better Developer
After graduation, I began my job as a developer and got on a blockchain project. I knew I was on the right path towards my goals and wanted to get more involved in the blockchain community and become a true blockchain developer. I frequently compete at hackathons and other tech competitions because playing sports made me a competitor and these hackathons let me test my developer skills.
Hackathons will never make a person an amazing developer, but they are a great way to get to a workable level or measure your progress as a developer based off how quickly you move through building your solution. EthAtlanta was a blockchain hackathon (in Atlanta obviously) and I saw it as a great way to begin to make a name for myself in the industry. I entered and decided to fly out after work that Friday night. I didn’t get to the hackathon until almost midnight but I spent the next 36 hours working on my solution.
The app is called UniHack and the purpose was to incorporate cryptocurrency to UNICEF while ensuring the intended recipients receive the donation. I also built a web app using React. During the competition I teamed up with a web designer and she helped me to appreciate the importance of the aesthetic. Our final solution used the Provide platform and though it was a test case I plan on continuing with the solution.
I did not win the hackathon but I was so proud of how far I came. Near the end of my freshman year of college I competed in Bitcamp and my skills as an app developer were so bad that I was completely dependent on the person I teamed up. But I continued to do practice projects and I began to genuinely consider myself a skilled app developer by the beginning of my senior year after I put an app on the App Store. Even just last spring at the NYC blockchain hackathon I had no idea how to use React because by that point I was primarily a mobile developer. I then spent all summer learning React, working on practice projects, and competing at hackathons up until this point. Now at EthAtlanta I was able to build out an iOS app easily and a React web app with more confidence.
The skills I have been developing are the result of me forcing myself to get out of my comfort zone and see what I am capable of. These hackathons always leave me hungry to improve because I avoid ever becoming a big fish in a small pond. Though I did not win, I can’t treat everything like a zero sum game; instead of dwelling on the loss I focused on the value added from gaining a new respect for design, meeting the Provide team and finding a new passion project. EthAtlanta felt like an awakening because everything I have done, last year specifically, clicked together and at the end of the competition I had that moment where I knew I was making all of the right steps towards my ultimate goal of reaching my full potential.
