| title |
|---|
Advice to a younger me |
Micheal Henretty
Ahmedabad, India
Along the banks of the Sabarmati River, right in the heart of the bustling city of Ahmedabad lies India’s prestigious National Institute of Design. NID’s reputation for being one of the best design schools in the world is due in no small part to the city of Ahmedabad itself; a community of tinkerers, crafters, fabricators, electricians and more, all within a kilometer or two of the school’s tranquil campus. Students at NID understand the unique symbiosis between craftsmanship and entrepreneurship that makes this city tick, and they take full advantage of it for their handcrafted projects.
NID boasts a diverse mix of students both in background and talent, and as such there are many programs and events that come to NID in search of collaborative opportunities. One such event is the Unbox caravan, a two-week program of discussions, workshops, exhibitions, and excursions into the city with the ultimate goal of understanding the direction and role that technology is taking in cities like Ahmedabad, and how thinkers and activists can help shape that direction.
The Unbox caravan is what brought me to Ahmedabad, and eventually had me collaborating with the students who call NID home. Having spent the last three years working on mobile technology for emerging markets like the ones in India, I finally had the chance to experience such a market first-hand. Of course, nothing could prepare me for the experience and it will take months before I can have any sort of perspective on my time spent here. But what was more surprising than the inner workings of the city itself was the way NID students approach problem solving, an approach that is unlike anything I have encountered in my education and career thus far.
Big questions
The first surprise was the scope of the problems that these students are tackling, and the fearlessness with which they do so. Curriculum, from what I saw, did not consist of the typical blend of textbooks, lectures, and tests. But rather the students were prompted into action with big, open-ended questions:
- How can we use technology to bring physically disparate communities together?”
- How can we make the pollution problem more visible?”
- How can we take the feeling of home with us wherever we go?”
Looking back, I’m sure these kinds of questions would have terrified me as a student (indeed they do even now). But at NID students seem to relish the opportunity to invent their own process and solve problems using a healthy mix of sociology, artistry, craftsmanship, and technology.
It quickly became clear that what interested me most at the Unbox Caravan was working directly with these students: teaching and learning from them. I listened to them brainstorm, I went out into the city with them, I saw them haggle, I followed along as they navigated the maze-like streets looking for papermakers, embroiderers, metalworkers, etc. I watched them design, I helped them code, and I listened to them talk about home. They are confident, kind, and extremely fast learners. In one 20-minute period some students and I went over the basics of Linux, Git, and Github. They proved especially adept at picking up new tools and incorporating them into their workflow.
Looking back
I have been programming professionally for many years now. Over that time I have learned some good lessons about programming, prototyping, and process. These last two weeks I have learned some new lessons about problem solving that I will take back with me from India. Reflecting a bit, I wish I could go back in time and give myself a crash course on everything I have learned since being a student. But then again, the journey is arguably the best part. Still though, if all those years of work have granted me the privilege to give advice to students like these (and to a student like I was all those year ago), it would look something like this:
Try something that might be impossible. Imagine something you want to build and ask yourself, “I wonder if I can do that...”. Then, dive right in. Even if it turns out the idea was batshit crazy, you will learn a lot in the process and will probably have ten more great ideas along the way. Don’t think in the constraints of your current abilities, but instead work to expand them.
Hammer first, polish later. Hindi has this great word for engineering: Jugaad. To paraphrase, it means something like artisanal jerry-rigging. Sometimes the best way to know if something will work is just to hammer away at it until it does what you want. You can always make it beautiful later, and indeed careers are built on polish. In the beginning don’t be afraid of ugly yet functional. Jugaad the heck out of it.
Keep learning new tools. If you’re getting comfortable with a programming language like Processing, try another one like VVVV or Vuo. If you feel familiar with Arduino, build something with a Spark Core or ESP8266. Programming languages and tools are constantly changing and evolving, so don’t become reliant on any single technology. The more programming tools you know the better your understanding of computer fundamentals will be.
Don’t be afraid to suck. No one was born knowing how to code; every Jedi started out as a Padawan. Embrace being bad at something, and enjoy the process of becoming good. In a tech career you will have to do this over and over. It’s one of the best parts of the job actually.
Don’t keep it a secret. If you are working on something (game, art project, a library for cataloguing your stamp collection, etc.), remember to talk about it. Tell your classmates. Tell your friends and family. Go to meetups, conferences, bars, temples, and fast food restaurants. Find a stranger and tell them what you are working on. Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be modest. Many times people won’t care. But sometimes they will think it’s really cool. And maybe they will find it so cool they will want to help out. Or maybe it will remind them of something that you find cool, and you’ll want to help them. Remember: programming is about collaboration, so put your work out there and see what happens.
Oh, and I have one piece of advice specific to the students of NID: your futures are unimaginably bright, so always remember to use your powers for good.