KittyGiraudel/ama

How are you able to be so productive?

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I was reading your bio and amazed at all the incredible work you've done. I am an aspiring front-end developer and often find myself overwhelmed by all the new technologies and choices and in many cases end up getting bogged down, for example, just trying to figure out some new technology (eg Redux, Webpack.) So, I am wondering:

How are you able to be so productive?

Hey there,

Thank you for the kind words. I think it essentially boils down to doing what you want to do, and not necessarily learning what you feel like you have to learn. I have long felt like I was lagging behind on a lot of topics (accessibility, SVG, JavaScript, etc.), to the point where I was experiencing stress and even impostor syndrome on a regular basis.

At some point, I realised that we can’t know everything, we can’t learn everything, and nobody expects us to do everything either. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter as long as we can do our work finely while enjoying it. There is no rush to learn more and do more. It comes when it comes.

Eventually you’ll be thrown on a project where you’ll have to play with a technology you don’t know yet, and it will happen. You’ll suck at it, you’ll hate it, and eventually you’ll get better. If you end up enjoying it, you’ll push forward until you become somehow an expert or whatever. And then you realise “ah, not only was it not as hard as I first thought it would be, but also there was no rush to learn this”.

Play with things you are excited about; no matter whether you feel like you’re learning or not. Enjoy what you do and everything will just come along nicely. Don’t feel like you have to do more. You never have to do more. Don’t be your own ennemy.

Wise thought Hugo !