So as of today, I'm a full-time teacher for Dev Bootcamp. Seven months after not knowing anything about programming, an organization and staff I respect immensely chose me to teach new generations of developers. I won't let them down.
I owe a lot of thank yous to a lot of people, so I'll just say that I'm blessed to know the people in my life. And I know that I've been insufferable these last few weeks. To those who listened to me loudly work through this stuff: I only hope I have a chance to provide a shoulder for you to lean on, one that's as sturdy as yours.
Now is this a good choice? I'm not sure, but I think its a choice I have to make. The more stable choice would have been chasing down a full-time developer gig at a more established company, slowly building up my portfolio. But stable doesn't mean right.
[If you're not a fan of self-aggrandizing rants about sports, I suggest you stop reading now.]
I've been fumbling through the same metaphor over the last few days in conversations with friends, and I don't think I've actually got it out once. So let me try here. In the book Moneyball, there's a moment where Michael Lewis goes through Billy Beane's decision process to play baseball. Beane, a highly-touted recruit out of high school, had two options on the table — a scholarship to Stanford or a minor league deal with Mets. At Stanford, he would have been on a (very unusual) hybrid baseball-football scholarship, hand-picked to be the understudy to a graduating John Elway, not to mention the recipient of a world-class education. The Mets were offering something much more concrete — a hefty advance and a basically guaranteed shot at the majors.
Beane chooses the Mets, and overnight goes from a guy who could have been anything to just another minor leaguer. He tries to keep his connection with Stanford, but they have no use for another high school student with a B average. His family burns through the advance within a few years, and he's out of baseball altogether in a few more.
The episode powers him for the rest of his career. "I made one decision based on money in my life — when I signed with the Mets rather than go to Stanford — and I promised I'd never do it again." It's not just about money, though. Its about the costs of only focusing on the concrete, and how sometimes the rational choice is the one that makes the least sense.
Who knows if Stanford would have worked out? College baseball players set their timelines back years, and a football injury would have wiped his career out altogether. But Beane would have always appreciated spending a couple years at Stanford, learning, growing, playing a role very few people have a chance to play. There are some "risks" that you never regret taking.
Anyway, I sound like a jerk comparing my situation to a kid about to make the minors. My options are nowhere near as cool — being a teacher/developer/facilitator/mentor for DBC or finding a full-time developer gig. But the choices have the same general shape. There are very few teacher-developers; there are no junior teacher-developers. This is not a path that anyone takes, and perhaps for good reasons. This might be crazy, but sometimes crazy is good. Sometimes crazy just feels right. And if everything comes crashing down, I'll never regret spending more time with an organization as awesome as DBC.
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