When you say "things got hard", what exactly do you mean? I've encountered many different difficult aspects in tech as a mostly self-taught engineer. Here are

When you say "things got hard", what exactly do you mean? I've encountered many different difficult aspects in tech as a mostly self-taught engineer. Here are a few of the different things that were difficult for me: - Self teaching got hard: I always reminded myself that the alternative was staying in the same place, which was much less than ideal. My day job was enough to motivate me to get out of there, and tech represented a way to move up. Usually taking a short break or walk (diffuse mode) would also do the trick. - Finding a job got hard: luckily this was hard from the beginning, so I was able to have a lot of practice from the start. I got so many rejections that I got acclimated to it. Once I had my first real professional development experience, things got easier. - Impostor syndrome made life hard: post-first-dev-job, I was worried about my lack of CS foundation and ability to move forward in career. I ended up taking some classes at a local college, which was absolutely fantastic. I also ended up later getting a job at a large tech company, which has been both good and bad for my impostor-ly feelings. - Programming problems got hard: compared to the other ones, this was the easiest. I usually took a break from the computer to draw out the problem, rubber duck debug, take a break/walk (again, diffuse mode), or ask someone for help. When the programming problems were when I was self teaching, I'd go the discussion boards and ask questions. At any job, I'd talk about and work through the problem with a coworker.