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This epiphany he writes about sounds almost religious in nature. Did he really not consider writing before that? Does his memory fail him, is this a memory cons
by evjan 11y ago
This epiphany he writes about sounds almost religious in nature. Did he really not consider writing before that? Does his memory fail him, is this a memory construct that makes for a good story but doesn’t hint at what really happened? I’ve never experienced anything like this myself.
I often tell people, when asked about why I do what I do, that I knew I wanted to be a software developer at the age of 10. But it wasn’t a sudden realisation. It came to me after getting an Amiga 500, playing games and then realising I could make my own games. I vividly remember a summer trip to my aunt’s place in Norway where I brought a book on BASIC and devoured a tutorial on how to make a hotel booking system. I was utterly enthralled and thought “maybe one day I can make hotel booking systems for a living”. From then on there was little doubt I would do this.
Except of course when I turned 13 and got into playing rock music on my guitar. I spent the next 7 years feeling lost, because I really wanted to be a musician but the career opportunities seemed unfeasible. It wasn’t until after a brief stint as a data entry clerk in the UK that I came to the conclusion that I needed to get my shit together and go to uni. So I studied Computer Science and here I am at the ripe age of 35 with 10 years of software development experience, thinking I always knew I wanted to do this. But I didn’t, and writing this made me realise that.
- antome 11y agoQuite right. As with the "Draw the rest of the owl" idiom, it often looks like people just "realise" what they want to do, then suddenly become that thing. Whereas anyone with remotely complex thoughts and dreams, will generally be taking plenty of steps and introspecting along the way.
- jasim 11y agoIt seems that the magical realism that make his work potent also runs through his self-narrative. As is always the case in honest fiction, the line between the words and the wordsmith is quite blurry.
- coldtea 11y ago>This epiphany he writes about sounds almost religious in nature. Did he really not consider writing before that? Does his memory fail him, is this a memory construct that makes for a good story but doesn’t hint at what really happened? I’ve never experienced anything like this myself. Depends on the person. Life-changing decisions do come like that to some people (usually stuff I think about for months or years I never go anywhere with, whereas decisions I take in the moment, I do carry through). >Except of course when I turned 13 and got into playing rock music on my guitar. I spent the next 7 years feeling lost, because I really wanted to be a musician but the career opportunities seemed unfeasible. It wasn’t until after a brief stint as a data entry clerk in the UK that I came to the conclusion that I needed to get my shit together and go to uni. Coincidentally Elvis Costello took the inverse path: working as a data entry clerk he decided he wouldn't take it and followed a career in rock. So, perhaps people who went to do those more unconventional things have more unconventional "deciding moments"?