Importance of sharpening our skills

I consider myself a person that is always looking to improve and learn in multiple areas, from reading science articles about space and the cosmos to researching popular terms used by us Costa Ricans. As an interesting fact, did you know that the word “Tuanis”, which is really popular among Costa Rican people, comes from the english phrase “Too nice”, it’s just like a direct adaptation to spanish.

My journey here in Pernix has been nothing different than this, focusing every day on learning everything I can from every task or project I am involved in. I can truly say that the past 6 months have been incredible for me as I had the chance to learn a lot from frameworks and technologies and kept growing and becoming a better professional, and I still continue to grow, there’s a lot left for me to learn and this is one of the things that motivate me to get up in the mornings every day.

For me, sharpening my skills not only involve learning how to produce a better code but also being a more effective engineer, learning how to reach others for effective feedback, helping others when I have the possibility to, trying to improve not only my physical health but also my mental health and the list continues.

As I think of improving myself I do not try to focus only on certain things but rather looking to get better as an individual. There are multiple options available when we try to improve, the ones I really like are more like short articles, webinars or talks, thankfully here in Pernix we have really good trainings that have helped me grow. Also when I am more focused on learning about certain programming stuff I really like to read the documentation from it rather than looking at a tutorial video.

When I started at Pernix, I did consider that I was in the called “Tutorial Hell”, that time when you are learning certain technology and you follow a tutorial but when you try to do things by yourself you realize you still have some questions on how this or that implementation works, or that you basically cannot do things without looking at the tutorial again and again. That was one of the main motivations I had, finally leaving that phase and focus on really learning, getting the knowledge, and doing things by myself without looking at a step to step guide, and thankfully I am accomplishing this goal.

I believe that one of the requirements to continue improving and sharpening our skills is motivation. We need to be motivated and excited about all the new things we can learn. My main motivation is that one of the biggest winners of all the improvements I make is myself. Thanks to my motivation, my own effort, and all the help I’ve been getting, I am continuously growing day to day.

In a world that is advancing and making progress at the speed of light, it is really really important not to be left behind and stay updated with a lot of things but also remember that we are human beings, and it is also important to try to live a better life and not neglect ourselves.