Hey there! 👋

Welcome to my little corner of the internet. I'm Yannick, and this is where I'll be sharing my thoughts, experiences, and discoveries as I navigate the wild world of software engineering and blockchain development.

But first, let me ask you something: Have you ever felt completely stuck in a job that pays the bills but slowly crushes your soul? If so, you're going to relate to my story.

The Warehouse Days

Let me start with a confession: I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life after school. Zero. Zilch. So like many people in that situation, I ended up somewhere I never really planned to be – working in a warehouse.

Picture this: every morning at 6 AM, I'd walk into the same gray building, scan the same barcodes, move the same boxes. Rinse and repeat for years. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't lazy about it. I actually worked my way up to team leader and even got my Bachelor Professional of Logistics degree. The work ethic was there, but the passion? That was nowhere to be found.

Every evening, I'd sit in my car after work and think "there has to be something more than this." But here's the thing – I was waiting for opportunities to magically appear instead of creating them myself. Sound familiar?

The turning point came when I had an honest conversation with myself. I realized that everything – and I mean everything – was in my own hands. Nobody was going to rescue me from my situation. If I wanted change, I had to make it happen.

The Discovery That Changed Everything

Then one day in 2021, I stumbled across this thing called "programming."

I'd always been that guy who loved playing video games and tinkering with technology. The idea that you could actually build these digital worlds and applications just blew my mind. I remember watching a YouTube video about web development and thinking "wait, people get paid to do this?" It felt almost too good to be true.

So I did what any curious person would do – I googled "how to learn programming." And wow, was I overwhelmed. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Java, React, Angular, Vue... the list seemed endless.

I started with the absolute basics: HTML and CSS. I'll never forget the rush I felt when I created my first webpage – just a simple "Hello, World!" with some basic styling. It was ugly as sin, but it was mine. I had built something from nothing using just code.

The Real Grind Begins

Here's what nobody tells you about learning to code: the honeymoon phase ends quickly.

CSS seemed straightforward enough, but when JavaScript entered the picture? Man, I questioned everything. I remember spending three hours trying to figure out why my button wouldn't change color when clicked. The problem? I forgot to add an event listener. Three hours. For one missing line of code.

There were nights I'd stare at my screen at 11 PM after a full day at the warehouse, my eyes burning, wondering if I was just fooling myself. My brain felt like mush trying to understand concepts like closures, asynchronous programming, and the dreaded "this" keyword in JavaScript.

But here's what I learned during those early days, and this is crucial: discipline beats motivation every single time.

Motivation gets you started – it's that excited feeling when you first discover coding. But motivation is like the weather; it changes constantly. Some days you wake up ready to conquer the world, other days you can barely drag yourself out of bed.

Discipline, on the other hand, is showing up even when you don't feel like it. It's opening your laptop after a 10-hour shift when all you want to do is watch Netflix. It's pushing through that bug that's been haunting you for hours. It's the decision to invest in yourself even when progress feels impossibly slow.

I created a simple rule for myself: code for at least 30 minutes every day, no exceptions. Some days I'd only manage those 30 minutes, other days I'd get into the flow and code for hours. But I showed up every single day.

I invested in courses like LearnJavaScript.online (seriously, that course was a game-changer), worked through Codecademy and FreeCodecamp, and watched more YouTube tutorials than I care to admit. I treated learning like a part-time job because, in a way, it was my investment in a different future.

What challenges are you facing in your learning journey right now? Are you stuck on a particular concept, or struggling to find the motivation to keep going?

The Breakthrough Moment

After months of grinding through tutorials and building small projects, I finally felt ready to take the leap. But how do you transition from warehouse worker to developer when you have no professional experience?

This is where having good friends really paid off. My buddy Dani had been watching my coding journey and knew about this Web3 company that was looking for an intern. When he mentioned it to me, I felt that familiar mix of excitement and terror.

"But I'm just a warehouse guy who taught himself to code," I thought. "What do I know about real software development?"

Dani introduced me to this Web3 company he knew, and they offered me a chance to start as an intern. The idea was simple: get familiar with everything, learn how real development works, and start coding on actual projects.

It felt almost surreal – here I was, expecting to jump through hoops and prove myself in technical interviews, and instead I got this opportunity based on a friend's recommendation and the projects I'd been building in my spare time.

Sometimes the best opportunities come from the connections you build and the work you put in when nobody's watching.

From Intern to Full-Time Developer

Those first few months as an intern were intense. I was working with React and other technologies I'd only read about and tinkered with. Suddenly, I was building real features for real users. The imposter syndrome was real.

Dani became my mentor during this time, which was incredibly valuable. He did my code reviews, showed me the ropes, and patiently explained concepts I was struggling with. Having someone guide you through those early professional coding experiences makes such a huge difference.

I was learning faster than I ever had before. Every day brought new challenges and new learning opportunities.

I focused purely on frontend development during my internship. Building user interfaces, handling state management, making API calls, ensuring responsive design across different devices. Every day brought new challenges and new learning opportunities.

The key was being hungry for feedback and never pretending to know something I didn't. When I didn't understand something, I asked questions. When I made mistakes (and I made plenty), I owned them and learned from them.

Apparently, they were happy with my work and dedication because after a few months, they offered me a full-time position! I'll never forget that moment – it felt like validation that all those late nights and weekend coding sessions had been worth it.

Expanding My Horizons

For the first two years, I lived and breathed frontend development. I was building complex React applications, optimizing performance, implementing smooth animations, and creating intuitive user experiences. I loved the immediate visual feedback – you change some code, refresh the browser, and boom, you can see the results instantly.

But you know me – I couldn't help but get curious about what was happening behind the scenes. Working at a Web3 company meant being surrounded by smart contracts, blockchain protocols, and decentralized applications. My colleagues would talk about gas optimization, contract upgrades, and security vulnerabilities, and I found myself wanting to understand more.

So I did what I always do when curiosity strikes – I dove in head first.

I started learning Solidity during my free time. At first, it was just to better understand the smart contracts my teammates were building. But the more I learned, the more fascinated I became. Here was this completely different paradigm of programming where code runs on a decentralized network, where immutability and security aren't just nice-to-haves but absolute necessities.

I began participating in smart contract security courses through Cyfrin Updraft, learning about common vulnerabilities and audit techniques. There's something incredibly satisfying about finding a critical vulnerability in a smart contract and helping make the ecosystem more secure.

But here's the thing – while security research has become a passion of mine, at my core, I just love to code. Whether it's building a sleek frontend interface, architecting a robust backend API, optimizing a smart contract for gas efficiency, or hunting for security vulnerabilities, it all comes down to problem-solving through code.

What aspects of programming excite you the most? Are you drawn to the visual aspects of frontend development, the logic and data manipulation of backend work, or something else entirely?

The Real Message

Look, I'm not sharing my story to brag or make it seem like my journey was somehow special. I'm telling you this because I want you to understand something fundamental: you have way more control over your life than you think.

I spent years feeling trapped, thinking I was just a "warehouse guy" who happened to be decent at moving boxes efficiently. I had convinced myself that people like me don't become software engineers. That was for people with computer science degrees, people who had been coding since they were twelve, people who were naturally gifted with technology.

All of that was bullshit I was telling myself.

The truth is, I was the only thing standing in my way. The opportunities were always there – online courses, documentation, open-source projects, communities of helpful developers. I just had to be brave enough to reach for them and disciplined enough to stick with it when things got tough.

Whether you're feeling stuck in your current role, thinking about a career change, or just starting your journey in tech – remember this: every expert was once a complete beginner. Every senior developer once struggled with their first for-loop. Every security researcher once had no idea what a smart contract was. Every successful person once stood exactly where you're standing right now.

The difference between people who make the leap and people who don't isn't talent, luck, or having the "right" background. It's the willingness to be uncomfortable, to embrace the grind, and to keep pushing forward even when progress feels impossibly slow.

It's the courage to apply for that internship even when you feel underqualified. It's the discipline to code for 30 minutes after a exhausting day at work. It's the resilience to bounce back from rejection, failed interviews, and bugs that make you want to throw your laptop out the window.

What's holding you back right now? Is it fear of not being good enough, or uncertainty about where to start, or maybe just the comfort of your current situation?

What You Can Expect From This Blog

So what's coming next on this blog? Honestly, I'm excited to find out together!

I'll definitely be sharing my coding experiences across the full stack. Frontend tricks and React patterns that have saved me hours of debugging. Backend architecture decisions and API design principles I've learned the hard way. Smart contract development insights and security vulnerabilities I've discovered during audits.

When I solve challenging technical problems at work – whether it's optimizing a complex query, debugging a tricky race condition, or finding an elegant solution to a seemingly impossible UI requirement – I'll break down my thought process for you.

I'll also share thoughts on career transitions, learning strategies that actually work, and the realities of working in tech (both the amazing parts and the frustrating ones).

Most importantly, I want this to be a place where we can have real conversations about the journey. The imposter syndrome moments, the breakthrough discoveries, the "oh shit, I think I'm actually getting good at this" realizations, and everything in between.

This isn't going to be another generic tech blog with recycled tutorials. I want to share the real stuff – the struggles, the victories, the lessons learned, and the insights gained from actually building things and solving problems.

Let's Build This Community Together

If any part of my story resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. Are you making a similar career transition? Stuck on a challenging problem? Celebrating a recent breakthrough? Drop me a line and let's connect.

I believe that one of the most powerful things about the tech community is how willing people are to help each other grow. My friend Dani helped me get my foot in the door. Countless developers have shared their knowledge through blog posts, Stack Overflow answers, and open-source projects. Now I want to pay that forward.

Remember: you're capable of way more than you think. The question isn't whether you have what it takes – it's whether you're willing to put in the work to find out.

Your next chapter is waiting. What are you going to do about it?

Keep grinding,
Yannick

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P.S. - Lifelong learning isn't just a buzzword for me, it's a way of life. The moment you stop learning in this field is the moment you start falling behind. Embrace the journey, celebrate the small wins, and never stop being curious about how things work under the hood.