Since I’ve shared Analysis Paralysis, and the Sunk Cost Fallacy – I wanted to talk about the last item in my “fear trifecta” which had prevented me from starting my programming journey. The Fear of Failure could be lumped into both Analysis Paralysis and Sunk Cost Fallacy, but I wanted to mention it separately as I feel it manifests in its own unique way (at least for me).
Much like finding out that I’ve selected the wrong thing, or that I’ve wasted my time on the wrong thing, I fear doing everything right – but then hitting a wall or an obstacle I can’t overcome. For example, before I’ve even written a single line of code, I worry about scaling to accommodate thousands of transactions per minute. I worry that my application will contain glaring security holes and be error-prone. I fear that I won’t be able to provide enough support or features, and customers will begin to leave whatever project I’ve created.
None of these fears are ones which I should be concerned about at this point in my journey, but here I am. I know deep down that with time and effort, they will all be addressed before they even become a problem. I don’t need to worry about thousands of transactions when I haven’t performed a single transaction. As long as I remain security focused and use best practices – I’ll be fine. Besides, if I really create something that I plan on selling, I’d have it security audited anyway. And finally – why do I care about features and functionality, when I’m still (re)learning what an array is?
I’m sure there’s others out there like me who feel the same way, and for me the biggest driving force was just pushing through. I’ve recognized my concerns and my way of overcoming them is to pay extra attention to the parts that I’m concerned about while on my journey. I’ll do my best to make my applications scalable. I’ll make sure to put security first. I’ll build my application to allow expansion and additional features.
I’ve got this – and you can too.
