I didn’t follow a straightforward path to becoming a software developer. I always liked math and science, so my study choices were always around these subjects. In university, I discovered programming—it started as a cool new topic, then a hobby, and finally, a passion. That is why I became known as “the Python guy.” Since then, I’ve been so into programming that it naturally evolved into my career, almost without me realising it.
Because my journey wasn’t linear, I often felt I needed to compensate, making sure I learned everything a traditional software developer might get in university. That’s probably why I’m constantly reading programming books. Don’t get me wrong—I love these books, but they also give me the feeling that I’m enrolled in the best university in the world.
There’s one book, “Introduction to Algorithms” 1, that I’ve saved for a special time. I know it’s a masterpiece text that is familiar to anyone with a CS degree. Because of that, I don’t want just to read it; I want to absorb it and translate the knowledge into code.
Now, I feel ready. I’m about to embark on a journey with this book while building a library in Rust, implementing the algorithms I learn. To me, this feels like the start of a new semester, a major project, and a big challenge. There’s no better feeling than knowing that starting this book will change me —hopefully for the better.
Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein. 2009. Introduction to Algorithms, Third Edition (3rd. ed.). The MIT Press. ↩︎