MY STORY · FROM COMMUNITY BUILDING TO BUILDING SOFTWARE

I failed programming.
Now Ai changed the game.

More than 20 years later, I came back to the thing I thought was not for me. I didn’t learn how to code. The barrier between an idea and creating something real using code got a whole lot smaller. It’s practically gone.

01 THE PLOT TWIST

This wasn’t always the plan.

I went to college thinking I was going to study computer science and engineering. Then I took a programming course, and it humbled me.

COLLEGE · ATTEMPT #1

I went for Computer Science.

I had no idea what I was looking at. I struggled. I failed. And maybe more importantly, I hated it. Coding was not for me.

this class humbled me

COLLEGE · ATTEMPT #2

Management instead.

I changed direction, got a management degree, and started doing work that made more sense to me: people, teams, organizations, and solving real problems.

this was a better fit

THE NEXT 20 YEARS

A life I’m proud of.

I got into nonprofit work and worked my way up to Vice President. I built teams, ran programs, managed multimillion-dollar budgets, earned my master’s, and genuinely did work that mattered to me.

I’m in a good place

THERE WAS ALWAYS SOMETHING

I wanted to create.

I wanted to build something outside of a program or a project for work. I wanted to create something that started in my head and became real enough for other people to see.

some unfinished business

THE ACTUAL RECEIPT

There it is in black and white.

I took Introduction to Computing and earned a total of zero credits. I also took Computational Aid Analysis for Engineers, which I later withdrew from.

College transcript excerpt showing Introduction to Computing with zero credits earned and Computational Aid Analysis for Engineers withdrawn — Transcript excerpt. Tap or click to view in full size.

I’m sharing this because I think it’s interesting that things that may seem impossible for you can become possible in a completely different way, much later in life. Nineteen-year-old me did not think I would be building software after miserably failing this class.

→ THEN Ai CHANGED THE QUESTION

Can I learn how to code?

Can I make
something useful?

I can explain what something should do. I can test it, break it, change my mind, ask better questions, and keep going until the thing on the screen behaves like the thing in my head.

Apparently, that’s a kind of building too.

Hector Cuevas

02 MAYBE YOU’RE WHERE I WAS

You have an idea.

Maybe you’ve had it for years. But somewhere between the idea and actually building it, you hit the same wall I did: “I don’t know how to code.”

I can’t tell you where this ends, and I can’t give you the blueprint. I’m still drawing the map while I walk it. But I can show you where I’ve been and what happens next.

If someone who failed programming can come back more than 20 years later and build working software, I’m curious what you could build too.

20+ YEARS · NONPROFIT SPACEMA · ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP0 YEARS · SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

See what I’m building ↗