Looking at a career path into uncharted territories.
People are fascinated with space and huddle around the achievements of NASA, but these pinnacle moments greatly overshadow the decades of laborious work.
It’s a lot of work to get to space. So how do you get there?
What do you need to learn?
Should I have been better at math? Should I have studied computer science instead of art? Should a designer know how to code?
No. No. And only if you enjoy it.
I am as good as the path I have chosen. There’s no point in debating what could have been. I am an as opinionated and talented as what I have accomplished, and those small efforts is my fuel for the future. I am absolutely terrible at programming. It has taken me years to stumble this far, but I’m still fascinated by possibility of making something surprising with a bit of code.
How do you ask for help?
What I’ve learned thus far in asking for career advice is that people can only give you directions to the paths they have traveled. (If they speculate and tell you what you should do, but have not done that themselves, don’t listen. You are not here to carry out some else’s wishful thinking.) So asking for help means that you will probably only get partial answer. You’ll need to fill in the gaps and piece it together yourself.
How will you know you’ve arrived if you’re not sure that the destination is real?
How do you know you won’t fall off the edge of the earth before you get to Mars? It will take time to figure out each piece, knowledge builds upon itself, and things will likely change along the way. Ten years ago, Mars was in a different position and we did not have the same technologies. You will have to adapt and take some backwards steps, and asses your path. But that what makes a Mars landing feel so exciting is that it does seem real or possible until it happens.