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Creating vs Consuming VWC

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Are you a creator or a consumer?

What kind of person are you? Do you wake up first thing in the morning and check Facebook or do you go and exercise?

It's easy to fall into a rut, sitting there, binge-watching Netflix, when we know there are better things to do.

Sometimes we consume too much. As developers, we should be trying to build something daily. For example, I am currently going through a coding bootcamp with Vets Who Code. We are required to create something every daily. Usually, it is through daily code challenges but it can also be something like this article, writing for dev.to. There are many different products that have code challenges on them that are suited for beginners, like me. One I like is edabit. There are pages and pages of code challenges that are both fun and challenging for every beginner to conquer.

What happens is that beginner's get caught in a tutorial loop, where you don't progress past a certain point. Creating something gets you past that point. It wakes up your brain and makes you want to learn more.

If you are having problems with finding something to create, look deeply at yourself and find your passions, your likes. What are you, as a person, most interested in? Just start with three. For me, its cycling 🚲, my pickle business πŸ₯’, and motorsports racing 🏍.

There isn’t an exact formula for balancing creation with consumption. It doesn't even mean a 50/50 split. What you need to do is find where you sit and lean towards creating something every once in a while.

The easiest place to start is to ask yourself two questions:

  1. How much have I created in the last month?
  2. How much have I consumed in the last month?

A wise person once told me: "Never stop learning. Pair code with your passions."

How do you balance creating with consuming? Answer below.

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