I have coded since the year 1986. That was when I was in high school. For the first time, my school started a computer class as an extracurricular subject. I learned Basica programming language, using IBM PC with a monochrome CRT screen. I remember it was very fun. I learned how to manage files with MS-DOS, and created autoexec.bat file to load a simple animation using just the Basica program. The class was taught by a teacher from a computer course. So every time before the class started once a week, the teacher and his staff brought around 20 PC to a classroom and set them up. After the class, they should bring all the PC back to their van. What a job! From that class, all the students got 2 certificates, one for Introduction to Computer, and the other for Basic Programming.
After high school, I studied at Gadjah Mada University, majoring in Botany, so I left all the programming stuff behind. After 2 years I was bored, so I returned to Jakarta. I started to learn programming again, and this time I learned DBase IV programming at Stephen Computer Course in 1989. With the certificate of the course, I applied for an IT job in a contractor company. That was when I thought about a career in IT, so I registered as a student of Computer Science at Bina Nusantara (Binus) College in 1989 (at that time, Bina Nusantara was not a university yet). IT was booming at that time, so I can keep my job while studying in a college. I moved several times to various companies, for a better salary of course.
After college year, I worked as IT Manager in a multinational company. But in the first half of 2000 decade, I quit my job and started a startup company with some friends. In the second decade, I left the startup, since the business stopped growing. I join another startup as a CTO. Although I’m not young anymore (like other CTOs in the startup world) I’m still trying to update myself with current technology and learn a lot from many sources such as Medium, Udemy, ebooks, etc. But after all, I realize I am now in my 50s. Eventually, I will retire, and leave all these to a younger professional, so the business will be able to keep growing.
I started this blog to share my adventure in the IT world since I was a teenager up to today. It was an incredible journey, because I go through a lot of changes in my life, when electric power was minimal, using a rotary pay phone to call a girlfriend, saw PC and the internet were born, smartphones become standard for almost any daily activities, until today, using ChatGPT for fun.
If you by any chance find my blog, hopefully, you enjoy my writings, maybe they will interest you, inspire you, or just bore you. It doesn’t matter, because this article was written by a bored coder… (The picture here is not me, I got it from freepik lol).