Becoming an expert in any field is tough work. It's more difficult in computer fields due to the all the changes that constantly occur in computing technology and the amount of freeaEUR' resources available that allows for so many different types of individuals to participate in the development process. One can easily get sidetracked, daunted, overwhelmed, and disparaged over all the advances that constantly occur, and the amount of successes of others that might attempt to overshadow our own personal and professional victories.

Here are some important things to keep in mind and to do:

There are many roads to the same path

• 
  
• Some are quick
• Some are scenic
• Some are expensive
• Some are complex
• Some are simple

   

  You have to choose the right path for yourself, after you assess your own skills and performance level. This is different than whatever team you might happen to be on, whether it is your circle of friends online, in life, or at work. Your individual expertise or inadequacies are important for yourself to understand the tools you might have available to you to keep progressing forward, and still overcoming tough challenges.

  For example. I am excellent at ideas and understanding consumer market situations, because I've worked hard to be well rounded. Five years ago I had the idea for a great game, movies, etc... though I was a novice in computer graphics, and somewhat adept at programming, and fantastic with engineering ideologies. My choices were use an existing game engine or educate myself in an computer graphics curriculum. Luckily for me, I had been doing research in educational software, educational technology, and education, and I knew the benefit of education. I also knew the benefit of a game engine, which I could happily and easily use, and start making some money or receiving comments from the online world, etc...

  I chose education and here's why. Because I'm very well rounded, I have more than one great idea, and constantly know how to mathematically, pragmatically, and systematically transform my ideas into realizable concepts that can be used in a game or movie setting. I knew very little about computer graphics or computer graphics programming, although I am an excellent coder and programmer. By educating myself, I realized had the potential to one day make great video games or movies like the top studios, though it would take a lot of work.

  So here is the decision tree and the tradeoff.

  • 
    
  • years of extremely hard work ( in most of our cases, more hard work than we have done before) with a huge payoff
  • a few years of moderately hard work with a game or movie in the end, and some notoriety or experience.

     

    A huge point I want to make about this blog is, is the payoff is, yes, the potential for lots of money and fame, but for someone like me who has been on the internet since he was 15, '95, the really big payoff was a mastery of computer graphics technologies. I use the term mastery, because I learned it in a way that connected with my already existing skills. Like I was saying there are different paths for different people, and we all know how to build off our existing achievements, abilities, and experiences gained. Mastery can mean different things for different people. I am by no means the leading expert in the subject matter. It's important to be honest with yourself and asses where you are and where you would like to be, and then set the respective goals for yourself. You might not achieve all of them depending on personal circumstances, but in those cases, you can save them for a day when you achieve the goals you can, and who knows, the things you learned by achieving those goals, might help you achieve the goals you couldn't before.

    I believe in honesty and truth because if I had lied to myself 5 years ago and said, "Oh I'll just go use a game engine and make a game, and it will be a great game" I know I wouldn't be doing that game idea justice. This of course, is a matter of perspective and opinion, but it is mine.

    I was able to get all the learning, tools, and SDK's I needed online and mostly for free. I am going to be blogging about costs and decision making, being a developer in upcoming blogs too, so I hope you enjoy them. I will also blog more about the topics posted in this blog in future.

    Here are my resume experience information:

    Name: Nav

    December 21, 1980, Male

    Bachelor of Software Engineering, Bs.C

    Master of Engineering and Master of Computer Science

    I started out doing java programming and enterprise development programming, then became specialized in interactive multimedia and computer graphics programming. During the last 4 years I focused specifically on learning c, c++. While I'm primarily focused on Windows and DirectX, I am learning OpenGL and Khronos based technologies as well.

    I am training to become a professor in a multitude of topics and I am currently starting my own Educational and Entertainment Software Company, called Sub-Quantum Businesses.

    I am currently enrolled in Microsoft's BizSpark entrepreneurial program.