Going Against the Grain

Hello all!

I'm finally getting back on my feet after a rough weekend with a cold.  I think I've been pushing a little too hard to achieve this goal of mine, so I may dial it back a bit.  Frankly, I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of trying to cram in three hours of coding every day.  It seems as if, given my responsibilities to my employer, my wife, my kids, and my health, that trying to stay up late, consume large amounts of caffeine, and drag through a work day just aren't making a life for me.  I'm becoming too short-tempered at home, unreliable at work, and failing to retain much of the knowledge I'm picking up in my training.  So, with that in mind, I've decided to adjust my schedules and sights a little bit, aiming for 2 hours of coding a day, give or take, and making sure that I get adequate rest at night - approximately seven hours or more.  I feel that this would be optimal for my life, as it is today, and if I get an occasion where I feel rested and prepared to go further, I'll bend the rules from time to time.  While so many of my contemporaries feel that huge sacrifices are needed to catch up and learn, I'll take a little more time and try to save my health and sanity for the long-term.

Also, I've been doing a lot of thinking about Swift development, and where I should be focusing my efforts in learning.  I announced very early in this blog (devoted to the Swift language) that I would be dropping it to learn Objective-C.  Initially, I was just looking to get a better foundation in iOS development, but as I've read different articles, spoken with other developers, and did some thinking of my own, here are some of the reasons I've decided to continue on with Objective-C:

• An overwhelming amount of existing code for iOS and OS X is all written in Objective-C, and this will not be changing overnight.
• Swift is still a new language, and depends on a lot of the code that is in Objective-C.
• Few, if any, employers are hiring for Swift right now.  This will change, but how soon?
• Objective-C is considered to be the 'hard' language, so most people - including myself - have abandoned it.  If I take the time to learn this and learn Swift, this could make me more marketable.

All of these things make me feel like the right decision is to have a demonstrable knowledge of Objective-C, especially considering that my goal is to earn a job in iOS development, not just make a cool app.  My immediate goal is to make an application (or two, or possibly more!) in Objective-C, then turn my focus on to Swift.

I'm still very excited about this new language, and I think that learning it early will open a lot of interesting doors down the road, it's just not the path for me right now.  Besides, to paraphrase mark Twain, if you find yourself on the same side as the majority, it's time to think about your stance.  For me, I'll go against the grain for a while and learn Objective-C.