Back to 2015

At the end of 2015, when I was in my master’s degree program at university, I was learning everything about technology I was curious about, especially some programming languages. Then I noticed I couldn’t learn by just reading. Yes, I read and took notes, like in the old-fashioned way of learning programming languages, but I thought I should change.

Why

Coding, in my opinion, still is a skill that needs practical, hands-on work. Like other skill-object jobs, in my opinion, such as architects, chefs, and basketball players, besides remembering the knowledge, hands-on practice is necessary. No matter how many videos I watch of chefs cooking or Stephen Curry teaching three-point shots, I cannot improve my cooking or shooting three-pointers (maybe a little bit).

Secondly, I wanted to test myself to see if I could use my willpower to do something consistently. And I think coding every day is a good test. The little green blocks on the GitHub page are a good way to check my progress.

How everything went

Forming a new hobby is pretty hard. I kept forgetting to code (mostly LeetCode at that time) after days. Then I forgot coding after several weeks. After almost six months, I eventually remembered to code every day.

At first, I just coded on LeetCode for years. Then I started to write some personal tools, projects, blogs, and even some demo code.

Sometimes I am extremely lazy, so I change some README files or write some easy quizzes on LeetCode. Sometimes I am traveling abroad from the USA, and I need to calculate the timezone and code within a special time range to keep the trending.

Did I get what I want?

Yes.

I learned a lot of languages. Practicing coding is a totally different feeling than just reading and remembering. Like reading and writing are different, I’m pretty sure a lot of people understand it. It truly improved my coding skills.

Then I understood those who have habits like running in the morning for their whole life or just going to the gym every day: when you form a habit, it isn’t hard at all to do it automatically. It’s not hard to start doing it at all. Especially coding is more fun for me than running.

The most important thing I learned from this journey is:

I know how to build a habit. And I know how it feels.

Why stop?

But I want to stop now, in August 2025. So, why?

After all these years (about 10 years since I decided I wanted to do this), I notice there is something kind of “kidnapping” this process. I wrote above that sometimes I feel so lazy and just pick some very easy code to keep the trending. I feel like this keeps me focusing on keeping the trending itself. It was pretty necessary and important when I was starting to build the habits. But now, I might be reading and talking with GPT about some knowledge all night without writing any code/doc/blog.

I think I mean, it is the habit in my blood already. I don’t have to let the form “kidnap” me from doing the real thing anymore.

What will it look like starting from 2026?

Internally, nothing will change. I love coding and the digital world since I was a kid, and I will keep that way. I will spend my personal time coding/learning/understanding anything I am curious about and keep practicing my skills.

Formally, I release myself free from those green blocks. I won’t try to keep it green every day. But because I won’t change myself internally, I think there will be a lot of code and practice there anyway. Just, maybe, some breaks since 2026.

I start this marathon from Dec 2015; I will end it in Dec 2025. I would say this ten years is just the startup stage. I will keep what I learned from this journey for the next stage.