Overpass Experiences

The Eric Wroolie Blog

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Blog
  • Social Activity
  • Videos
  • Overpass Apps

Powered by Overpass Apps

Homework

November 9, 2010 by wroolie Leave a Comment

I was terrible about doing homework when I was a kid.  It was always so much easier to think of the excuse I was going to use the next day than it was to turn off the TV and just do it.

I can remember too many occasions when the teacher would collect homework and try to name-and-shame me in front of the class.  “Where is your homework, Eric?”

“I didn’t do it,” I said while looking down at my desk and hoping the teacher would just move on to someone else.  I figured if I looked pitiful enough, he would leave me alone.

“Well, why didn’t you do it?” he would insist.  I could see his legs at the edge of my desk as he towered above me waiting for an answer.  He wasn’t going to accept that as my only answer. The whole class’ attention was on me.  I could feel my face getting hot with embarrassment, but hey, Knight Rider was worth it.

So, I gave the teacher the go-to answer for everything.  I give him the answer that I’m sure all teachers loathe—“I forgot.”

Towards the end of the school year, they usually gave up on me.  My parents tried everything to get me to do my homework, too.  But it was so easy to lie about how much homework I had.  Besides, I had a busy schedule starting with He-Man at 3:30 and ending with whatever prime time show was on that night before 9.

As I got older, the homework load got heavier and the likelihood of me doing it was much smaller.  My aversion to homework, along with my truancy habit, were the reasons I failed several classes in high school and went to Summer school ever year to make them up. My dad still talks about how he wasn’t sure whether I would graduate from high school at all.  I never even applied to any colleges.

I can remember my mom telling me that homework was a part of life and that I would get homework all the time when I grew up and went to work.  I didn’t really believe this.  Grown-ups don’t have any homework.

Now, I do have homework.  But here’s the big difference—the homework is not mandatory.  That really makes it difficult to do.

Now, I will sit down in the evenings with a big computer book read chapter after boring chapter of a subject which might not interest me in the slightest, but I need to know it.  I look at this homework the same way I look at running on a cold morning—there are hundreds of reasons not to do it, but one or two compelling reasons to do it.

Now, my job is to stay competitive and relevant in a market that is always moving.  Now I must stay ahead of technology that is always shifting.  Now, I sell the skills and knowledge that’s contained in between my ears.  My competition for work is not just in London, but in America, China, India, and the rest of the world.

So, I have to keep building that knowledge.  That means homework and studying.  What makes it easier is that not everyone does this.  To many people, if the boss doesn’t demand it, or if it can’t be a prominent bullet-point on the cv, it’s not worth learning.  The phrase I hear again and again is “The last thing I want to do when I get home from a long day at work is think about computers.”

But I’ve also worked with a lot of really good people who will browse the tech manuals on the trains or watch tutorial videos in the evenings to constantly educate themselves too.

I remember listening to a Brian Tracy tape years ago where he said (I’m paraphrasing), that you give eight hours to your employer and ever added hour goes to building you.

So, now I know the importance of homework and evening study.  Life would have been a lot easier if I learned it earlier.

Filed Under: Growing Up, Software Dev & Productivity

Loading Facebook Comments ...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Preferring to Be Alone
  • How to Kill Someone’s Dreams
  • Are any Puzzle Pieces Missing?
  • Software Development Skills like Currency – And the value is always falling
  • Delegating and Giving up Control

RSS From the Overpass Blog

  • Since Apple Business Manager, Enterprise Apps Are Difficult September 11, 2019
  • Connecting Students Through School Mobile Apps May 14, 2019
  • Can You Make Money with Business Apps? April 5, 2019
  • Is an iPad App Developer the same as an iPhone Developer? February 21, 2019
  • How Apple IOS Developers need to think differently February 13, 2019
  • The Do’s and Don’ts of Enterprise Mobile App Development February 11, 2019
  • Premier mobile app development company expanding its market reach February 1, 2019
  • Overpass Apps is making waves in iOS and Android designs in the UK January 30, 2019
  • Construction Apps From Top UK Construction Companies June 7, 2018
  • Infographic: Top 5 Apps with 1 Billion Downloads June 5, 2018

Tags

Anti-virus Army Days ASP.Net Automation Baseball Beijing BR China Chinglish coding Cornbury CSS DLI Eric Wroolie Family Gym Holiday HTML5 IE6 Line Break Misc. music MVC Framework Nike+ Overpass PNG PowerShell Redcloth Ruby Runkeeper scam Skype Spotify Superpreview Textile Transparency Webby Web Design Web Standards