A Perceptual Shift
The way I think is changing…
I am currently spending most of my waking hours at my laptop trying to learn how to code. HTML and CSS are making more sense to me than ever and I’m even starting to wrap my head around some JavaScript concepts. This intense focus has started to change the way I see the world. When I interact with applications, all I can think about is the design. “Check out that border-radius” and “what a beautiful gradient” are thoughts that consistently come to mind as of late. This new way of thinking has even extended beyond tech items and I’m beginning to think like a developer and a designer in everyday life.
Ever since the pandemic started, I’ve been in mostly charge of feeding my wife who works from home. We’ve worked out a pretty amazing system that involves a lot of Sunday meal prep. One of these prepped items has been black bean tacos with fresh guac which we have almost every day for lunch. I find that the guac tastes the best if I make it fresh, so I do every day. We purchase jars of lemon and lime juice for our various cooking endeavors and to make it easier to find we usually label them Le and Li with a Sharpie. Alas, the label for the lime has worn off and so only the lemon remains. One day last week while making lunch I looked to find lime juice for my guac and found myself thinking something along the lines of :
if(label === 'Le') {
console.log('Lemon);
} else {console.log('Lime');Translation: If there is a label, then its lemon, otherwise it is lime. I chose the lime of course.
Similarly, I’ve been noticing all the gradients that are so prevalent in modern design. Everything from Instagram to HBO seems to be making wide use of striking gradients. While on a 15-minute break from class earlier this week, I decided to take a moment to meditate outside. With my eyes closed in the sun, I realized that I saw a beautiful gradient in my field of vision. If I turned my head toward the sun, the yellows and reds were accentuated, while if I turned my head toward the floor, I saw more blues and greens. This natural gradient was super interesting to me and may even describe why they’re so attractive looking. I even considered how it could be an even deeper connection to our time growing in the womb. Deep. Later that night, I took my dog for a walk at dusk. While walking along I was taken by the amazing sunset and yet another natural gradient. I even snapped this photo of it to remind myself:
As I go deeper into my coding journey, I expect this same sort of thing to continue to happen to me. The same thing happened when I was engrossed in learning music in college. Everything became about what I was learning because I had invested so much time and brainpower to the subject. It will be interesting and funny to see what else I notice about the nature of existence as I’m on this journey.