Why It's Important to Keep Learning?
Why It’s Important to Keep Learning?
If you had told me seven years ago, while I was working at McDonald’s, that I would become a DevOps Engineer working with Kubernetes, ArgoCD, and cloud infrastructure, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here I am, and the only reason I got here is because I never stopped learning.
The Reality of Learning in Tech
Learning in tech is not like learning in school. There’s no clear curriculum, no perfect documentation, and definitely no guarantee that what worked yesterday will work today. The technology landscape changes constantly, and if you’re not learning, you’re falling behind.
I’ve learned this the hard way. When I first started building my EKS cluster project, I thought I had a good grasp of Kubernetes. I’d worked with it before, read the documentation, and followed tutorials. But when I actually tried to build something production-ready from scratch, I realized how much I didn’t know. The documentation was there, but connecting the dots was entirely different.
The Documentation Problem
Most documentation sucks. It’s either too basic, leaving out crucial details, or too advanced, assuming you already know everything. The AWS documentation is actually pretty good, but it’s easy to get lost in it. You’ll find yourself reading about one service, which references another service, which references three more services, and suddenly you’re down a rabbit hole with no idea how to get back to your original problem.
This is where persistence comes in. You have to try, fail, and try again until you find what works. There’s no magic solution or shortcut. Sometimes help is hard to find, and even when you have the knowledge, putting it into practice is a completely different challenge.
Learning from Failure
One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that failure is part of the process. When I was building my EKS cluster, I spent an entire weekend debugging Terraform state conflicts. I was running Terraform from different directories and creating conflicting state files. It was frustrating, but I learned something crucial about state management that I’ll never forget.
The same thing happened with Kubernetes networking. My pods were running, my service was created, but I couldn’t access my app. Hours of debugging later, I realized I needed an ingress controller and proper ALB configuration. The documentation was there, but connecting the dots was the hard part.
The Constant Evolution of Technology
What makes learning in tech particularly challenging is that the technology itself is constantly evolving. Kubernetes best practices from two years ago might be outdated today. New tools emerge, old ones get deprecated, and the way we do things changes constantly.
When I first started working with ArgoCD and ApplicationSets, I had to learn not just how they work, but how to test changes safely, how to make updates in GitHub without breaking production, and how to build confidence in my deployments. This wasn’t something I could learn from a single tutorial; it required experimentation, making mistakes, and learning from each one.
The Importance of Building Things
Reading about something is different from actually building it. I can read about Terraform all day, but until I actually create modules, deal with state conflicts, and debug deployment issues, I don’t truly understand it.
This is why I build projects. Not because I need them, but because building forces me to learn. When I built my EKS cluster, I wasn’t just learning about Kubernetes; I was learning about infrastructure as code, security, monitoring, CI/CD, and how all these pieces fit together.
The Learning Mindset
The most important thing I’ve learned is that learning never stops. Every project teaches me something new, every challenge reveals gaps in my knowledge, and every solution opens up new questions. This isn’t discouraging; it’s exciting. It means there’s always something new to learn, always a way to improve, always a challenge to tackle.
The Personal Cost
Continuous learning takes a toll. There were days working on my EKS project when I felt completely lost, frustrated, and honestly, a bit defeated. The constant context-switching and the pressure to get every detail right started to take a toll on my time and my confidence.
But this is where the importance of persistence really shows. It’s easy to give up when things get hard, when documentation is unclear, or when you feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t understand something. But everyone who’s successful in tech has been there. The difference is that they kept going.
What I’ve Learned About Learning
After years of learning in tech, here’s what I’ve learned about learning:
Start Simple: Don’t try to learn everything at once. Start with the basics and build from there.
Build Things: Reading is not enough. You have to actually build things to truly understand them.
Embrace Failure: Failure is how you learn. Every mistake teaches you something valuable.
Be Patient: Learning takes time. Don’t expect to understand everything immediately.
Ask for Help: Even when help is hard to find, don’t be afraid to ask questions. The tech community is generally supportive.
Document What You Learn: Write down what you learn, not just for others, but for yourself. You’ll forget things, and having your own notes helps.
The Bottom Line
Learning is not optional in tech; it’s essential. If you’re not learning, you’re falling behind. But more importantly, learning is what makes this field exciting. Every new technology, every new challenge, every new project is an opportunity to learn something new.
My journey from McDonald’s to DevOps Engineer wasn’t easy, but it was possible because I never stopped learning. And I still haven’t. Every day brings new challenges, new technologies, and new opportunities to learn.
If you’re just starting out, or if you’re feeling stuck, remember: everyone starts somewhere. The important thing is to keep learning, keep building, and keep pushing forward. The skills you gain and the knowledge you build will serve you well, even if it doesn’t always feel like it in the moment.
Thank you for reading, and keep learning!