The Only Programming Bootcamp I Had Was a 20kg Bag of Books

I didn’t know what I was doing. But I couldn’t stop doing it. That’s how my tech career started—with confusion, curiosity, and no internet.

I was never the best when it came to deeply coding in software development, and it wasn’t my strongest area when I started in tech.

But that doesn’t mean I avoided it; that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn it.

In fact, the way it all started is quite a funny story…

My parents bought our first family computer when I was around 12.

I still remember that day. I still remember getting it from the previous owner's house and then carrying it home.

It was quite an old and used machine, even for its time, and without internet connection—just a big, noisy white box.

But it had that wonderful freshness of Windows XP, where everything felt like a ceremony.

Turning on the computer back then was an event in itself, with that wonderfully nostalgic Windows XP startup sound!

I will not even mention the Windows Media Player style of playing music and organizing your albums carefully there.

That computer was a good friend for a few years, until I started working (at 14 in Brazil) and managed to save enough money to buy a brand-new one. I don’t remember now, but I think I was 15 when I actually had the money and did it.

But that is not the point.

It was on that old white computer that so many amazing things opened up to me in the world of technology.

At that time of my life, I only had about 10 minutes of internet access per WEEK—thanks to the 10 free minutes I could squeeze in before my informatics course. And no, I wasn’t updating my Orkut account!

Instead, I spent that precious time downloading as much content as I could to study and experiment with at home.

Okay, okay… Sometimes, a pack of things to play with CS 1.6, or some arcade game.

Occasionally, my sister’s 3G work modem also came in handy for some quick access to answer my burning questions.

My journey into programming began with Delphi and its user-friendly interface. I loved it! My first creation was a simple system to manage the content I was downloading—a primitive form of digital library (without the attachment, just categorization).

I’d love to track down that ugly, clunky system, but it’s probably lost on some old hard drive.

That same year, my amazing super-hero dad went on a trip to the countryside in Brazil and, by chance, discovered that some photocopied programming books from a cousin were about to be donated.

Naturally, he brought them for me.

A massive 20 kg bag full of books!

Most were focused on C programming, with some C++, a bit of Delphi, and a small book on .NET C#. That last one caught my eye, and I ended up rebuilding my digital library system in C# .NET MVC.

It was a rewarding experience! I learned a lot from those books.

I would jot down my questions each week and look up the answers when I finally had internet access.

It wasn’t as easy as it is today, but it definitely paid off in the long run.

Those early experiences laid the groundwork for my early career in tech support and system implementation.

Why didn’t I fully immerse myself in software engineering and eventually transition into Project Management?

Well, that’s a story for another post…

I love books.
I love learning.

And I especially love learning on my own.

With this story, I invite you to reflect on how special it is to learn something on your own. The journey of discovery is truly magical!

How about you? When was the last time you learned something entirely on your own, without relying on courses or structured methods?