I remember once reading a blog entry by Joel Spolsky that good software takes ten years to get used to. Well I may have written a 10 year old software as well. This year is my tenth year as a programmer. Though I did a bit of programming a little more than ten years ago, I didn't consider myself a programmer until 2000. That was the year me and my team-mates came together to jointly start developing software.
So what have we accomplished in those years?
We have pioneered a software business in the least place you will expect at that time; Maiduguri in the extreme North-East of Nigeria.
We have developed programs that are used by many organizations across Nigeria ranging from corporate bodies to universities to defense institutions .
We have individually and collectively mentored a number of people that went ahead to establish their own startup software business.
We have inspired quite a number of people to start their own technology based businesses.
We have made real friends across Nigeria and beyond that share the same passion for software.
So what has changed in the last 10 years ?
We have moved from sharing a single desktop PC to owning a desktop PC each to working from our laptops and keeping connection through our hand-held devices.
We have also moved from zero Internet connection to paying as high as 14 Naira per minute to always being connected through PC or hand-held.
We are still a team after a decade and the oldest ones among us are just entering their thirties. So when I say we are just starting you know what I mean (bearing any unforeseen circumstances)
I do not know whether my team-mates really remember that we are ten years old now or whether they will be okay with me mentioning their names here (we have an obsession for privacy), but I feel it's important I share this with somebody. Even if it's an anonymous reader of this blog.
