--- title: "My Journey into Software Development and Teaching" description: "A personal journey from a Minecraft-obsessed kid to a professional frontend developer, combining a passion for coding and teaching others." slug: "my-journey-into-software-development-and-teaching" url: "https://furkanbaytekin.dev/blogs/my-journey-into-software-development-and-teaching" author: "Furkan Baytekin" category: "My Life" tags: [] published: 2025-02-25T12:36:26Z updated: 2025-02-25T12:36:26Z readTime: 5 cover: "https://myblogcms.furkanbaytekin.dev/uploads/cover/my-journey-into-software-development-and-teaching+1739097901750" --- Back in 2012, when I was just a 12-year-old kid, I was like many of my peers—obsessed with Minecraft. It had just been released, and I was completely hooked. But unlike most kids, I wasn’t just playing the game. I was constantly researching it, learning how crafting worked, figuring out enemy health and damage stats, and even creating custom maps. But I didn't want to keep all this information to myself—I wanted to share it with others. That’s when I got the idea to create a website. I built my first website on *bedavasitem.com*, which required zero coding knowledge. It even let me create a forum. I used it to publish the maps I had built and share all the information I had gathered in well-organized, Turkish-language posts. This was the first sign of my passion for teaching and sharing knowledge. At some point, I realized I could customize my website beyond the default templates by adding custom scripts from a site called *koddostu*. There were three text areas in the site editor: one for the top section, one for the bottom, and one for custom CSS. By pasting various scripts into these sections, I could make my site look different from the standard options. One day, I stumbled upon a forum post that said something like this: *"The top and bottom sections of the design are just HTML and CSS. They're just split sections of a webpage where the content goes in between."* That was an *aha!* moment for me. I had to learn what HTML and CSS were. So, I bought a book: *HTML5 and CSS3* by Dikeyeksen Publishing. I started learning from it, and later, I expanded my knowledge through online resources. I began designing my own layouts, starting with *table-based designs*, then moving on to *div-based* layouts. Inspired by Minecraft, I even created a custom site design using its textures. My cousin and brother loved it. As time passed, I transitioned into more modern design techniques, learning *Flexbox* and *CSS Grid*. Some of my old designs are still sitting in my Google Drive. My first experience with JavaScript came much later, around 2017. I was trying to build a simple image gallery and needed DOM manipulation. That’s when I encountered **zero-based indexing** for the first time—and struggled with it. Later, I started noticing that every webpage had the same **header, footer, and sidebar** sections. I thought, *"Surely, there must be a way to avoid copying and pasting these into every single file."* This mindset of looking for existing solutions before reinventing the wheel still sticks with me today. At the time, I had no idea what **Multi-Page Applications (MPA), Single-Page Applications (SPA), or Server-Side Rendering (SSR)** were. For me, everything was just a bunch of static files running on the `file://` protocol in my browser. As I searched for a way to reuse code across multiple pages, I discovered **PHP and the LAMP stack**. That’s also when I first installed **Linux Mint**. In just three days, I built a blog using PHP and MySQL—one that was wide open to **SQL injection** and **XSS attacks**. The code was absolute spaghetti, but hey, I learned how the language worked! Luckily, I never launched that site publicly. Later, I rewrote the site in **WordPress**, then again in **Django**, but I never published those versions either. My goal was always the same: to share what I learned, especially about Linux and programming. During university, I studied **teaching** because I always had the urge to share knowledge. But reality hit me hard. The people who were supposed to *train the teachers* didn’t seem like respectable educators at all. I saw firsthand how broken the education system was. That’s when I made a firm decision: **I wouldn’t pursue teaching as a profession.** Instead, I focused on the one thing I was actually good at—**software development**. At first, I spent years programming in **Python**, but I eventually realized that making a living with it would mean diving into **data science or machine learning**, which wasn’t my thing. So, I pivoted toward **web development**, specifically **frontend development**. I researched industry trends and taught myself **React**. I learned about **Client-Side Rendering (CSR)** and **Server-Side Rendering (SSR)**, then built a **Next.js blog**—this time, I actually published it. Back in my Linux days at university, I also started a **YouTube channel called "[Herkes İçin Linux](https://www.youtube.com/@herkesicinlinuxhttps://www.youtube.com/@herkesicinlinux)"** (Linux for Everyone), where I created video content. I even made a **[Vim course on Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/course/sifirdan-vim-ogrenin-terminal-metin-editoru/)**. My first successful website was actually built for that channel. Eventually, I landed a job as a **Frontend Developer**. Since I didn’t have a formal CS degree and came from a teaching background, I felt the need to **educate myself constantly**. That’s why I read so many programming books. Over time, I mentored several interns, and almost all of them told me the same thing: **"You’re a great teacher."** That reinforced something I had always felt—I love teaching just as much as I love coding. Now, I run my **own blog using Next.js and Prisma ORM**, where I write about **programming and music**. And because my passion for teaching never faded, I’m planning to **start a new YouTube channel**—this time focused on **software development, not just Linux**. I hope I can keep this enthusiasm alive for a long time. --- Album of the day: