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Welcome to FirstGenProgrammer.com! (Domain names: RefugeeProgrammer.com and ImmigrantProgrammer.com redirect here.)

I hope you have a good time here on this site and learn lots.

Purpose of this site:

Before giving the reason for creating this website, I feel I need to talk a bit about myself.

My name is David Nguyen. I am a Vietnamese-Canadian. I was born in Canada by Boat People refugees from the Vietnam War (I think that makes me a First Generation Canadian) and am very fortunate to have what I have. I am done school for computer programming and have accomplished things that I always have dreamt about. 

The next step for me I think is to reach out to help others obtain their goals. I intend to become a teacher. I decided to found a website to help refugees, immigrants and first generation Canadians learn from me and others to gain experience, work and education in their new adoptive countries.

I believe my status as a first generation Canadian has an affect on my life.

I hope this endeavor will enable mentorship, connection, data collection and political advocacy for users of the site. I guess first generation, refugees and immigrants will be the main users. The resources here I hope will motivate and inspire them to work in tech.

Different backgrounds can offer different solutions to solve world problems. Different backgrounds can offer depth and breadth in everyday life.

Basically this blog/resource is to explore the landscape of working with others and friends in doing what you love and with shared goals.

Programming: Cyclic nature of programming – Programming makes me behave this way. When doing computer programming, the imposter syndrome is always high. Therefore I am always thinking and searching for more meaning and never stopping and always asking more questions. For me as an average person struggling with programming, this might be great to always think and always improve and always be positive. Thinking higher and more abstractly takes you away from the everyday. The everyday can be depressive and suffering. Programming is a cyclic battle for me. Always feeling worthless and always trying to improve bit-by-bit. That is the whole point of this blog. There is no guaranteed solutions or feelings of attainment for long periods. This field is different from other fields. Other fields there are people who judge things and others 100% black or white. Not here. You can not just exercise, take a pill or a vacation really. That is good and needed but there is more. You got to float.