--- title: The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer description: A developer shares a personal story about building her first website at age 12 in late-90s Poland, only to receive a crushing email from an older peer telling... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i9rbgsmh4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer | daily.dev og:description: A developer shares a personal story about building her first website at age 12 in late-90s Poland, only to receive a crushing email from an older peer telling... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i9rbgsmh4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/i9RBgSMH4.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer **[Zero To Mastery](https://daily.dev/sources/zerotomastery)** · [@aldopaganijr](https://daily.dev/aldopaganijr) · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer shares a personal story about building her first website at age 12 in late-90s Poland, only to receive a crushing email from an older peer telling her to delete it. The discouragement halted her programming journey temporarily, but she eventually returned and went on to give conference talks. The post reflects on how harsh early feedback can derail aspiring developers and emphasizes the difference between constructive criticism and discouragement. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#diversity-and-inclusion](https://daily.dev/tags/diversity-and-inclusion) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i9rbgsmh4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/i9rbgsmh4","headline":"The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer","text":"Shared: The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i9rbgsmh4","datePublished":"2026-03-20T11:33:06.580Z","dateModified":"2026-03-20T11:33:06.611Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Aldo Pagani Jr.","url":"https://daily.dev/aldopaganijr","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocK1atgNHO1tmBQCnztPCdi0XnnEo-5MIRZqm99FCh05I2gPL_vt=s96-c","description":"Helping people start careers in tech.","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":9810}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/12Fzc0dbl"},"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/zerotomastery","name":"Zero To Mastery"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Zero To Mastery","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/zerotomastery"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer"}]} ```