The latest articles on Forem by Muiliyu Abdul-mujeeb (@muiliyuabdulmujeeb). https://forem.com/muiliyuabdulmujeeb https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3856278%2Fc0635aa7-0fab-4616-b263-25efac0cdb15.jpg https://forem.com/muiliyuabdulmujeeb en Muiliyu Abdul-mujeeb Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:41:33 +0000 https://forem.com/muiliyuabdulmujeeb/introspection-of-an-engineer-525l https://forem.com/muiliyuabdulmujeeb/introspection-of-an-engineer-525l <p>I have been a victim of passive learning all my life. I understand the concepts, i watch the tutorials, i ace the exams and i get the certification but what else can i show for it apart from certifications? Nothing.</p> <p>I can even see the same pattern forming again when i decided to go deeper into AI as a backend engineer (i've always loved AI). I have completed five modules out of 16 and i still don't have a working project to show for it. Zero visibility as a software engineer means you're no software engineer. Most especially as a Nigerian.</p> <p>This pattern has to break today. I want to do it differently and compare. My strategy has always been know everything about what i want to do before building something around it but i have found out that this is a rabbit hole that i might not come out of. Now, the strategy is build something, even if it is something i know absolutely nothing about. I pick something, i find out about the basics i need to know and i start building. I want to name this method <strong>Scavenge-Learning</strong>. Let's see how far this takes me and what i can accomplish in just one month. Would i stop my AI course? No, infact, i'd be building around AI mostly as Agentic AI, Fintech and Computer Vision systems are what interests me alot.</p> <p>What would i start with? I am currently working on a finance tracking app as the backend dev and obviously i've been lagging on the task. I would start from competing it, document the process, implement AI into the system where needed and improve on it. Then build, document and deploy an end-to-end RAG-AI system. <br> I am going to create a write up like this from time to time as a means of documenting my struggles and triumphs. I really want to look back at these write ups months to come and introspect.</p> <p>If there's anything you're also struggling with as dev or newbie, you can also state it. I'd be glad to help in the few ways i can. Sometimes even writing it out can be the start of a chain reaction to figure the solution out yourself. </p> <p>Cheers, Agent Kangchie.</p> career devjournal learning softwareengineering