
Why Are You a Programmer? - sant0sk1
http://www.danielfischer.com/2008/08/21/why-are-you-a-programmer/
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wallflower
I am a programmer because I like solving problems. And the process of creating
something - it is usually a nice feeling to be able to build something
tangible from scratch (a blank editor screen). No, I don't see myself
programming forever.

As an old programmer told me once, the most qualified programmers are usually
the ones who are not programming. When you first come out of school and/or
first start programming, you are young and excited and eager to learn the
latest/coolest technology. After several projects and/or years of experience,
you start to realize it's not about the technology - there are
commonalities/patterns. And maybe after that point (when you start to become
uber efficient and deadly) you start to think about transitioning out and
getting married/starting a family.. Then the freshman cycle continues.

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mynameishere
Programming is maybe (?) the only professional career at which members are
doing passable work before the age of 10. So, it's often fated.

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hugh
I'd add music (performance) to the list, but I can't think of any others.

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eru
How about Math?

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hugh
Ten-year-olds doing serious mathematical work? I don't think it's happened
since maybe Gauss.

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eru
At least as serious as programmers at that age.

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hugh
I'd disagree, just because I think the bar for "passable work" in mathematics
is a lot higher than the bar for "passable work" in programming.

Passable work, for a mathematician, still means proving something original and
nontrivial, whereas passable work for a programmer just means creating
something that works.

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eru
If you define it that way, you're right.

Do you know a ten year old hacker?

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gills
Creation. Transforming thought into action with a few keystrokes (or a few
million...but who's counting?).

I enjoy creating other things as well; programming has such amazingly instant
feedback, and the results generally do interesting things. My next favorite
form of creation is glass blowing...and while controlling heat flow to make
something beautiful is deeply satisfying, the result just sits there, unable
to be debugged or extended or tweaked.

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dan00
Currently I don't know what else I should do.

Yes, I like programming, but the day work is sometimes really boring. Yes,
it's nice to solve problems. But most of the problems are just futile, and
therefore boring.

Compared to other jobs programming is quite nice, but it doesn't fulfill me.
Why? I would like to get more connected with nice, intelligent and empathetic
people.

Yes, most programmers are intelligent in a way, but with most programmers I
can't get connected, they just bore me. Their behavior is so predictable.

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raganwald
Get help _immediately_. Your life is too short and precious to be wasted on
something unfulfilling. I don't know who you've met in this field, but my
experience suggest that if you find them boring and predictable it is because
you find the field boring.

I don't mean this as criticism, but when discussing programming you probably
find yourself boring as well. If you aren't passionate about it... what is
there that could hold your interest?

Please get some help finding something meaningful or finding meaning in what
you are doing.

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LogicHoleFlaw
I can't not be a programmer. Even if I were to leave the profession I love the
practice and theory too much to give it up.

I love solving problems and thinking logically. Breaking down a situation into
its constituent parts and solving them one by one is an immensely satisfying
activity. Programming is the embodiment of that act.

There's something magical about programming. I give the right incantations
based on a fundamental understanding of both the computer and the problem at
hand, and the code _does something_. The fact that a program has... a will and
personality and actually performs an activity is still astonishing to me. I
know I'm anthropomorphizing but the idea that I can write all these little
workers which go out and change the world (even if just in small ways) is
fantastic.

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jsmcgd
I thought I'd be making video games.

~~~
pmjordan
... and then I did for a while but in the end I preferred to keep my dignity.

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unalone
There's no dignity for a company like Valve?

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blogimus
I had a coworker who was a game programmer in California before moving to New
England and finding his way as a defense contractor. He preferred defense
contracting, by far. He told horror stories of death march after death march
for less pay than as a government contractor.

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unalone
But what I referred to was that it's not that cut-and-dry. You can work for
two different companies and have different experiences. It's why I named Valve
in particular: I would be willing to state, despite no knowledge of their work
environment, that the people there love working there. It comes through in
their games.

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blogimus
Valve may be great. I don't know, but from what I've read online and heard
people talking in RL (and not just from my coworker I mentioned above) I'm
inclined to believe that if Valve is great, it is an exception, rather than
the rule.

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unalone
But isn't that just it? The exceptions are the examples to follow. You don't
ignore exceptional for the mundane.

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davidw
10 Start programming on a Commodore PET at a really young age.

20 Keep going on a C64

30 Rediscover interest/passion with open source.

40 Learn lots with open source.

50 Profit!

60 GOTO 40

I love programming - what else lets you learn so much on your own? I always
thought I'd go into science of some kind, but programming is way better: a
decent laptop and an internet connection are all you need to do all kinds of
cutting edge work. Compare and contrast to my wife who is home with our
newborn, and almost completely cut off from her biotech work:-(

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aaronblohowiak
Have you looked into WFH so you can take care of the newborn while the wife
returns to work?

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davidw
Not feasible, unfortunately. If you're really curious, I'd be happy to talk
about it via email, but not here.

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gdee
For me, it's neither the geekiness or the pay. Neither are present in excess
anyway. I do it for the view. The mental view. I do OOP and visualize buzzing,
moving, clicking, rotating little mechanism that do orchestrated work. And
join powers to create biger, more complex mechanism. And I get to make it
(design/write), adjust it (debug) and see it work (run). Hellboy II's intro
comes to mind.

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pavelludiq
I didn't choose to be a programmer, programing chose me, i was forced in to
it, because its the least boring thing from all my hobbies. I love it, and if
suddenly programing ceased to exist i would probably kill my self, or die of
boredom. Also all the cool programmers are really weird, some of them even get
sexually aroused by programing. weird==cool!

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wundie
Programming is the 'least boring' of your hobbies? List some of your other
hobbies please.

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pavelludiq
Photography, drawing, sports...

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watmough
I'm a programmer because I enjoy solving puzzles, enjoying applying my skills
to other domains, and enjoying making computers do cool things.

As an example I recently built a caching layer for a database that improved
the performance of an editing screen by 100x. I could have used a local SQLite
database, or a remote. I could have used C or C++ or memcache. I could have
used Apache. I could have used JSON.

I did in fact use Clojure, XML and basic sockets, with the pure java oracle
and pure java sql server drivers.

These choices, and the code that needed to be written to make it all work, are
what makes me a programmer.

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aaronblohowiak
I have to make the red go green!

But really, I am a programmer because I'm somewhat critical and suspicious,
enjoy language and get a bit of a power trip from creating/fixing things.
Programming unites all of these and pays me handsomely for it.

Sure, sometimes we all feel a little like a code monkey, but I realize that
what I do is far more empowering than what many of my friends do in order to
grind out a paycheck.

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henning
It's the only thing I've ever been fairly good at which I can get paid for.

Being a nerd/geek became more socially acceptable in the last 10 years.

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daniel-cussen
Where I grew up, it wasn't socially acceptable. Now, I had other nerdy
characteristics, but I purposely stayed away from programming, D&D, and Star
Trek precisely because they were nerdy.

Now I'm trying to learn to program. It's slow, and I wish I had started
earlier. I'm too old for this shit (<http://xkcd.com/447/>).

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mroman
Your profile says you are 20 and you have concluded that you are too old for
that "shit"?

A. You are not too old.

B. The problem is your attitude. You just referred to programming as "shit".
Your tone implies you are referring to something you dislike.

Now, I am not trying to flame you or put you down man, but come on . . . it's
your attitude that is not right, not your age.

Personally, I can't NOT program/study programming . . .

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daniel-cussen
Don't take it at face value; "I'm to old for this shit" is a reference to the
link. I was pointing out some of the (unjustified) frustration of a guy who
started at 20 when others started out at 12 or so.

In the link there's a comic of a guy who says he can't do math like he used
to, until it's revealed he's thirteen. My point was, I'm aware I could have
started younger, but I didn't. That doesn't mean I'm off the hook, though. I'm
still learning to hack. I agree with you that giving up on programming just
because I didn't start very early on would reveal a bad attitude.

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mroman
Well, that is good to hear, right on.

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sutro
Programming....gratifies creative longings built deep within us and delights
sensibilities we have in common with all men.

-Fred Brooks

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Tichy
Because I am lazy. Hardware is cool, but too complicated and tedious. With
programming, I hope to eradicate boring tasks from my life. Most of the time I
am too lazy to actually program the computer to do the task for me, though.
But it is nice to know that I could if I really wanted to.

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icey
I tell everyone that I have a hobby that just happens to pay well.

Writing software is like solving puzzles to me; it's very enjoyable, and I get
a tremendous sense of satisfaction every time I solve a problem or ship some
software.

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eggnet
When I was young it was interesting. Now that I'm older I still find it
interesting but possibly more importantly it allows me to remove a lot of the
repetitive and tedious aspects of my job, which technically is not
programming.

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oldgregg
the chicks?

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pavelludiq
chicks.jpg :D

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aaronblohowiak
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Mor...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/More_chicks.jpg/394px-
More_chicks.jpg)

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Prrometheus
I want to learn how to make cool things, and with programming I don't have to
buy machinery and steel and all that jazz.

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hendler
"logic-crunching-hard-ons" - LCHO!

I code to help me communicate dreams into reality.

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known
I stood first in mathematics at my college and my parents advised me to go for
CS.

~~~
known
And I am an Introvert!

~~~
eru
Ever considered math instead? We have about 50% (mostly nerdy) females.

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ideamonk
yet not a working programmer, but it surely is fun… specially when you do
something challenging, solving programming problems gives the maximum thrill.
and by the way nice design! love it!

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MoeDrippins
I like things doing what I tell them to do.

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wherewolf
sudo I like things doing what I tell them to do

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babul
It is the great enabler of my ideas.

