After reading Nathan Wong's well thought out explanation http://nathan.ca/2012/12/why-im-a-programmer/ of coding and it's power and influence in both his own life and the life's of others I thought it might be useful to someone, somewhere, to layout my, seemingly inverse condition of one who's coming at the world from the opposite side but rotating around the very same access of programming's ever increasing penetration of humanity.
I'm approaching 32 this month and have been trying to become a programmer in my spare time for the last 5 years, so I know very well what got me on this path.
The irony is that it's so opposite to what Nathan put forward as his hardest problem--
"That’s the hard part: understanding requirements, determining what people need and want, and taking it from vague idea to production."
My hardest part has been that which comes naturally to Wong.
From struggles in courses on computers to the discovery of relational theory through a "Dummies" book, from making a simple looking DB front end to realizing I couldn't make easily what I wanted and needed to learn Clojure or a FP language. That which has been so natural has been a fight for me.
And yet I love it as much as Mr Wong. The wonder thrills me and I look forward to a life of frustration and wonder.
Because even if I fail in making the product I want the journey will make me a marketable man if I just keep iterating fast enough and ship.
There aren't a lot of problems faced by the commonfolk that can't be solved with procedural/OO languages, especially the current crop.