By programming I mainly mean ‘web development’ as this is what I’ve mostly been doing.
I like programming because …
- it is a mix of writing, reading, logic and art.
- it involves personal decision making, group working and constructive feedback loops with other developers, people with different roles and users.
- it is linked to many other disciplines or activities such as design, psychology, project management, entrepreneurship, game design …
- it solves real-world problems.
- it requires to constantly learn new things and better ways to do things.
- it is a ‘hard skill’.
- it can be used to do jobs that pay relatively well.
- I can see the direct result of my work.
- it is a craft that doesn’t requires me to be in a specific location. All I need is a computer and possibly an Internet connection.
- it requires to be 100% focused on the task. When I am in this situation, I feel like anything can be done and I’m committed to do everything it takes to get it done.
- it’s deeply satisfying to learn new concepts or understand how a piece of code works and slowly feel that everything comes together and becomes a ‘second nature’. In the good days, I think about the problems I have during the night, and when I reach the computer in the morning I know exactly what needs to be done. In those moments the coding part is almost automatic.
