When I was in high school and college, I really liked the idea of being a programmer. I am not sure why, I just thought that life would fit me well and I thought it was really cool. I never thought it was something within my capabilities though. It seemed to me that the programmers of the world were all geniuses with natural talent and impressive degrees. I never really considered that it was something I could actually do. As it turned out, I got a programming job, and I realized that programmers were normal people too! For the most part, at least—we tend to have an exaggerated appreciation for spreadsheets, math, fonts, and coffee. And some of us don't care all that much for human interactions.
I remember when I was in college, I came across a, "day in the life of a coder" YouTube video. I struggled with the 10th commandment as I watched this vlog where a guy went into his hipster downtown coding shop and made his coffee and showed his fancy monitors. I would have said that was my dream job. Well, that's what I have been doing now for 5 years. It's still just as fun as it was when I started, if not more so. It's a strange thing to read and write code for 8 hours a day. It's surprisingly engaging and fun for people who appreciate aesthetics and problem solving. Unlike the jobs I've worked in the past, the days mostly come and go quickly and without dragging. The clock reaching 5 o'clock just means I've got to put a pin in the current challenge to come back to in the morning. I don't dread the work at all. In fact, I anticipate that moment where I get to fire up my coding editor each morning and click-clack away on my split, mechanical keyboard.
It's hard to explain why it's enjoyable. One aspect is the ability to bring order into chaos. Humans like to create order. It's part of what we were made to do and it is satisfying. Getting to move a codebase forward, continuing to improve and innovate until the design is just beautiful is really a lovely way to pass the time. It's the same reason the TV show, "Hoarders" is successful. Cleaning up messes is satisfying. Making things beautiful is satisfying. You might wonder how a bunch of files with text in them could ever be beautiful. Well, we link all these files and characters to real-world concepts that help us reason about them. We follow patterns that programmers have discovered over the decades that can help humans understand and communicate with the computers. Because there are so many different ways that you could solve a programming problem, it is inherently creative. Whoever has the keyboard has the ability to draw up a unique design for the situation at hand. This creative element is so much of why I look forward to programming and why I would still do it even if nobody paid me.
One way you could think about programming is to liken it to working on a car. There are many engineered systems that work together in an vehicle. A well-trained mechanic can competently interact with any of the systems in the car and fix problems. He must know how the steering wheel connects to the drive shaft, how the spark plugs work together in the engine pistons, and which pieces he must take apart to reach the system he needs to work on. He must know why certain parts were engineered the way they were and where the manuals are when he needs to answer questions. Programming is much like this, just invisible. The systems that work together are all programming languages or programs that other people have created. The programmer needs to understand those in order to put them all together into a fully functioning application.
My 5 years of experience have been fruitful and fulfilling. There hasn't been a dull year yet. I continue to progress and understand more about this fascinating industry. Yet, the more I understand, the less I feel I know. It still feels like a dream job, though. If you enjoy challenges, problem solving, learning, technology, critical thinking, and creativity (coffee is optional), maybe you should consider it!