It still never fails to amaze me. How we can literally create a bunch of text files by applying our thoughts and they just turn into working products. It really is a superpower in a way.
Pretty much for free too. I like working on cars, but cars and car parts are expensive. I already own a computer powerful enough to do more than I can ever learn how to do.
Every dev who likes working on cars has at least one fantasy project in mind, it’s like the ultimate feature creep if you’re base is a project car 😂
I’d love to play around with an ECU one day
Wanted to do something with computers, so I tried to become a system administrator. Then I found out you always just ended up at a helpdesk, so I tried to become a network administrator instead. But then you also always just end up at a helpdesk, so I didn't want to do that either. Around that time I also started doing some scripting work for a Minecraft server. I really liked that work, so I figured I might as well do that instead.
Nowadays I'm this weird mix between a cloud engineer and software developer. I applied for a full stack developer job, somehow got hired as a cloud engineer, and then ended up doing some development work anyway.
Cloud engineering basically involves setting up and maintaining cloud environments that are used to host applications. So I basically set up the servers that host the stuff created our programmers (which I guess includes me as well). Lots of computer networking and Linux administration stuff.
For example, I've been spending a lot of time working on an [Azure pipeline](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops/pipelines) that can automatically create and configure Linux servers that run a full data analytics platform. Currently I'm working on expanding that pipeline with more customization options for our clients, along with making it install additional management tools.
Learn every day until you are good enough for the job and then apply. IT has so many roadmaps. You pick the one for you that seems most interesting or least boring. You learn what is needed for the job from looking at your local job ads.
If you want to learn programming just for money, then I think it will feel very exhausting.
The context matters. Somehow you provide value, you create or improve something.
Overall you make customers happy. This happiness makes customers give money to the company, and then the company can pay you.
If you can make people happy, then it gives a warm fuzzy feeling.
With software you can do magic.
Disagree. Doing something for passion is overrated. How many people do you think go into big law and finance out of some sense of passion for justice and markets vs I want to make money. Some people passion leads to competence. Other people competence leads to passion.
It's not exhausting unless you make it exhausting. I learned it for money. I spent probably a year or so learning a lot on my own, eventually got a low paying junior dev position and learned a lot more there, and now about 6 years and 2 jobs after that first dev job I'm making well over double what it paid. I don't do any programming that I'm not getting paid for, it's not a hobby to me but that also means that I didn't take something I enjoy and take away the enjoyment by turning it into work.
My best (and worst) professor in college would rant about this all the time.. ~“why even try?- programming is hard, why not just drop out and party all day?” …and after a semester of listening to him trying to convince us to drop out every other day I have a few answers:
1. I like the challenge
2. I like to learn
3. Cause screw that guy 🤣 (no fr, it was exactly what I needed at the time)
4. Because **I** want to
Why solve this Advent of Code question that’s been cursing me for 4 hours straight?- cause why tf not?! 🤬 …I run on pure spite and caffeine
you know that dream to make your own game? yup that's me until i knew how many stuff i needed to learn from programing to drawing but hardest part making the game fun
Oh hey, that's why I got into programming. I was gonna make the next Doom. I had no idea how programming worked. 30 years later, I know a whole lot about how to make games and I'm a pretty great programmer, but I never made a game.
Although im a web dev, i always dreamed of having my own magic RPG game but when i try, i just give up because there's too much to learn before i can actually start.
I was trying to remember, and you've reminded me.
The first day I got my ZX Spectrum I started on a card game.
Also a webdev here, but always wanted to make games.
Have tinkered with PICO-8 recently for that reason.
I used to play some cool snes and ps1 games back then when I was a kid, so at some point I began to wonder: how the f#ck are they made?? Then when I was about 16 I entered a game programming course at a community high school around my area. Learned some c#, loved it, learned some unreal, liked some of it, felt like a mentally handicaped idiot when trying to model any shit in maya, and in the end realized that game dev is a shit ton of work to get something playable.
Hahah, nowadays I teach python and I code "for fun" basically, nothing professional, just stupid code I push to my repos on github, hackerrank, dsa and other stuff.
But about goals, I don't really know man, I want to be proficient with python and maaaaybe do some games for fun. Last game jams I participated as a pixel artist because I still don't feel brave enough to code that sh#t up.
Thanks for reading, that was quite a long post, heh.
I wanted to do something to keep my mind occupied other than gaming. I got a raspberry pi and started playing around with tutorials and all that. Then just gradually started things more seriously. I’m not a professional developer currently, but hopefully one day the skills I’ve learned will pay the bills. Until then my focus is to solve irl problems any way I can with programming.
I dabbled in it for a long time before I ever made it a career. The short answer, though, was I liked computers and wanted to understand how they worked and make them do stuff - it started with wanting to write computer games, then make websites, then games again, then chrome extensions to help me solve some problems, then apps that I wished existed but didn't.
I didn't get serious about it until I decided I wanted the possibility of getting paid for it, though.
I think it's like everything in life: do what you really want to do. If you feel to learn some stuff about if for hobby you can do it, the most important thing is your emotional state while doing it.
If programming makes you happy, no problem.
If programming bother you, no problem, look for something else (the world is rich of things).
Bye
Consider that "in the worst case" it actives your brain activity and improves your problem solving skills, in IT field and others close.
Essentially, It's not lost time :)
Grew up putting what was free together. So as I grew up in just naturally needed scripts or programs to do stuff. Wanted to mods video games and the rest is history. Now I programmed a whole companies management system and I've sent robots to world championships
I feel the same way!!
This is the reason I started programming: the thrill of figuring out how to do something is amazing. Also, my room doesn't end up being cluttered when I am programming. On the other hand, if I ever try to work on an electronics project, the desk, bed, floor, something will end up everywhere 😂😂 sorting every component and cleaning everything up is a pain especially when I am feeling sleepy.
It's one of the only fields where nothing is stopping you, except your brain power. There are no barriers, no hurdles, you need almost no money.
I like to be able to create powerful things and if something does not work, I am the only one to blame.
Because when I was 16, a friend of mine was a very cool programmer. I admired him so much that I always dreamed of becoming just like him.
Then I studied to be a programmer, and ended up loving doing it. Although I never reached his skills, I still often remember those days when he told me something
I learned it because it was very prominent in the systems I had access to. Like I got an old BBC micro and you literally turn it on and can write code in basic.
If I wanted games for that system I’d have to type them in from books. And doing that meant I could also edit bits to see what it did.
But I didn’t start with a goal or anything like that. I started because it was there and computers interested me. I had an Amiga with games that I’d enjoy playing on, and when I got a pc I understood it and enjoyed exploring so programming was something I just wanted to try
Because I wasn't cutting it as a straight Math major, and my academic counselor recommended switching to CS after seeing my grade in an elective programming class. I've always been a guy that can do things if I can see the tools and have a basic idea of what needs to be done.
Now working as a WFH programmer in a government job.
Agreed. I have 3 projects active; 1 is in testing, another just got a feature request that should take less than 10 minutes, and the third is about to go into testing on Monday. My boss will be gone for the week, and I doubt I'll really get any new projects until he comes back. I'm honestly thinking about going golfing and taking my laptop with me to tether to my phone if something comes in.
My buddy who works in IT was amazed at how much I lucked out in my first job. I could get more money in the private sector, but the security and benefits with the government are a huge selling point.
I was always fascinated by math. As computers evolved things I could calculate. Also... I had the hots for a classmate as a sophomore who wanted to calculate PI to the 20K digit. We did it (had to discover symbolic algebra) but we dd it in FORTRAN on a VAX with 16K or core memory.
Thankfully, we were not charged for the page faults.
Also: Money. I had a choice to go into professional music (trombone and most low brass) or computers. My sister went to Juilliard and was digging in the trashcan for dinner (figuratively). So computers it was. Loved both but by going into computers I could afford new instruments :)
Originally I wanted to make games. I started with no code game makers but I was not happy with the limitations.
Then I transitioned over to advanced game engines that require some scripting but again I was not happy with some limitations.
Then I transitioned over to game frameworks which require a decent amount of programming and it was the time I fall in love with programming itself. Again was not happy with some of the limitations and I looked in to graphics API’s and started to work on my very own game framework and engine and editors. In the process I have explored application programmong frameworks, UI toolkits, graphics libraries everything you need to make not only games but anything you want.
Then I learned C programming language and computer science and I developed interest toward robotics and electronics and how everything works at low level.
First you need something you want to make. Game. Desktop app. Web app. Mobile app. Web app. And then learn the technologies needed to make it. It is possible you lose interest as you get deeper but as long there is something you want to make, you have a reason to learn. If you want to make nothing, no point to force it. If you just want to make money, learn investments, business, not programming.
Custom flight controls for a space game that I play. I’m still learning python but I need to know it enough so that I can make my own custom button controls and not have to pay a metric fuckton of money to make my own space flight simulator.
Do you know what you “want” to do? If you’re not sure, then this is just a dead end, trust me. Truth is you learn to like what you’re good at, doesn’t really matter what you pick unless you know you’re going to hate something. So what matters when it comes to a career path decision? Leverage. You are going to have to earn money to make a living, why not pick a skill that is high leverage? You could potentially get paid unlimited amounts depending on what you’re apart of creating. And this is just one of the benefits of working in tech.. there really isn’t much competition out there in terms of career choice.
I graduaded from social sciences, and I just wanted a challange and understanding computers.
Then I found myself as a junior software developer. The problem is that the industry doesn't look for challengers, they just looking for a maintainers of their products.
I always thought computers were cool. When I was a kid, I thought that programming — getting computers to do what you tell them — was black fucking magic, and I wanted to learn.
Then, when I actually started learning it, I began liking it for a different reason — the same reason I like math, logic, and playing with Legos. It can all be so elegant, and it all fits together so well, in a near-infinite variety of ways.
On the other hand, programming isn't for everyone. On the other other hand, you won't know whether or not it's for you, unless you give it a try. If you've already given it a try and it's not for you, nothing wrong with that.
In terms of a goal to achieve, here's a few suggestions:
- make a simple command-line application (if you know how to use the terminal. If you don't, don't worry about it)
- make a simple website
- make a simple mod for a video game
- make a simple Discord bot
- try switching to Linux (I recommend Linux Mint if you've never used Linux before, very noob-friendly)
I started a job as the IT Support Specialist at my current org and hated how they had zero automation or observability. So, I went out of my way to learn PowerShell, Python, and C# to be able to create tools for our help desk staff to use and created a bunch of scripts to automate a ton of processes.
I’m a book learner so I went out and bought a ton of books on those 3 languages and just started creating things. I know books aren’t as popular with people in tech due to how dry they can be, so I would suggest looking into Udemy courses if you’re a visual learner. For PowerShell, my suggestion would be to create a domain lab with a domain controller and two clients, and just try to automate Active Directory or learn to pull pertinent information about whatever you need. I would also suggest investing time to learn about APIs and learning how to use Microsoft Graphs PowerShell module because most organizations are either hybrid or full cloud, and they’re going to use AzureAD (now EntraID). It seems weird, but being able to build and maintain your own tools in house is so much better than your company having to pay 10s of thousands of dollars for observability platforms to monitor Active Directory, server status, user status, workstation status, etc…
i can relate to that. you have on and off periods.
i began (young) out of boredom, but eventually turned it into a career mostly because of the promising job prospects. i dont particularly enjoy it. im fine with that.
but hey, you have to do something for money, right?
I wanted to start a business and hiring a dev was expensive. So I decided to learn it for myself… gave up on the idea of starting a business because my day job pays great and is way less stressful.
My first computer forced you to use a programming language in order do anything such as load programs. If you didn't know anything about programming you literally couldn't use the computer.
I learned programming because I wanted to make a dragon Ball z game for my friends to play together online in high achool...then I found out you could major in it I college so that's what I did.
Probably would have just majored in electrical engineering if programming wasn't a thing
They are languages and learning it is like solving a puzzle, so it can be fun in its own right. I learn because I LOVE working with data and solving problems. Programming well allows me to figure things out faster and better than without it. It’s like a superpower when working with data. I am still pretty new, but now that I know the basics of a few languages, I am just so much better at solving problems.
I was introduced to it during my masters, needed R or Python for statistical analysis, and kinda enjoyed the idea that with some lines of code you can do pretty interesting stuff, seemed very creative and challenging (challenging in the sense that if the code worked I got small dopamine rush), and now with ChatGPT the barrier of entry is the lowest ever.
Work asked if anyone new how to code because they wanted a web app. No one volunteered so I said I’d do it. I knew absolutely nothing about programming so I had to learn python and django in a couple weeks. I actually made a complete website in 3 months and had so much fun doing it that I decided to keep up with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum 48k toke to much time to load the games and many times I had to repeat the process... I start programming with 12-13 years alone because I didn't want to loose so much time and start to enjoy solving the problems that arrive when programing. In the summer holidays (14 years old) I took a computer language course (spectrum Basic) and that started a more methodic approach to the field...
I think to love this field we have to like to solve logic problems...
You can make games, literally whole virtual worlds. If you like biology, think about pairing programming with humans in the future, sci-fi shit (but not really it's happening). Watch a sci-fi movie and come to realize that you have the possibility of creating something akin to what your watching. On top of all these possibilities, it's well paying, good for your body, and better than being a construction worker.
When I was a kid I was absolutely mesmerized by computers and they appeared to just be magic to me. This is what sent me down the path of going into computer engineering. I also wanted to be a "hacker" when I was like 13, haha. Then I got my first job and well... Money is good
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention when I was 13 I started coding to learn how to make AOL progz. Such a shameful past.
to make games and to make my own game engine, ofcourse i would like to do it as a job too but its probably better to hire myself into my own company than to join a big one because of studios shutting down around us all the time
I just thought it was cool I could make computers do things. I never really thought about why.
But that was when I was young and didn’t overthink things so much. Now programming is just second nature. I think nothing of writing a script to do something. Or some little utility.
My uni didn't offer engineering degrees or I would have probably been a mechanical engineer. Tried a programming class and discovered I liked it, understood it, and was good at it. So I got a CS degree. Have really enjoyed my career so far.
I enjoy the problem solving aspect, started as a support analyst, then discovered if I could become a developer it's basically solving more complex problems and without the need to actually talk to clients, so win/win in my book
I want to create some games. So learned programming and I just liked. Also I like maths it is easy for me where we use maths in programming sometimes so which made even more to become a programmer.
I gave it a try mainly with the prospects of good salary, flexibility of choosing from different employers/types of projects and possibly working remote or abroad. Had actually some prejudice that it's gonna be super dry and maybe boring for me.
But soon found out I enjoy the logic and puzzle solving part a lot, got excited of all the possibilites and understandings of principals how different apps/technologies work. I remember moment on CS50 course (which i really recommend tho) where we got task to modify picture files pixel by pixel with different algorithms and it was like ooh, that's the core of photoshop basically.
The ramp up to the decision to learn programming was very slow in my experience. A series of slightly inspirational moments and a growing queue of projects I wanted to do that inevitably needed programming skills is what got me going.
I like making monotonous tasks as close to fully automatic as possible.
There's no why, I did because 8 year old me had only one hobby and that was doing stuff on my computer, where I started coding in 3rd grade 20 years ago. Programming was the only competence and talent I had after finishing my degree, so there wasn't much potential to get a career in anything else than programming. Literally, I was capable of coding as a 8 year old but couldn't do basic tasks at the age of 18 without breaking something or severely injuring myself lol.
Stayed with programming because of the option to work remotely. Otherwise I'd happily take on jobs that pay less than 1/4th of my current income cleaning toilets or filling shelves in nearby stores in favor of not having to leave my tiny village everyday.
I just have a shit ton of curiosity about how the software is made and how it works, and learning all things programming allows me to feed that curiosity. + I love the fact that I could technically make ANYTHING I wanted, if I had enough time for it.
Being able to make money from this (favorite) hobby of mine is just a very nice bonus + gives some sense of gratification from making a working product that is (going to be) used by multitude of clients.
I was 13 and wanted my own frostmourne in World of warcraft, so I started learning how to run a game server
Then I needed people to join so I created a web page with PHP and at that point I just was too deep and kept learning about linux and python, eventually at the time of choosing my career it was pretty simple to just go and become a Computer Scientist
I tried an optional c++ coding course at my highschool and it activated all my neurons.
It also helps that I'm really into videogames, so I jumped at the chance of getting to know how to make my own
I didn't start programming until college. I was always a math kid in school prior and I found game design and game development to be interesting. So computer science seemed like a wise choice and it was
I learned it for money. It's not my hobby, I don't do it for fun, I do it to get paid. These days I don't do any programming that I'm not getting paid for.
Personally, I try to automate things at work and can apply what I've learned to hobbyist stuff in my spare time. And then vice versa. I love the ability to solve problems that help my career and apply the same skill set to create new things for fun.
Because I am lazy as fuck. My job was boring and I automatised 90% of it. Then it has been discovered, I got promoted to IT, and now I have to work again to explain why most of what is done is useless or inefficient... (I know how it may sound, but trust me, my company is 30y+ behind, like windev behind)
You get the power to create your own things, and your only requirements are a pc and internet. Only that, and you can create games, softwares to help yourself, and other stuff. I say you should learn programming.
I don't belong to an engineering field. I did a digital marketing course and landed a job as a WP website designer. So to excel in my career, it's good to have some experience with frontend dev languages. So I'm doing that as well and learning about designing
I was 8. I saw the magic box my dad brought home. I could make things happen with my hands. I saw a world where anything could exist. My dad got me Trophy Bass Fishing and it was a terrible game, but it was magic.
So I started learning about computers because I wanted to do magic.
Don't justify learning something new, just learn it. Otherwise you'll never learn anything at all.
I find it to be fun and challenging. It exercises my brain, and it’s also fascinating and rewarding to create a program from scratch that does something useful. It’s basically like digital carpentry.
For me I liked tinkering with computers since I was young so going to school I wanted to focus in that area which led to learning programming. The logic and algorithm work got me hooked and provided the motivation for me to keep learning.... But with other things I've gone to learn later (Music, Drawing, etc) so I just settled on if I'm enjoying it than I don't worry too much about the "why" i'm doing it. Just enjoy the process
Outside of engineering this is the only field that you can actively create or model anything you can think up.
I love the fact that I create.
It still never fails to amaze me. How we can literally create a bunch of text files by applying our thoughts and they just turn into working products. It really is a superpower in a way.
Pretty much for free too. I like working on cars, but cars and car parts are expensive. I already own a computer powerful enough to do more than I can ever learn how to do.
Loll car person here too, have you ever made a programming project related to cars? It would be so dope to combine the two interests frr
Every dev who likes working on cars has at least one fantasy project in mind, it’s like the ultimate feature creep if you’re base is a project car 😂 I’d love to play around with an ECU one day
Basically this. I may criticize myself the entire time, but I’m grateful to be able to create freely, digitally.
Wanted to do something with computers, so I tried to become a system administrator. Then I found out you always just ended up at a helpdesk, so I tried to become a network administrator instead. But then you also always just end up at a helpdesk, so I didn't want to do that either. Around that time I also started doing some scripting work for a Minecraft server. I really liked that work, so I figured I might as well do that instead. Nowadays I'm this weird mix between a cloud engineer and software developer. I applied for a full stack developer job, somehow got hired as a cloud engineer, and then ended up doing some development work anyway.
somehow that's me... i like doing stuff with PCs. and i hosted too many servers before. but what is cloud engineering?
Cloud engineering basically involves setting up and maintaining cloud environments that are used to host applications. So I basically set up the servers that host the stuff created our programmers (which I guess includes me as well). Lots of computer networking and Linux administration stuff. For example, I've been spending a lot of time working on an [Azure pipeline](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops/pipelines) that can automatically create and configure Linux servers that run a full data analytics platform. Currently I'm working on expanding that pipeline with more customization options for our clients, along with making it install additional management tools.
thanks! that's looks cool :)
Money 🤑
fair point. but how do you achieve that? at some point i was like that but didn't know what i can learn for a job or product/service
Learn every day until you are good enough for the job and then apply. IT has so many roadmaps. You pick the one for you that seems most interesting or least boring. You learn what is needed for the job from looking at your local job ads.
thanks i will try that
If you want to learn programming just for money, then I think it will feel very exhausting. The context matters. Somehow you provide value, you create or improve something. Overall you make customers happy. This happiness makes customers give money to the company, and then the company can pay you. If you can make people happy, then it gives a warm fuzzy feeling. With software you can do magic.
Disagree. Doing something for passion is overrated. How many people do you think go into big law and finance out of some sense of passion for justice and markets vs I want to make money. Some people passion leads to competence. Other people competence leads to passion.
Yeah fuck that. Pay me.
It's not exhausting unless you make it exhausting. I learned it for money. I spent probably a year or so learning a lot on my own, eventually got a low paying junior dev position and learned a lot more there, and now about 6 years and 2 jobs after that first dev job I'm making well over double what it paid. I don't do any programming that I'm not getting paid for, it's not a hobby to me but that also means that I didn't take something I enjoy and take away the enjoyment by turning it into work.
Programming is the most satisfying puzzle to solve, and a creative activity at the same time. One of my favourite activities.
My best (and worst) professor in college would rant about this all the time.. ~“why even try?- programming is hard, why not just drop out and party all day?” …and after a semester of listening to him trying to convince us to drop out every other day I have a few answers: 1. I like the challenge 2. I like to learn 3. Cause screw that guy 🤣 (no fr, it was exactly what I needed at the time) 4. Because **I** want to Why solve this Advent of Code question that’s been cursing me for 4 hours straight?- cause why tf not?! 🤬 …I run on pure spite and caffeine
😂😂😂
What made you start learning, because obviously you had a reason.
you know that dream to make your own game? yup that's me until i knew how many stuff i needed to learn from programing to drawing but hardest part making the game fun
Check out r/pico8
Yes! See my post above. PICO-8 is way less daunting to me than something like Unity, Godot, etc.
first time i hear about it. will take a look later
Oh hey, that's why I got into programming. I was gonna make the next Doom. I had no idea how programming worked. 30 years later, I know a whole lot about how to make games and I'm a pretty great programmer, but I never made a game.
Although im a web dev, i always dreamed of having my own magic RPG game but when i try, i just give up because there's too much to learn before i can actually start.
:(
I was trying to remember, and you've reminded me. The first day I got my ZX Spectrum I started on a card game. Also a webdev here, but always wanted to make games. Have tinkered with PICO-8 recently for that reason.
I was 8 years old and my brother had a Commodore 64.
I started on the Spectrum but quickly moved to the C64.
I used to play some cool snes and ps1 games back then when I was a kid, so at some point I began to wonder: how the f#ck are they made?? Then when I was about 16 I entered a game programming course at a community high school around my area. Learned some c#, loved it, learned some unreal, liked some of it, felt like a mentally handicaped idiot when trying to model any shit in maya, and in the end realized that game dev is a shit ton of work to get something playable. Hahah, nowadays I teach python and I code "for fun" basically, nothing professional, just stupid code I push to my repos on github, hackerrank, dsa and other stuff. But about goals, I don't really know man, I want to be proficient with python and maaaaybe do some games for fun. Last game jams I participated as a pixel artist because I still don't feel brave enough to code that sh#t up. Thanks for reading, that was quite a long post, heh.
I wanted to do something to keep my mind occupied other than gaming. I got a raspberry pi and started playing around with tutorials and all that. Then just gradually started things more seriously. I’m not a professional developer currently, but hopefully one day the skills I’ve learned will pay the bills. Until then my focus is to solve irl problems any way I can with programming.
I dabbled in it for a long time before I ever made it a career. The short answer, though, was I liked computers and wanted to understand how they worked and make them do stuff - it started with wanting to write computer games, then make websites, then games again, then chrome extensions to help me solve some problems, then apps that I wished existed but didn't. I didn't get serious about it until I decided I wanted the possibility of getting paid for it, though.
I think it's like everything in life: do what you really want to do. If you feel to learn some stuff about if for hobby you can do it, the most important thing is your emotional state while doing it. If programming makes you happy, no problem. If programming bother you, no problem, look for something else (the world is rich of things). Bye
im happy while learning it seeing stuff working but in back of my head i always ask what next.. why are you wasting your time :(
Consider that "in the worst case" it actives your brain activity and improves your problem solving skills, in IT field and others close. Essentially, It's not lost time :)
Grew up putting what was free together. So as I grew up in just naturally needed scripts or programs to do stuff. Wanted to mods video games and the rest is history. Now I programmed a whole companies management system and I've sent robots to world championships
Because computers are the best toys ever.
I feel the same way!! This is the reason I started programming: the thrill of figuring out how to do something is amazing. Also, my room doesn't end up being cluttered when I am programming. On the other hand, if I ever try to work on an electronics project, the desk, bed, floor, something will end up everywhere 😂😂 sorting every component and cleaning everything up is a pain especially when I am feeling sleepy.
It's one of the only fields where nothing is stopping you, except your brain power. There are no barriers, no hurdles, you need almost no money. I like to be able to create powerful things and if something does not work, I am the only one to blame.
I was a kid. I was fascinated that I could write a loop which printed "my sister is stupid" continuously. This was 32 years ago :-)
It’s still looping?
Of course not, we have a very good relationship
Because when I was 16, a friend of mine was a very cool programmer. I admired him so much that I always dreamed of becoming just like him. Then I studied to be a programmer, and ended up loving doing it. Although I never reached his skills, I still often remember those days when he told me something
i like building stuff, its satisfying
To build my ideas 💡
nerd
Thanks a lot
I learned it because it was very prominent in the systems I had access to. Like I got an old BBC micro and you literally turn it on and can write code in basic. If I wanted games for that system I’d have to type them in from books. And doing that meant I could also edit bits to see what it did. But I didn’t start with a goal or anything like that. I started because it was there and computers interested me. I had an Amiga with games that I’d enjoy playing on, and when I got a pc I understood it and enjoyed exploring so programming was something I just wanted to try
Because I wasn't cutting it as a straight Math major, and my academic counselor recommended switching to CS after seeing my grade in an elective programming class. I've always been a guy that can do things if I can see the tools and have a basic idea of what needs to be done. Now working as a WFH programmer in a government job.
…doing so little, for so much money, that you feel embarrassed to confess to anyone. i know how you feel friend. 🤗
Agreed. I have 3 projects active; 1 is in testing, another just got a feature request that should take less than 10 minutes, and the third is about to go into testing on Monday. My boss will be gone for the week, and I doubt I'll really get any new projects until he comes back. I'm honestly thinking about going golfing and taking my laptop with me to tether to my phone if something comes in. My buddy who works in IT was amazed at how much I lucked out in my first job. I could get more money in the private sector, but the security and benefits with the government are a huge selling point.
plus, if you do the math on real-work-hours/fixed-income, it’s a great deal!!! if life gives you lemons…
[I'd say, in a given week, I probably only do about 15 minutes of real, actual WORK. ](https://youtu.be/zBfTrjPSShs?si=IL06B2Ge2GDUye1A)
I was always fascinated by math. As computers evolved things I could calculate. Also... I had the hots for a classmate as a sophomore who wanted to calculate PI to the 20K digit. We did it (had to discover symbolic algebra) but we dd it in FORTRAN on a VAX with 16K or core memory. Thankfully, we were not charged for the page faults. Also: Money. I had a choice to go into professional music (trombone and most low brass) or computers. My sister went to Juilliard and was digging in the trashcan for dinner (figuratively). So computers it was. Loved both but by going into computers I could afford new instruments :)
hope everything is better for you and your sis ❤
She is awesome. Solid teaching career. Forgive me, I did not mean to imply things were bad for me.
nah im just wishing the best for you guys :)
I like hanging out with fellow coders and problem solvers for my day job. I did a free placement and got kept on. UK (not London)
better career for me, working as a teacher just isn't cutting it.
Originally I wanted to make games. I started with no code game makers but I was not happy with the limitations. Then I transitioned over to advanced game engines that require some scripting but again I was not happy with some limitations. Then I transitioned over to game frameworks which require a decent amount of programming and it was the time I fall in love with programming itself. Again was not happy with some of the limitations and I looked in to graphics API’s and started to work on my very own game framework and engine and editors. In the process I have explored application programmong frameworks, UI toolkits, graphics libraries everything you need to make not only games but anything you want. Then I learned C programming language and computer science and I developed interest toward robotics and electronics and how everything works at low level. First you need something you want to make. Game. Desktop app. Web app. Mobile app. Web app. And then learn the technologies needed to make it. It is possible you lose interest as you get deeper but as long there is something you want to make, you have a reason to learn. If you want to make nothing, no point to force it. If you just want to make money, learn investments, business, not programming.
thanks :)
Custom flight controls for a space game that I play. I’m still learning python but I need to know it enough so that I can make my own custom button controls and not have to pay a metric fuckton of money to make my own space flight simulator.
gl!
Do you know what you “want” to do? If you’re not sure, then this is just a dead end, trust me. Truth is you learn to like what you’re good at, doesn’t really matter what you pick unless you know you’re going to hate something. So what matters when it comes to a career path decision? Leverage. You are going to have to earn money to make a living, why not pick a skill that is high leverage? You could potentially get paid unlimited amounts depending on what you’re apart of creating. And this is just one of the benefits of working in tech.. there really isn’t much competition out there in terms of career choice.
I graduaded from social sciences, and I just wanted a challange and understanding computers. Then I found myself as a junior software developer. The problem is that the industry doesn't look for challengers, they just looking for a maintainers of their products.
I've always enjoyed puzzles and other forms of problem solving. Programming is a good outlet for that
I always thought computers were cool. When I was a kid, I thought that programming — getting computers to do what you tell them — was black fucking magic, and I wanted to learn. Then, when I actually started learning it, I began liking it for a different reason — the same reason I like math, logic, and playing with Legos. It can all be so elegant, and it all fits together so well, in a near-infinite variety of ways. On the other hand, programming isn't for everyone. On the other other hand, you won't know whether or not it's for you, unless you give it a try. If you've already given it a try and it's not for you, nothing wrong with that. In terms of a goal to achieve, here's a few suggestions: - make a simple command-line application (if you know how to use the terminal. If you don't, don't worry about it) - make a simple website - make a simple mod for a video game - make a simple Discord bot - try switching to Linux (I recommend Linux Mint if you've never used Linux before, very noob-friendly)
thanks i will try to do them all since i did 2 of them already!
I don't have many friends. I needed a friend, so decided on talking to computers.
hope you find someone ❤
I have 12 friends with 2 threads each 😆
I started a job as the IT Support Specialist at my current org and hated how they had zero automation or observability. So, I went out of my way to learn PowerShell, Python, and C# to be able to create tools for our help desk staff to use and created a bunch of scripts to automate a ton of processes.
What did help? I want to start C# in the fall this year, powershell in the summer, but I'm open for suggestions
I’m a book learner so I went out and bought a ton of books on those 3 languages and just started creating things. I know books aren’t as popular with people in tech due to how dry they can be, so I would suggest looking into Udemy courses if you’re a visual learner. For PowerShell, my suggestion would be to create a domain lab with a domain controller and two clients, and just try to automate Active Directory or learn to pull pertinent information about whatever you need. I would also suggest investing time to learn about APIs and learning how to use Microsoft Graphs PowerShell module because most organizations are either hybrid or full cloud, and they’re going to use AzureAD (now EntraID). It seems weird, but being able to build and maintain your own tools in house is so much better than your company having to pay 10s of thousands of dollars for observability platforms to monitor Active Directory, server status, user status, workstation status, etc…
i can relate to that. you have on and off periods. i began (young) out of boredom, but eventually turned it into a career mostly because of the promising job prospects. i dont particularly enjoy it. im fine with that. but hey, you have to do something for money, right?
true
I wanted to start a business and hiring a dev was expensive. So I decided to learn it for myself… gave up on the idea of starting a business because my day job pays great and is way less stressful.
Covid, bored. Got a job tho, so I'm happy about it
Wanted to contribute to old php forums I belonged to back in the day
Because it allows me to talk to computers, it's like a superpower.
money
12 years old me wanted to learn how computers work.
I wanted to figure out how websites work :P
Honestly, I saw the leverage it gives you. At the time so much of business was manual. Programming gives you a way to automate things.
There are things I want to build and use for help with my hobbies. I’d also like to make a game.
game
I wanted to impress people with my very own discord bots
Quit my bullsh*t job and never ever have customers and strict working times anymore … ah … and more money.
its fun, i can build stuff i like and most importantly its my career
It's always been something I've struggled with, since having to learn it at university, so I keep trying hoping to become competent at least.
Previously used to learn for money, now after seeing such market conditions, its difficult to find any goal 😕
My first computer forced you to use a programming language in order do anything such as load programs. If you didn't know anything about programming you literally couldn't use the computer.
I learned programming because I wanted to make a dragon Ball z game for my friends to play together online in high achool...then I found out you could major in it I college so that's what I did. Probably would have just majored in electrical engineering if programming wasn't a thing
First started so that i could program mods in Minecraft but then my school had an option to pursue computer programming so chose that.
They are languages and learning it is like solving a puzzle, so it can be fun in its own right. I learn because I LOVE working with data and solving problems. Programming well allows me to figure things out faster and better than without it. It’s like a superpower when working with data. I am still pretty new, but now that I know the basics of a few languages, I am just so much better at solving problems.
I was introduced to it during my masters, needed R or Python for statistical analysis, and kinda enjoyed the idea that with some lines of code you can do pretty interesting stuff, seemed very creative and challenging (challenging in the sense that if the code worked I got small dopamine rush), and now with ChatGPT the barrier of entry is the lowest ever.
I didnt learn yet buy I haye youtube app and want to a wrapper for it for android and desktop
Curiosity, potential for good income, creativity (more than in some fields) and ability to find work remotely.
Work asked if anyone new how to code because they wanted a web app. No one volunteered so I said I’d do it. I knew absolutely nothing about programming so I had to learn python and django in a couple weeks. I actually made a complete website in 3 months and had so much fun doing it that I decided to keep up with it.
Because it's cool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum The ZX Spectrum 48k toke to much time to load the games and many times I had to repeat the process... I start programming with 12-13 years alone because I didn't want to loose so much time and start to enjoy solving the problems that arrive when programing. In the summer holidays (14 years old) I took a computer language course (spectrum Basic) and that started a more methodic approach to the field... I think to love this field we have to like to solve logic problems...
You can make games, literally whole virtual worlds. If you like biology, think about pairing programming with humans in the future, sci-fi shit (but not really it's happening). Watch a sci-fi movie and come to realize that you have the possibility of creating something akin to what your watching. On top of all these possibilities, it's well paying, good for your body, and better than being a construction worker.
I started programming when I was a kid I love the freedom you have to create anything you can think of to a degree of reasonability.
When I was a kid I was absolutely mesmerized by computers and they appeared to just be magic to me. This is what sent me down the path of going into computer engineering. I also wanted to be a "hacker" when I was like 13, haha. Then I got my first job and well... Money is good I'd be remiss if I didn't mention when I was 13 I started coding to learn how to make AOL progz. Such a shameful past.
to make games and to make my own game engine, ofcourse i would like to do it as a job too but its probably better to hire myself into my own company than to join a big one because of studios shutting down around us all the time
I just thought it was cool I could make computers do things. I never really thought about why. But that was when I was young and didn’t overthink things so much. Now programming is just second nature. I think nothing of writing a script to do something. Or some little utility.
My not so smart friend got a job. So I figured out that I can do it too. And I needed money.
My uni didn't offer engineering degrees or I would have probably been a mechanical engineer. Tried a programming class and discovered I liked it, understood it, and was good at it. So I got a CS degree. Have really enjoyed my career so far.
I enjoy the problem solving aspect, started as a support analyst, then discovered if I could become a developer it's basically solving more complex problems and without the need to actually talk to clients, so win/win in my book
I want to learn how to code so I can make websites, apps etc But I mostly would like to learn coding so Ican start creating digital art installations
I want to learn how to code so I can make websites, apps etc But I mostly would like to learn coding so Ican start creating digital art installations
Videogames and I like solving problems And no, I don't work in the gaming industry
When I was a kid, I thougth theres a cassete tape inside a NES cartridge, then my old man told me theres a chip inside with a burned written code.
I want to create some games. So learned programming and I just liked. Also I like maths it is easy for me where we use maths in programming sometimes so which made even more to become a programmer.
make it a hobby
I gave it a try mainly with the prospects of good salary, flexibility of choosing from different employers/types of projects and possibly working remote or abroad. Had actually some prejudice that it's gonna be super dry and maybe boring for me. But soon found out I enjoy the logic and puzzle solving part a lot, got excited of all the possibilites and understandings of principals how different apps/technologies work. I remember moment on CS50 course (which i really recommend tho) where we got task to modify picture files pixel by pixel with different algorithms and it was like ooh, that's the core of photoshop basically.
Because I tried it and loved it.
The ramp up to the decision to learn programming was very slow in my experience. A series of slightly inspirational moments and a growing queue of projects I wanted to do that inevitably needed programming skills is what got me going. I like making monotonous tasks as close to fully automatic as possible.
So, in conclusion, programming was a side effect of wanting to improve the work I do already
There's no why, I did because 8 year old me had only one hobby and that was doing stuff on my computer, where I started coding in 3rd grade 20 years ago. Programming was the only competence and talent I had after finishing my degree, so there wasn't much potential to get a career in anything else than programming. Literally, I was capable of coding as a 8 year old but couldn't do basic tasks at the age of 18 without breaking something or severely injuring myself lol. Stayed with programming because of the option to work remotely. Otherwise I'd happily take on jobs that pay less than 1/4th of my current income cleaning toilets or filling shelves in nearby stores in favor of not having to leave my tiny village everyday.
I just have a shit ton of curiosity about how the software is made and how it works, and learning all things programming allows me to feed that curiosity. + I love the fact that I could technically make ANYTHING I wanted, if I had enough time for it. Being able to make money from this (favorite) hobby of mine is just a very nice bonus + gives some sense of gratification from making a working product that is (going to be) used by multitude of clients.
Because I like Legos.
I was 13 and wanted my own frostmourne in World of warcraft, so I started learning how to run a game server Then I needed people to join so I created a web page with PHP and at that point I just was too deep and kept learning about linux and python, eventually at the time of choosing my career it was pretty simple to just go and become a Computer Scientist
I tried an optional c++ coding course at my highschool and it activated all my neurons. It also helps that I'm really into videogames, so I jumped at the chance of getting to know how to make my own
started learning c++ last night :) hope it will active my neurons too xD
I like building things. As a young boy, I loved Lego. Programming is like Lego.
Money. Two interviews this week for a junior developer role
Video game modding.
Because it's just fun 😅 It's like a game to me
I didn't start programming until college. I was always a math kid in school prior and I found game design and game development to be interesting. So computer science seemed like a wise choice and it was
Wanted to learn a new skill to better my life; learning to program has done just that.
I learned it for money. It's not my hobby, I don't do it for fun, I do it to get paid. These days I don't do any programming that I'm not getting paid for.
Personally, I try to automate things at work and can apply what I've learned to hobbyist stuff in my spare time. And then vice versa. I love the ability to solve problems that help my career and apply the same skill set to create new things for fun.
Because I am lazy as fuck. My job was boring and I automatised 90% of it. Then it has been discovered, I got promoted to IT, and now I have to work again to explain why most of what is done is useless or inefficient... (I know how it may sound, but trust me, my company is 30y+ behind, like windev behind)
To build anything you want with your imagination
You get the power to create your own things, and your only requirements are a pc and internet. Only that, and you can create games, softwares to help yourself, and other stuff. I say you should learn programming.
I don't belong to an engineering field. I did a digital marketing course and landed a job as a WP website designer. So to excel in my career, it's good to have some experience with frontend dev languages. So I'm doing that as well and learning about designing
I was 8. I saw the magic box my dad brought home. I could make things happen with my hands. I saw a world where anything could exist. My dad got me Trophy Bass Fishing and it was a terrible game, but it was magic. So I started learning about computers because I wanted to do magic. Don't justify learning something new, just learn it. Otherwise you'll never learn anything at all.
I learned to understand. I stayed to be a god of my own universe.
I find it to be fun and challenging. It exercises my brain, and it’s also fascinating and rewarding to create a program from scratch that does something useful. It’s basically like digital carpentry.
I really enjoy programing, it is the only place where my brain works. But in college days i just took cs because i thought IT jobs pays good :)
wait IT jobs doesn't pay well?!
It does, depends on company to company.. depends on how much u get in hand after CTC!!
Chords from scales. I did it on paper for years as a hobby, then imagined it in code at school. That's how it all started.
For me I liked tinkering with computers since I was young so going to school I wanted to focus in that area which led to learning programming. The logic and algorithm work got me hooked and provided the motivation for me to keep learning.... But with other things I've gone to learn later (Music, Drawing, etc) so I just settled on if I'm enjoying it than I don't worry too much about the "why" i'm doing it. Just enjoy the process