[HN Gopher] Why I do programming
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Why I do programming
Author : artmare
Score : 75 points
Date : 2025-07-26 05:57 UTC (17 hours ago)
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| account-5 wrote:
| Why I do programming, as a non professional programmer, is to
| make my life easier; to have the computer do my work for me. I
| program to automate manual tasks.
|
| I've stitched disperate corporate systems that don't communicate
| together with autohotkey. I've used powershell to complete jobs
| in minutes that take other people hours. I've even used MS Access
| for data analysis.
|
| As a non professional programmer I learn to use what I have
| access to, which you can likely see from some of the things I've
| used above, is not much and stuff you probably wouldn't chose.
|
| However in my personal life where I can follow my interests I
| struggle with choosing which technologies to learn. I want to
| learn what's going to last, like SQL for example. An example
| might be when I went with dart and flutter for cross platform app
| development, despite it constantly being said that Google will
| abandon. There were just too many we'd frameworks to chose from,
| flutter seemed like a no brainer, and it's been pretty great.
|
| This is a bit of a ramble so tl;dr, I learn was useful and
| hopefully long lasting.
| donatj wrote:
| I recall in third grade coming across a QBasic program on my
| families second hand 286 that could read from the mouse. I have
| no clue how it worked looking back. Convinced however that the
| ball mice at the time must use little generators rather than the
| optical encoder wheels they truly used, and knowing generators
| were also motors when used in reverse, I spent literal months
| trying to essentially write to the mouse so I could move the
| mouse around the desk and spook my friends.
|
| This of course never worked out, and eventually I told my uncle
| who worked in IT what I was trying to do and he explained why it
| wouldn't work and we actually disassembled my Microsoft Bus mouse
| to see how it worked.
|
| Despite my disappointment, I'd learned some things about
| computers and BASIC in the process and frankly I was hooked.
|
| Here I am 30+ years later still looking for novel uses for
| things.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| If you were willing to hack hardware, rather than just
| software, you maybe could have done the mouse trick...
| Nevermark wrote:
| _Why_ I do programming?
|
| Why _I_ do programming?
|
| Why I _do_ programming?
|
| Why I do _programming_?
|
| These are four differemt questions. With four orthogonal answers.
|
| You cannot truly know your deepest self until you can answer all
| four questions with insights that resonate and mirror your true
| self.
|
| Good luck on your unique journey.
|
| (Love, absolutely love, the essay/story.)
| croisillon wrote:
| which of these 4 questions are answered in TFA according to
| you?
| jasonm23 wrote:
| I find that if you LOVE programming, all the answers are the
| same.
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| Why I do programming _?_
| WHA8m wrote:
| And most importantly: wHy i dO PrOgRaMmInG?
| nntwozz wrote:
| He links to Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle.
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EGqwXt90ZqA
|
| Amazing talk about programming.
| gamebak wrote:
| This article resonated with me, another fellow pawn script, but I
| used to do mods in the old half life and counter-strike and some
| other hl mods. Similarily I started from ms-dos, pascal from
| school and slowly went to the html part. I had the impression
| that my programming desire just faded in time with so many jobs,
| but It might be what you described as burnout... who knows, but I
| learned something from this.
|
| Best of luck!
| gavinray wrote:
| Wow, our stories are shockingly similar!
|
| Started at the same age, also learned programming mostly through
| SecondLife Lua and other game scripting.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44658995
|
| I often wonder how much moddable/scriptable games have
| contributed to the developer pool.
| lastcoyotes wrote:
| went on a walk through the park while meeting a dev from
| finland the other day, we both talked about how SecondLife,
| Gary's Mod, HL, minecraft, roblox, etc were all catalysts for
| us and our friends getting into programming aha. It felt really
| nice being able to tinker and experience new ways to play with
| friends.
| jagged-chisel wrote:
| > ... and nearly got expelled from school for truancy.
|
| You missed so much school, we're just going to insist you miss
| the rest.
| chistev wrote:
| They likely didn't learn to write tests.
| lispitillo wrote:
| Why do I program? I program as a hobby but I am always looking
| for an idea or concept that can be framed into programs so I can
| obtain wealth.
|
| The TFA claims "Sometimes the hardest part is maintaining focus
| and not chasing every shiny new thing", and I agree.
|
| I think you have to go beyond programming, since programming is
| just a tool for a higher order concept. For example design a
| solution to a problem.
|
| But I haven't find the way, yet.
| anilgulecha wrote:
| This is the most common mistake engineers make. Code is not
| worth anything. Solving a user's problem, which they're willing
| to pay for (not just any problem), is what can be converted to
| wealth. The intersection of these 2 is very small, and very
| dense - since all engineers aim for it.
|
| If you venture out of that region and try to discover and solve
| problems (and if needed use code/automation/tech), you have a
| surer chance of generating wealth.
| rr808 wrote:
| > The TFA claims "Sometimes the hardest part is maintaining
| focus and not chasing every shiny new thing", and I agree.
|
| In a logical world yes, but often the majority of jobs want
| people who have experience with the shiny new thing.
| breckinloggins wrote:
| My story is similar. I've been programming nearly every day for
| over 35 years and don't see myself stopping any time soon.
|
| Occasionally someone (usually at work) will ask "why do you know
| that?" or "how did you learn how to do that?" (where "that" is
| typically something outside of my direct job responsibilities).
|
| I've been programming for so long and have dabbled or seriously
| worked with so many parts of the computing landscape - mostly out
| of simple curiosity and love of craft - that I admit to being
| somewhat annoyed at questions like this. I have trouble
| connecting with the premise.
|
| But I don't want to offend, and it's not my place to judge when
| it feels like my interlocutor works in my field simply because
| the money is there. So I came up with a succinct way to answer
| those questions.
|
| "I like computers."
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| Of course "how did you learn how to do that?" could come from a
| place of curiosity! There is too much in the programming
| landscape for anyone to even scratch the surface with their
| life's work.
| breckinloggins wrote:
| When this question is asked in person, though, the tone is
| frequently one of "WHY do you know how to do that? It's not
| your job".
|
| The difference is easily discernible. Online, though, I do
| interpret it more generously.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| My answer is typically "I read a lot". Not untrue - if they
| read what I read they'd know what I know. I'm no genius (pretty
| dumb actually) but I do like researching and learning new
| stuff, mostly by reading.
| bombela wrote:
| I think people are often both suspicious and impressed at the
| same time.
|
| Suspicious that you might be acting overconfident, a common
| issue in software. Impressed that you know so much.
|
| I am your cadet, and I have a similar experience. I have also
| converged to saying "I like computers", and "I read the docs
| and datasheets".
| orev wrote:
| > Occasionally someone (usually at work) will ask "why do you
| know that?" or "how did you learn how to do that?"
|
| This comes up a lot from business people, and I think at least
| one answer is because learning to program is a master class on
| how to break down a problem into actionable parts, while also
| considering as many failure and unexpected scenarios as
| possible. For many business jobs, that might be a full time job
| for one person who focuses only on one specific area. When
| someone trained in programming just "gets it" right away, it
| can be unnerving.
|
| I think this is one reason there can be so many disconnects
| between IT and Business--the stuff IT does is just so magical
| they can't understand it at all, and as a result don't care if
| that magic comes from a local employee, an overseas one, or an
| AI.
| vijucat wrote:
| Programming is in a niche in comparison to other hobbies /
| professions in that it is a creative process where you can repeat
| the experiment endlessly and without physical costs or
| destruction (assuming your code is not operating a robot or
| something in the physical world). Re-writing pieces of your code
| and re-running never fails to bring joy to me. Painting,
| carpentry, racing, etc; do not have an analogue. Producing
| digital art (music, for example), writing and tinkering with
| mathematics come close.
|
| Researchers in chemistry and biology may enjoy a similar joy, but
| I assume it is much more difficult to re-run your experiment with
| slightly different ingredients. One aspect where these fields are
| leaps ahead of code is "code producing code": chain reactions are
| common in the real world and in fact, probably key to the whole
| thing.
| somewhereoutth wrote:
| Yes, programming is basically crack for creative people.
| MathMonkeyMan wrote:
| My first team lead ever said that what he liked about
| programming is that "it's all in your head" and "you can do
| whatever you want."
| liampulles wrote:
| As someone who also loves the act of programming, I find the idea
| of transitioning to using AI agents difficult. Not because they
| are better or worse at the job, but because it shifts me into a
| role of writing specs and shepherding robot monkeys with
| typewriters. I hope I'm wrong.
| enobrev wrote:
| I also love programming. Out of curiosity (and possibly job
| stability) I've spent the past solid week building an app from
| scratch using Claude code.
|
| I'm overall impressed with the result. There are things I might
| have approached differently, and there are things I would have
| gotten done much faster, but the result is more thorough than I
| might have done it.
|
| I think what's most interesting is that I've never written
| specs to this level of detail before. I now have this series of
| project specs that hold every decision and consideration of
| this project written in plain english that's incredibly easy
| for any human to understand regardless of their ability develop
| software.
|
| Whether or not I keep coding this way, I think this tool is
| incredible for figuring out exactly what to work on and how to
| approach it
| altilunium wrote:
| since i actually love the act of solving real-world problems by
| building programs (and not the act of programming itself),
| writing specs and shepherding robot monkeys with typewriters is
| an acceptable means to an end
| liampulles wrote:
| To each their own.
| furyofantares wrote:
| I love programming and I love building things and these are two
| separate things.
|
| I've been making a lot of stuff vibe coding, where I'm only
| talking to the agent about what I want to build, features and
| such. That's really cool but doesn't scratch the programming
| itch at all.
|
| However you CAN talk to the agent about code. This is a lot
| slower to make things than talking about features. But if your
| goal is to make a codebase that's easy to work with and that
| you fully understand and have ownership of, you can talk to the
| agent about code instead of about features and then work with
| the output rather than just accept the output.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Who says you have to use AI agents? (If it's your employer,
| find a new one)
| darad wrote:
| i remember when i was like 8, i used to take apart stuff like RC
| cars to see what's in them and if i can do anything else with
| them, and after i got into programming i felt like this is the
| best thing for me cause programming allowed me to do whatever i
| wanted, more than what can normally be done with computers.
| chistev wrote:
| I'm addicted to programming. It's all I think about. I wish I
| started doing it earlier than I did.
|
| The idea that you can build anything.
| fm2606 wrote:
| I know exactly what you mean, same but different
|
| I did start early at 12 y/o with a C64.
|
| Then trying to get drunk or laid took over and I only dabbled
| with it here and there. Got married, had kids, did other things
| and might as well say abandoned it.
|
| For about the past 10 years I've been doing programming nearly
| every day.
|
| I wish from circa 1993 to 2010 I had been more heavily involved
| with it than I was.
| scoreandmore wrote:
| "Why I do programming"
|
| Because you failed at grammar? ;-) Engineers and programmers
| prefer passive voice, it's endemic.
|
| "Why I program"
|
| Would be the active form.
| tired-turtle wrote:
| Or "X is being deprecated" instead of (the more appropriate) "X
| is being decommissioned"
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| He probably didn't fail at grammar in Spanish, his native
| tongue. Writing "why I do programming" in an ESL evaluation may
| get a few points docked off but unlikely to be grounds for
| flunking.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| No, "Why I do programming" _is_ active voice.
|
| An example of passive voice would be "Why programming is done
| by me." And of course no one would write that.
|
| You may prefer "Why I program", which is indeed more concise
| and straightforward. But that's a stylistic preference, not a
| difference between active and passive voice.
|
| For a similar example, consider "Why I do science". Here there
| isn't a convenient way to shorten it, but it's still active
| voice.
|
| In general, for any _X_ , "Why I do _X_ " is active voice, and
| "Why _X_ is done by me" is passive voice.
| throwanem wrote:
| Programming is modeling. As such it has all the vices of its
| virtues.
| sema4hacker wrote:
| As a high school student in the early 70's I was allowed batch
| access to the Naval Postgraduate School 360/67 as part of an
| Explorer scouting program. On the first day, I was shown how to
| use the 029 keypunch (in itself an amazing machine), then the hot
| card reader, how to wait for your 1403 printouts, and where I
| could get some IBM self-guided tutorials to learn FORTRAN. I
| could come and go as I pleased. It was like being transported to
| another dimension, and I was hooked on programming for life. I
| still program almost every day.
| bronlund wrote:
| For me, the reason I do programming, is the wonderful
| rollercoaster of feeling like a god in one moment, to feeling
| like a moron in the next. I think I kind of got addicted to that
| :D
| pklausler wrote:
| I get paid to implement one very badly specified but important
| programming language in another programming language that is
| painful to use and rife with pitfalls even when used defensively.
|
| But each year, there's Advent of Code, and I enjoy using pure
| functional programming to solve interesting problems in a minimal
| amount of code. It's fun and challenging, and reminds me of the
| magic that computers seemed to hold fifty years ago.
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