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It's true for the great majority of programmers I know (good and bad), but it's not true for me. I care a great deal about programming and I'm not particularly
by mquander 17y ago
It's true for the great majority of programmers I know (good and bad), but it's not true for me. I care a great deal about programming and I'm not particularly interested in making cool stuff. So there are both sorts.
I'm interested in programming as a tool to give myself a clearer mental model of language, mathematics, computation, and thought, and I'm interested in writing and reading code that I find artistically aesthetic and elegant.
(Then again, I wouldn't call myself a 'hacker'. I think 'hacker' implies a large degree of making-cool-stuffmanship.)
- TheTarquin 17y agoInteresting. So, out of curiosity, are you just not particular about projects? If you had to choose between two arbitrary projects to work on, on what criteria would you base your choice?
- mquander 17y agoI updated my comment to answer the obvious question of what I am interested in. I program to fulfill my practical needs and for work, but I really am interested mostly in learning as I do it and in producing code that is really high-quality, beautiful code (to the degree that the problem domain, my ability, and my personal taste allows.)
- yters 17y agoYes, I had the same reaction. Cool stuff is alright, but I really like elegant code and algorithms, the more mathematical side of it all.
- MaysonL 17y agoI may just be strange, but building tools for a clearer mental model of language, math, etc, sounds like really cools stuff.