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I resonated with this. There's something calming and comforting about creating little worlds, tending to them like a garden of living things. It can be a peacef

I resonated with this. There's something calming and comforting about creating little worlds, tending to them like a garden of living things. It can be a peaceful activity, conjuring concepts in the mind, moving and arranging shapes, letting them loose to run on local and remote machines. When it's working well, there's a kind of clarity and purity achieved, that is tough to find in the messy "real" world.

nomy99 6y ago
I wish I resonated with this. It would definitely make me a better programmer because I would code a lot more. I unfortunately look at it like an exhausting thing that I only do when I have to. Most of my time is spent playing basketball or watching hbo/netflix/youtube =(
- mattgreenrocks 6y ago
  That's totally fine. Not everyone should code all the time or think about it that way.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- hobs 6y ago
  I have both experiences - it can be painful when I dont have time put away, distractions put away, and I need to have some investment in the project, some skill enough in the tools to not be stuck in documentation hell. With those conditions it really is like a garden, slowly improving or changing things as you observe the need. That being said, part of it is also appreciating the outputs of one's labor - not implying you don't - but I see many programmers who are only satisfied with instant solutions when the amount of work needed to solve any problem would be significantly larger, they get bored, and they walk away from the problem. To me that's generally because the problem itself isn't interesting enough on its face to get the programmer to want to solve it, and frankly if it isn't interesting enough of a problem... who cares about solving it?
monkeydust 6y ago
As a non-programmer (work on the business side) I have enjoyed getting into code since the lockdown. The infamous 'Automate The Boring Stuff by Al Sweigart' was one of my top reads last year and I have developed several products from it that I use to make my life a bit easier every day. There is something nice about coding in that its black and white, ones and zero, where a lot of what I deal with is somewhere in the middle. Plus its nice to get away from Powerpoint and Excel and I get a bit of kudos with the Engineers (I stress 'a bit'!) Currently working my way through Hands-on Machine Learning by Aurelien Geron.
notenoughhorses 6y ago
This sounds lovely. As a student, I currently associate code with trying to get a problem solved in time constraints... And when I work on personal projects I'm always frustrated by lack of progress in the time I have to spend on it. I'm going to try and see if I can think of it more like your framing--work on something without worrying about time, just tending to it bit by bit.

nomy99 6y ago

I wish I resonated with this. It would definitely make me a better programmer because I would code a lot more. I unfortunately look at it like an exhausting thing that I only do when I have to. Most of my time is spent playing basketball or watching hbo/netflix/youtube =(

mattgreenrocks 6y ago
That's totally fine. Not everyone should code all the time or think about it that way.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hobs 6y ago
I have both experiences - it can be painful when I dont have time put away, distractions put away, and I need to have some investment in the project, some skill enough in the tools to not be stuck in documentation hell. With those conditions it really is like a garden, slowly improving or changing things as you observe the need. That being said, part of it is also appreciating the outputs of one's labor - not implying you don't - but I see many programmers who are only satisfied with instant solutions when the amount of work needed to solve any problem would be significantly larger, they get bored, and they walk away from the problem. To me that's generally because the problem itself isn't interesting enough on its face to get the programmer to want to solve it, and frankly if it isn't interesting enough of a problem... who cares about solving it?

monkeydust 6y ago

As a non-programmer (work on the business side) I have enjoyed getting into code since the lockdown. The infamous 'Automate The Boring Stuff by Al Sweigart' was one of my top reads last year and I have developed several products from it that I use to make my life a bit easier every day. There is something nice about coding in that its black and white, ones and zero, where a lot of what I deal with is somewhere in the middle. Plus its nice to get away from Powerpoint and Excel and I get a bit of kudos with the Engineers (I stress 'a bit'!) Currently working my way through Hands-on Machine Learning by Aurelien Geron.

notenoughhorses 6y ago

This sounds lovely. As a student, I currently associate code with trying to get a problem solved in time constraints... And when I work on personal projects I'm always frustrated by lack of progress in the time I have to spend on it. I'm going to try and see if I can think of it more like your framing--work on something without worrying about time, just tending to it bit by bit.