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> There really is a special kind of satisfaction when you see something you wrote actually work. I think your second sentence is actually the key here - first

> There really is a special kind of satisfaction when you see something you wrote actually work. I think your second sentence is actually the key here - first time. If you do something day in day out for 20 years there’s no surprise if it works. Thankfully, there’s plenty of room in the domain of programming for someone to go from seasoned expert to absolute beginner and experience the joy all over again.

bombcar 5y ago
Exactly - the first time you work out a "puzzle" it's amazing - especially if it's a complex one without a "solution" that you can glance at when you get stuck. But doing roughly the same thing for 20 years it can get wearing - it's a different form of brainwork at that point.
- username90 5y ago
  Why would you code roughly the same thing over and over? Don't people do that because they want a nice and easy job rather than constantly challenging themselves? My impression is that if you constantly do "exciting" stuff you burn out at work. It isn't like school where you do new things all the time but they give you plenty of time to internalize stuff. So people eventually just accept the easy situation where they are comfortable and don't have to do new exciting things.
yourapostasy 5y ago
> If you do something day in day out for 20 years there’s no surprise if it works. The Japanese inter-related concepts of Kaizen, Muri, Muda, Mura, Hansei, and Ikigai are relevant here, I believe. Except for the most mundane, immediately-automatable "something", I have always found an area for improvement and thus, delight. Though Feynman commented there is plenty of room at the bottom about the physical world, considering his life history I believe he would also concur about the cognitive world.
- sombremesa 5y ago
  Kaizen, Ikigai, and Hansei might be classified as ideologies, but Muri, Muda, and Mura are just normal words that seem to have been wrangled into ideology status by some Western institutes...it's like if I took the word 'unnecessary' or 'consistency' and called it an ideology. Just...why? I'm sure if I asked my caucasian wife she'd say something about exoticism.
  - yourapostasy 5y ago
    Thank you, good and fair points. I liken the more pedestrian words to the words I use to get myself to the gym. Instead of muttering "perseverance", I mumble "find a way". I pick the pedestrian words when they resonate with me in some contexts, and the five dollar words when they resonate more. I believe there is beauty, wonder, and endless improvement within attention to detail to be found in honing the same craft repeatedly over the years. There Is Plenty Of Room at the Bottom. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is one of my favorite movies that touches upon this.

bombcar 5y ago

Exactly - the first time you work out a "puzzle" it's amazing - especially if it's a complex one without a "solution" that you can glance at when you get stuck. But doing roughly the same thing for 20 years it can get wearing - it's a different form of brainwork at that point.

username90 5y ago
Why would you code roughly the same thing over and over? Don't people do that because they want a nice and easy job rather than constantly challenging themselves? My impression is that if you constantly do "exciting" stuff you burn out at work. It isn't like school where you do new things all the time but they give you plenty of time to internalize stuff. So people eventually just accept the easy situation where they are comfortable and don't have to do new exciting things.

yourapostasy 5y ago

> If you do something day in day out for 20 years there’s no surprise if it works. The Japanese inter-related concepts of Kaizen, Muri, Muda, Mura, Hansei, and Ikigai are relevant here, I believe. Except for the most mundane, immediately-automatable "something", I have always found an area for improvement and thus, delight. Though Feynman commented there is plenty of room at the bottom about the physical world, considering his life history I believe he would also concur about the cognitive world.

sombremesa 5y ago
Kaizen, Ikigai, and Hansei might be classified as ideologies, but Muri, Muda, and Mura are just normal words that seem to have been wrangled into ideology status by some Western institutes...it's like if I took the word 'unnecessary' or 'consistency' and called it an ideology. Just...why? I'm sure if I asked my caucasian wife she'd say something about exoticism.
- yourapostasy 5y ago
  Thank you, good and fair points. I liken the more pedestrian words to the words I use to get myself to the gym. Instead of muttering "perseverance", I mumble "find a way". I pick the pedestrian words when they resonate with me in some contexts, and the five dollar words when they resonate more. I believe there is beauty, wonder, and endless improvement within attention to detail to be found in honing the same craft repeatedly over the years. There Is Plenty Of Room at the Bottom. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is one of my favorite movies that touches upon this.