I started programming as teenager, but mostly used it to write stuff I wanted to use - or just for the curiosity of it. Then after college, I started coding as

I started programming as teenager, but mostly used it to write stuff I wanted to use - or just for the curiosity of it. Then after college, I started coding as a traditional software engineer. It was tedious, it was procedural, etc. but the products were robust and efficient. Then I left that field, and got into analysis / data science, and I'm back to a much more ad-hoc way of coding. I write scripts and small pieces of software which solve specific problems, sometimes never to be used again - but it's fun. I use programming as a tool to solve specific problems. And while the code I write is less robust, breaks easier, it's really not a big problem...I'm essentially the only person that sees or uses that code. So, at least for me, the more "applied" side of coding turned out to be the best match for me.