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Remember why you love to code

Yoric on July 25, 2018

Did you ever ask yourself: Why do I love programming ? How did I came into programming in the first place ? Am I still connected with that first ...

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Emko • Jul 26 '18

Nice write up. Could you please elaborate more on the "somehow deviate from my initial passion" and "daily routine with a foggy view" parts? What sort of spark would reignite your passion? and what would you change in the daily routine to keep things more interesting?

Yoric • Jul 26 '18 • Edited

That’s an interesting question to dig in.
Loving to code, like loving another human being, is to be taken care of, or it might get weaken over time.
It relates with being active (new) versus being passive (used to) paradigm.

When you’re new to programming, or you get a new job, or you’re in a new relationship, or you move to a new country, you’re more likely to be proactive (you merely have no choice). It requires more efforts, more actions from you. It can be scary, but it’s also exciting, and interesting, because you never learn more than in such situations.
“Being used to something” on the contrary means daily routine. You’re already there for years, if not decades. You already explored your world around. You already setup things. You already know what will be the result of action A, B, C beforehand. So you’re more likely to be passive.

It doesn’t necessarily means you need to get a new job / a new relationship / move to a new place every year.
Just being mindful about it. To try new things, and tickle your comfort zone.

What spark can reignite your passion:.

Socialization: I’m an introvert and it doesn’t come naturally to me, but I came to realize human relationships are definitely the #1 requirement to be excited about anything. Think about it, would you be happy if you were left alone on this planet, event though you would benefit all the food, entertainment and convenience for free ? Happiness comes from emotions, and emotions come from interacting with other human beings. Hence the importance of being part of a community, like dev.to, Stack overflow, GitHub, or any other. Advice to myself: be more active in a couple of online communities.
Personal, side projects: once you’re not alone, you will feel more naturally engaged in all sort of side projects that will spice up your life as a developer. Advice to myself: If you don’t feel excited about any personal projects, work on 1/ first.
Teach and learn. They really come together, empowering each other. You learn better when you teach, and you teach better when you learn. Advice to myself: As much as you can, write an article or make a video or tell a friend, every time you learn anything new.

Each point should come naturally, but we may tend to forget about it, like I did. I wish those could light up my passion again (time will tell).
Thanks for pushing my awareness into that direction.
By the way, it’s always nice to hear about other perspective / opinions.

decadX • Oct 18 '20

I feel the same today. Took 5 days off, trying to convince my self to learn something new, but I can't find that Why. Money is good on the managerial level where all devs go to die...and going higher looks a long way to go. I need to find that Why again. Thanks for your write up.

Alain Van Hout • Jul 26 '18

For me, software development is not about languages, libraries or frameworks, but about creating structures and approaches that solve complex use-cases or problems, and do so in a maintainable/sustainable way. Though I immensely enjoy Java and (vanilla) JavaScript, these tools are exactly (and only) that: tools. It's the architecture aspect that I love.

Ertis • Aug 22 '18

I think that is a good article !thanks