It does not happen very often in life that we reflect upon the reasoning behind our actions. I would imagine that most human actions occur through either need or desire. Now that I have been given an opportunity to reflect upon why I committed such a major decision at this point in my life, I suppose I should take advantage of it.
My journey into software development was born out of necessity: I needed to acquire a new skill that would get me into a job that is challenging, important, well-paying, and that offered freedom and flexibility. I had chances earlier on to study computer programming, but somehow never truly grasped its importance. Nor could I ever predict the way that society would be so reliant and encapsulated by the Internet.
It has occurred to me that society is currently undergoing a major paradigm shift at a scale which most have not seen before. Everything is trending towards existing online only, primarily because it is easier, cheaper, and more convenient. Due to this trend, I felt like I needed to position myself well in an adapting landscape. This is the pragmatic aspect of why I decided to get into programming.
Given its importance in society and its well-paying job positions, none of this would mattter without genuine interest in the subject. This is something that I acquired from the start. I always assumed programming would be challenging, even before I started. What I did not expect was how creative it actually is. The limits to the programs that you create are physics and your own imagination. I won’t be able to create a time-machine(I think) or a program that can divide a number by zero, but I could create a dating website for Australian Aboriginal people that are into Parcheesi, a checkout cart app for my kids’ lemonade stand, or a program that calculates the distance travelled by a rocket given its weight, velocity, and angle to the ground at take-off(assuming we’re launching from Earth, of course). The sky is the limit.
Finally, it’s fun. I could see myself doing this 10 hours a day. This is something that one would have to learn by actually trying it. I’m sure there are plenty of people that thought they would like to be surgeons but then become nauseated at the sight of a human’s internal organs. My point is, plenty of people have an idea of what something is, but their perceptions are corrected once they go through with it. After having chipped away at programming here and there, I realized that it would be a gift to be allowed to do it for a living, and decided to go all in.