top | item 36356097

(no title)

sharkbird2 | 2 years ago

For me, things like coding is only interesting in the context of being useful as a tool to do cool stuff.

I understand that some people like coding in itself, for the intellectual stimulation, but for me it's just a means to an end. I don't like coding, but I love building cool stuff, and coding lets me do that.

discuss

order

keernan|2 years ago

>For me, things like coding is only interesting in the context of being useful as a tool to do cool stuff.

I took Fortran in my freshman year in college in 1970 (the only computer course offered). I bought a Tandy Model I in 1979 and that began a life-long love of programming as a hobbyist. I'm now 70 and still programming.

And in all that time I've never been interested in programming unless it was to do "cool stuff" (e.g. build something I wanted; or learn how to do something because it would lead to my building something I wanted).

In other words, your definition is the definition that drives most programmers who love programming (which is why I am glad I never did it for a living... I suspect I might lose interest in working on a project if the project4 itself wasn't something that interested me).

empressplay|2 years ago

I don't teach kids how to code, I teach them how to make games -- that difference dramatically changes their interest.