I've been coding for almost 2yrs and I still kept asking myself the same question: Why do I code?.
I was 16/yo when I started to write codes using HTML and CSS only. I have this mentor, adviser, and teacher in our school. His name is Cris. And while I was downloading some pirated tutorials from udemy in our computer lab. Cris suddenly approaches me and ask me if I want to join a Web Design contest in our school. My response to Him (with a pessimist mind) was "I'm sorry but I cannot, because I know nothing about writing codes".
Cris, knowing that I don't have any experience with programming neither design still ask me the question. Then He told me that there is a cash prize for the winner and there is a slight chance that you will lose from the competition plus in our school programming and Web Design is oblivion. So I took the opportunity not because of what He just told me but what He thinks about me. That I can do more so I started searching tutorials from youtube related to Web Design or using HTML, CSS to convert the design into a static Website.
Long story short; I won the contest not because I was good but because I'm the only contestant.
After a month or so. I still kept on thinking about pursuing this career (programming). So I started to pull up my browser and search some online tutorials on How to program while I was going through this path. I've realized that there are an unlimited possibilities that I can do with this thing that I also consider as superpower or I can also mentor somebody like what Cris did to me.
Now I want to ask: Why do you code?
just put your answers down below in the comment section.
Top comments (64)
Coding for me is a means to express myself. Much like an artist and their canvas. I enjoy creating things, learning things, and solving problems.
It is as much a passion as it is a hobby and a career to me.
It is my escape.
Ditto. Couldn't have put it better myself
Thanks Steve, I really appreciate your answer. :D
It's indeed a passion
Long story short: Because I have bills to pay.
I almost gave up codding and the entire IT field, but this is what I know to do and I am good - not superb, not mediocre, a little above the average.
Programming is just that for me, nothing else, nothing less.
PS.: I felt old when you said "when I was 16" and mentioned Udemy. "Was Udemy already a thing in the 00s??? ..... OOOOOOOHHHHH."
I didn't mean to offend, I'm just really terrible at english my vocabulary is lacking to find a better word. I'm sorry :)
I don't really know when Udemy was released, But I think you have books that is adequate to supply your needs to learn programming. And I also find myself learning more by reading books, articles, or posts here @dev than watching some online tutorials. :)
P.S.: I'm only 18yo :D, no offense. You are awesome!
Thanks!
On top of it paying your bills, it gives you a best option to express yourself with ideas that are hard to explain to a lehman
I like to create things or improve existing things. Coding promises the ability to achieve this with very little effort, just by typing a few lines. There are almost no material restrictions as in other areas, just available memory and calculation speed.
In practice however, most of the time it seems that this promise is not kept. But this is mostly because of things that are outside the actual coding, like
So after more than 20 years of coding professionally, it is still the favourite part of my work.
Yeah, at first you have this beautiful and cute pet as you start the project. But the more the requirements the more the complexity there is, and based on my experience I had to deal with adding this nasty "band-aids" to our codebase.
This is awesome!
I've just realized that I need more energy and passion to reach this kind of experience.
Thanks! :)
Besides the obvious of needing an income xD I find the problem solving enjoyable. Making software that has a final result on the end user is very rewarding. I remember a long time ago I used to make reactive character sheets in Excel for D&D. In a way making a character sheet like that is like programming in a framework. There were if statements everywhere, defining cells by name (variables), looking up values in a table with vlookup (sql anyone?). The end result is you could dropdown an item and it would change your damage, stats, everything automatically. All of my friends loved it at the time and it was nice to have all the work done for you. I think it is moments like those that are the reason I really got into coding and continue to enjoy it.
Just like to build.
I learned to program in my late teens, at the time a hobby. I can build systems from the ground up, and extend across multiple platforms. I’ve also worked in construction, do woodworking and build robots.
Always come back to programming. Programmming for almost 40 years now.
I started very young as well, 13 in fact. It's a curiosity that led to a hobby that led to a career.
Personally I really enjoy how coding can be both creative and analytical. I can architect and write clean code while also caring about how pleasant the interface is to use.
Most importantly though, it lets me build stuff for people that solve real problems.
I'm a very creative kind-of guy (or at least that's what I think about myself). Having my first encounter with programming language at the age of 9 I didn't really understand it. But I saw potential in it. Because I love creating new things, I thought of programming and various other virtual and creative goods as an endless playground with limitless possibilities. That's what made me learn how to code in my free time and that's why I code everyday.👍
This is also what sustains me in coding. The limitless possibilities that you lies at your fingertips. That I can also use to serve others or to build something for yourself.
P.S.
I've visited your personal site areknawo.com. I'm really inspired to build such a beautiful website like this. I wonder if you use some third party api for you blog posts?
Thanks for kind words. As for the site, there's only 3rd party notifications service if that's what you wanted to hear. Besides that, the blog is based on Ghost platform and the theme is a custom version of this OSS theme. Still, I'm planning on redesigning it from the ground up. 😉
I code because it helps to keep my mind occupied. I also love the feeling of accomplishment that comes over me after I conquer code that had me stumped for hours or sometimes days. The feeling of accomplishment can last for days at a time. So for me, its a way of getting lit.
For me, personally, it's all about the "puzzles"...
Getting a problem to be solved and solve it! The satisfaction on complete a puzzle amouses me since i was 17 and start learning c++ to occupy my free time (@ the time i was stuck in a hospital bed, without any hobby). For sure i had already an interest about all the unknown "witchcraft" going on in computer world, and that free time was just what i needed to get my learning process started and unveil all this computer secrets.
The biggest plus sign in all this is of course getting paid to do it! :D
I'm not a big brainy (trust me, i'm not XD), but getting to learn new stuff every day while i'm getting paid to do so... Man it feels so good!
So.... Why do i code? Well, at some point of my life it was what made sense to me! It's what i like to do!
I've tried quite a few things in my life. Coding is the one thing where I actually felt something positive, I felt I could grow in this domain. I don't think I would call it a passion. I just happened to fall into it in my mid-20's when I was looking for a career where I could be happy. I guess it was there at the right time and the right place.
I'm just glad you discovered this career.
Thanks Damien! :)
I like to make things (from wood, metal, paper, whatever) - but with code I actually get paid for what I make.
Each day at work, I make or fix something. I almost never have day when I just have meetings, and it feels like nothing changed at all (a lot of non developers have days like that)
Coding feels like solving a fun puzzle, or meditation to me, if I don't code I actually miss it - which is pretty cool for something I get paid for.
Us developers are all part of a club of people who can do something that other people find impossible to do (sure they can join the club if they like, and I'd totally support it, but most give up before they've even started). Other people want this thing we do so badly, that they don't care what we look like, where we're from, what we wear or even what time we turn up. And they'll pay us a lot of money for it. And I think that's pretty cool :)
I might not be the most artistic person, or handy person. So painting of woodworking for me.
But programming is something that I really enjoy, making something from nothing. Breaking your mind about problems, searching the web for solutions or improvements. Learning new things in an always changing world. Making things that help other people even though it might only reach a small group of users.
Even though since I started working full time and making business apps now (that still help people but different) I still try to make time for other projects. Currently most of the time I make PR's to open source projects and less time in own projects.
I started with Legos. I like building and seeing what I can create. I also liked taking apart things and seeing how they worked. Code lets me do both. "Oh, how's an ASP.net page work?
dotnet new webappoh cool . . ."I'm just coding to make programs for others to use.
Programming is just worthless and time-consuming. When you are programming computers, is like that you are just playing with your toys. You connect the legos together and make your tiny lego castle. And then you can enjoy looking at it. But when you share your castles with someone else, you will get real pleasure because they also can play with your toys and enjoy them.
But most developers do this for money, they're ignorant of how much gaming with computers can be enjoyable.