Thread: Why you like programming?

>How does it satisfy you?
I'm a control freak, I'm obsessive compulsive, and I'm an arrogant prick. Programming suits me perfectly.

> I thought I showed you exactly why you can't in movie form.

oh man! I had completely forgot about that one!
I love it.

I started programming around 2nd/3rd grade and got really into it. I get a sort "high" from it, especially when I track down a big bug, make something impressive, or solve a complex problem. Does anyone else get a sort of high from programming?

Why do I like programming ? Well, that's a long story. Back in the goold old days of ancient egypt, if you wanted to get something done, you started a war, massacred your neighbours, took 10.000 slaves and let them do your bidding. Nowadays, with all those pesky anti-slavery laws and all those fluffy bunny politicians that are afraid to start wars, people have to do all their work themselves. That sucks. I'm too lazy to do my work all by myself. It's boring, it takes time and there's no one to whip for fun. But luckily, all those laws and political correctness were only made for humans. So I went and bought a machine to enslave. I'm back. I'm the master. Do my bidding dreaded bag of metal bones. Muahahahahahaha. *whip*

Originally Posted by Prelude

>How does it satisfy you?
I'm a control freak, I'm obsessive compulsive, and I'm an arrogant prick. Programming suits me perfectly.

I think it's probable that symptoms from the Autistic Spectrum are relatively common in the population of computer programmers.

I don't think I'm a control freak but I do tend to over-prepare for any new or potentially difficult task or event because I don't want to be caught out as the fraud I know I really am. I swing between being an arrogant prick and being way too critical of myself.

I got into programming accidentally in 1978 after completing a Humanities degree (that's nothing to do with science or engineering for those of you who don't know; it's philosophy, linguistics, history and rubbish like that). I learnt a bit of programming from my flatmates and then applied myself to it, somewhat compulsively.

I liked knowing arcane things that so few other people knew about in those days. I just did it, was reasonably good at it, of course I thought I was brilliant at it at first :-) and I carried on ... for some twenty-six years. Until a couple of years ago when some of the things Mario.F mentions got to me: things like "you can't improve the system because that's not our responsibility"; "you can't tell the customer about these security holes because the whole company relies on providing this setup"; "you can't automate that process because nobody will be able to maintain it if you leave"; and so on.

And so, dear reader, I left. I declined to get another contract. And, happily, I have discovered that obsession is transferable: to cooking - I cook at least one meal every day and challenge myself with ever more complex or refined dishes and techniques and I now have over eighty cookbooks; also, perhaps more worryingly to my nearest and dearest, to blades - my interest in kitchen knives (I now have about twenty including a zirconium carbide knife and, my favourite, a Global Deba oriental chef's knife) led on to learning about different steel alloys, sharpening techniques and devices and, this year, to making a handle from cherry wood for a swedish blade, carving replacement scales for my Swiss Army knife from African padauk wood and making leather sheaths for my growing collection of non-kitchen knives.

I started using forums with the BBC food message board and then found other food forums and blogs, and then bushcraft forums ... and blade forums ... and language forums. Hmmm, that may be a bit obsessive too.

However, in the last few of months, after doing all this other stuff, I have started to yearn for programming practice again and have begun to offer help on a number of forums. I like it. It's an intellectual challenge like a crossword puzzle. It's creative and solutions can be very elegant, which you can appreciate even if there's no one else around who can see it or who gives a damn.

I still wonder though, did programming turn me into a nerd or was I drawn to it because I was born a nerd. And, If I'd got into catering thirty years ago would I be a famous chef by now or, more likely, much worse off financially.

Originally Posted by twomers

It's basically because if you do that the result is infinity

Not right.

Originally Posted by twomers

Dividing by 0 is undefined.

That's better.

Dividing by a bigger number gives more pieces (towards an infinite number), a smaller number gives fewer pieces (towards an infinitessimal number). Dividing by zero is like squashing something into no pieces at all, something into nothing. Like the universe condensing into a singularity and, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, when this happens "it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened".