Ask HN: Why you do what you do?

Since I'm not getting paid for writing software, at first glance someone would say I do it so that I get a job in software at some company. But now that I think of it, I don't start software projects with getting hired in mind. I do them because I enjoy the satisfaction of putting together a complex system and turning on the big red switch and seeing it all work together. Why do I enjoy that? Now I can only guess at such a deep question but maybe it's to do with my need for order. I get enough chaotic things happening in my life and personality that I feel programming balances it out. Also, since I'm still pretty new to this, software feels like a new frontier with loads of possibilities. I get this feeling of there being gold at the end of every tunnel of knowledge.

Software is a field where I can just create something out of nothing, virtually in my own. Even at a non-senior level I can make the vast majority of design and implementation decisions for a project - it just might not be as ambitious or complex of a project as someone senior.

Most weeks I leave work, something exists that did not before. Bonus points if I’m proud of the design and execution.

Eventually I would love to work on open source software like OS’s or languages/compilers. The idea of making even a tiny contribution to something that helps build and run the world and will be used for decades or longer is amazing.

I got nowhere else to go.

Make money -> retire. Should achieve it in a about a year from now, a bit under forties. The project is relatively undemanding if you know how to deal with the stress of corporate misery (nothing works as it should, the requirements are shit etc.). After that, who knows, make an indie game? The underlying goal is to strive for mastery, autonomy and balance in life, none of which I think I can achieve while in a career.

Interesting, I wonder how big the cross-over is between wood working and programming among HN readers, anecdotally I think it's a lot...