Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't even imagine what it's like now, but Roblox is how I first learned programming when I was 11. This was well over a decade ago. Roblox (talking in past tense; not sure how much of this is still true) allowed you to create "Places", which were basically 3D interactive universes that consisted of a few primitive parts (rect. prisms, cylinders, etc.) arranged and connected to each other, as larger solid objects,…
> So I became a programmer because I wanted to be a wizard. You may have already found it, but Fred Brooks's little essay on why programming is fun has always resonated with me [0]: > The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by the exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and re…
It follows that, maybe we programmers should see ourselves as working class poets or writers.
Weaving our magic words like wizards casting their spells, with every line written, we watch as our work of fantasy hardens into reality.
Our faithful computer always does our will.
With infinite patience, it takes our every instruction until each one has been precisely executed, down to the last word.
A bit idyllic, true, because there is always the dark side, the bugs. But otherwise, pure magic.
And, nothing wrong with other professions, but, more that 20 years after starting out, I can still remember why I wanted to be a programmer.