[irahul]

> So I learned HTML, CSS

IMO if you don't do HTML/CSS, you aren't a web designer.

> For example, I live the concept of ranking a page higher based on how other sites link to it (ie Google's Pagerank), and would enjoy conceptualizing further improvements,

You don't know the details to understand it isn't as easy as you think. If you think you can conceptually do further improvements, I would really like you to try that. You will get a better picture.

To give you an analogy, I can say that many users are on slow networks and are irritated when their download freezes mid way and they have to do it again. So, it would make sense to have a download implementation in which the user can pause/resume download at will. I can pause a download today, come back tomorrow, resume it and it just works. What more, since I already have some part of the file, I can switch off my system, switch it on, resume the download and still be able to get only remaining chunks.

I can say I conceptually solved a problem but practically, all I did was whine, some wishful thinking and showed my ignorance.

> For a web application, the code might make the entire thing operate, but it never affects the user the way the design or interface does.

You are totally misguided here. I would have a lot to say here but I am afraid you won't be able to relate with it. I am making this assumption because had you been familiar with what it takes to run any significant web app, you won't have made this statement.

I would just like to point out that Google services has minimal interfaces and the users are happy, surely it isn't because of the interface.

[alexwyser]

Google's a great search engine, and its all due to their brilliant algorithms and codes and everything.

I get that.

The programmers at Google are tackling a lot of problems and coming up with birlliant solutions.

I get that.

I just cant imagine someone has fun writing those thousands of lines of code. Even more so when the code isnt for a cool new feature but for a mundane fix.

I image a lot of programmers at Twitter spend hours writing code just so their site/product can handle all the traffic. How it that fun?

[irahul]

> I just cant imagine someone has fun writing those thousands of lines of code.

What's your idea of fun? Surely in this context fun doesn't mean a beach side party with tanned, topless girls. Writing those thousand lines of code which runs Google is fun in the way that it's:

1) Difficult. Mundane and simple jobs irritate the sharp minds. Challenging yourself is very important in the long run. You think the linux kernel developers can't find higher paying jobs at the so called enterprises where they can be PHBs? Why do you think they don't?

2)Sense of accomplishment. It takes a lot to be at the top and even then it's transient. It takes a lot of work to continue to be there.

> Even more so when the code isnt for a cool new feature but for a mundane fix.

That's contradictory reasoning. Mundane fixes won't be thousand of lines. You are heavily mistaken in what constitutes cool features. If I am the one implementing something, more than about you, it's about how I feel about it. I can bet you didn't notice that Google went cooler with their Caffeine search index. It promises 50% fresher content which is a large feat to accomplish, regardless of whether the consumer notices the coolness.

> I image a lot of programmers at Twitter spend hours writing code just so their site/product can handle all the traffic. How it that fun?

It's fun in all the ways any creative, innovative task can be. It doesn't have an "one size fits all" solution. It requires out of the box thinking, challenging the existing conventions, innovating existing solutions, working on NP complete problems...

At this point of discussion, I am really interested in knowing when you said "programming isn't fun", what notion of yours of fun did programming offend?

[ableal]

> spend hours writing code just so their site/product can handle all the traffic. How it that fun?

It's a personal offense to have something that could work at, for instance, 20MB/s, only performing at half the speed. Sometimes management has to step in and and put a stop to that if it's not worth the effort.

Could be worse - seems athletes put many hours in shaving down a couple hundredths of second in races, etc. Or designers in getting that last pixel perfect ...

[chronomex]

I'm currently writing an emulator in assembly, I certainly spend hours shaving microseconds. :)