[steve_adams_86]

I’m not about to claim I’m particularly good at programming, but you absolutely nailed why I like it and, in a sense, why I can endure something that would otherwise be excruciatingly boring.

I have a million things I want to do and programming can help me do them faster or better. Or it can help me explore different aspects of ideas in novel ways. I can generate art, automate a hydroponic garden, point my telescope at planets and stars automatically, program a fermenting chamber, make games, visualize data in interesting ways, and generally enrich my life.

The fact that I can do it well professionally is mostly a byproduct of using it to explore my hobbies and interests. The worst thing that can happen to me is work which doesn’t further personal interests in some way or another. Fortunately I can be creative about finding ways in which solving arbitrary problems can be interesting in other contexts where I might want to apply what I learn some day, and I can stave off potential burn out here and there.

But yes, I do a lot of stuff. Too many projects at any given time. The fact that I can program is an afterthought, and although I like it, it’s a means to an end and not the other way around.

[anonreeeeplor]

I took one course for programming in college and it was so awful. I stopped going.

Then I did a two week project to build a little game. That little game taught me more in two weeks than the whole semester.

I took the tests and passed them no problem after doing that one little self directed game.

If you find something that lights your fire, you learn 10,000x.

Especially if you have ADHD or Aspergers or whatever.

If I can trigger my interests I will put perform everyone by years in a few weeks.

But I can’t always reliably find ways to trigger my interests.

[steve_adams_86]

> But I can’t always reliably find ways to trigger my interests.

Yeah, if only. Life would be much different.