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“Programming is Fun” · The Self-Improving Developer

selfimproving.dev · 458 words · saved by 1 readers

They once asked a famous Czech mountaineer why he’s doing what he’s doing. Why does he risk his life climbing huge, cold, barren rocks? His reply: It’s fun. Let’s unwrap that for a moment. Mountaineering, at that level, entails the following things: Does this sound like fun? Of course it doesn’t. But there are different meanings of “fun”, and one of them is the feeling when you overcome a significant challenge in the real world. It’s the “fun” of being in a life-threatening situation, where all your decisions have real meaning, and any misstep can have dire consequences. In other words, it’s not the same meaning of “fun” as when I say “this movie was fun”, or “it was fun talking to you”, or “let’s play a fun videogame”. Software engineering doesn’t give you frostbite, thankfully. It’s not a life-threatening situation. But the thing about software development: it’s incredibly frustrating. Once you’re trying to build — and finish — a real world software project, you’ll encounter these th

They once asked a famous Czech mountaineer why he’s doing what he’s doing. Why does he risk his life climbing huge, cold, barren rocks? His reply: It’s fun. Let’s unwrap that for a moment. Mountaineering, at that level, entails the following things: Walking long distances in snow Sleeping in a sleeping bag Eating low amounts of food Having difficulty breathing Suffering frostbite Does this sound like fun? Of course it doesn’t. But there are different meanings of “fun”, and one of them is the feeling when you overcome a significant challenge in the real world. It’s the “fun” of being in a life-

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