thinking of programming as writing?
I wonder how many programmers think of programming as actual writing. Not just the act of typing, but viewing our craft much like an author views their own, our stanzas of code akin to ones of poetry or prose. They both involve putting text to page, but why can't I just feel my code flow as easily as my pen does to paper?
Loving writing just comes far more naturally to me. By no doing of our own, we have to practice it every single day. We roll the words around in our mouth, ponder their subtleties hoping that in aggregate they produce the intended effect. There is an art to it, and yet when we see lines of code written well, that subtlety and beauty can be present all the same – maybe not as widely appreciated, but there nonetheless.
Maybe I just live thinking that coding is not core to who we are as people. It feels at times that one cannot go without writing, while arguably many people are far happier never needing to touch a single line of code in their life. From that does that arise my need to dig in order to go back to the arena again and again? It's weird, framing it as an arena and as a "fight" per se, but I view it much akin to a boxer: you can still love the sport, but know that it's a grind and takes hard, hard work. Still, I want to deepen my passion for it more and more, to love honing my coding skills just as much as I do my writing.
(disclaimer: this is being written in the midst of yet another interviewing season, so the thrashing of waves that is prepping obviously feels so different compared to when I was coding for fun in RC, but arguably a lot of times in the work place I'm sure this sentiment of dragging feet will arise again at some point?)
To etch into our bones the essence of being a good programmer is a fascinating work ethic to me, good being subjective to the eye of the beholder of course. Seeing Leo's fingers move in the most efficient way in 5 minutes to accomplish more work than 5 software engineers do in a day makes me wonder if I should've started practicing using Emacs out of the womb.
Every single day, I write in some form to text friends or respond to emails, and it ever so slightly molds and continues to push my own writing style and skill. Do that for coding too, Justin! Try, try, try, keep pushing, code even when you don't feel like it. See what it yields.