What I talk about when I talk about coding

Day 118 / 366

I’ve been coding for the past 12 years of my life. And so far I have had a love-hate sort of a relationship with coding. It started off as just a hobby, something that I enjoyed doing. But slowly as it became a job, it slowly but surely started to suck. That’s what happens when your hobby becomes your source of income. But lately, I’ve been trying to rediscover my love for coding.

When I decided to become an engineer, the thing I wanted to build was cool robots or gadgets. I got a good start as well. In just my first year of college, I built a remote-controlled car, a line-following robot, and a gesture-controlled robotic arm. I even started a team after that trying to build a humanoid robot that could play soccer. But I soon realized how frustrating it was to work with electronics. 90% of the time stuff just did not work the way it’s supposed to.

On the other hand, with coding things are way more exact. And it was a hobby you could practice for free, as long as you have a laptop. No need to purchase any motors, breadboards, or soldering irons.

I remember the summer of 2013 I was waiting for the servo motors I had ordered for my robotic arm. I had 2 days with nothing to do, and I spent them learning Android app development by binge-watching a 200-video tutorial playlist —

This is how I was able to build the Android app for Mood Indigo 2013.

The same thing happened when during the MoodI festival, I was told to sit at a counter for a treasure hunt game. Unfortunately, no one bothered to play that game, so I was just sitting there with nothing to do, and I finished a Python tutorial series on CodeAcademy. This is what lead to me learning Django, and I think 80% of all the money that I have made so far has come through writing Python code.

In both of those instances, I was learning just for the heck of it. There was no guarantee that it would lead to an income. I was learning how to code because it fascinated me and I wanted to be better at it.

When you are working as a software developer with a large team, a lot of times you have to do things in a way that you might not like. Just because your boss says so, or the majority of your team. There is no time for learning new things because you have got deadlines. I have written a lot of shitty code since I became a professional developer, and I am not proud of it. But it was a job, so I had to do it.

I want to go back to enjoying coding again, and that is what I want to instill in my team as well. I want them to code because it excites them, not just because they need the money or they want to add to their resume and get a better job.