5 ms·

Do you enjoy programming? If so, you will be good at programming. If not, you most likely won't.

ak39 11y ago
Seconded. Quality comes only from quantity. And quantity can only happen if your efforts result in bruises you can tolerate.
- sleepychu 11y ago
  Thankfully most people no longer have to deal with 'segfault' related bruises! :-)
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Oh they do, it's usually called "Null Pointer Exception" or "X is unbound"/"not an Y" these days, depending on one's particular taste for typing flavours :). On the other hand, it is harder to make your monitor explode while trying out fancy graphics effects...
762236 11y ago
Right on. Enjoying it helps you accomplish the many hours that will bring you way beyond a natural. There is a lot of evidence that mastery is through practice --- not natural ability.
teekert 11y ago
Exactly, this is THE question! Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hatted it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it. This leaves one other option: If you loved it more than any other job but you sucked at it, what would you do? I'd say: Do yourself a favor and find a job where you do what you love. If you prove my advice to be bad, you'd be the first human who made it through childhood without the ability to get better by practice, so don't worry. (And certainly don't think you have be on the Linus/RMS level to do meaningful things.) (The options for sucking and hating and for loving and excelling are obvious ;))
- hauget 11y ago
  "Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hated it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it." Not everyone has that choice, as making a living and doing what you love are sometimes mutually exclusive. Casey Neistat washed dishes before he got into making viral videos. Einstein worked as a patent clerk. Dreamtheater's Mike Mangini worked in IT to pay the bills before finding a way to make a living doing what he loved. TL;DR: find a way to pay the bills to make time to do what really matters to you
  - bryanrasmussen 11y ago
    did Einstein hate being a patent clerk?
    - hauget 11y ago
      "He spoke of the patent office as «a worldly cloister where he hatched his most beautiful ideas»" source: https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/einstein/einstein-at-the-patent-office.html https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/einstein/einstein-at-the-pate... Take that as you will.
  - teekert 11y ago
    Perhaps when you have finished you education and are choosing a job, but certainly not for picking your education. The job market may be radically different by the time you enter it.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    For some it's even worse; for me, "doing what I love" is not "programming", but "programming as long as it isn't my job". Weird and not 100% capturing the complexity (I increasingly believe I may have an attention deficit disorder on top of diagnosed depression I'm dealing with), but in my case it's: I program for money, often hating it, because I'm relatively competent at it, and then I program for fun because I love it. I would consider getting a job that doesn't trigger my mental weak spots but the value proposition for most things not related to software is pretty bad these days. TL;DR: It may be worth programming even if you don't like it, because it pays well. Also, life sometimes deals shitty cards.
reitanqild 11y ago
And just rememeber: Just as long as you have once enjoyed it you are good. Once you start being serious about it there might be bad days or weeks as in any other profession.
unexistance 11y ago
I enjoy programming, but not the slow / invisible result like any enterprise application, where you'll only see modules / sub-modules updated & no visible change... What I actually love is scripting / automating repetitive tasks... Still programming, but somewhat different in satisfaction (for me anyway)
canicode 11y ago
It's hard to say. Would I rather watch a TV show than solve a brain teaser? Yes. But I can replace "solve a brain teaser," with just about anything there. I'm not lazy, I can work, but I'd be lying if I said I enjoy work MORE than leisure. I'm interested in the practical aspects of programming, like being able to create something that produces value out of nothing. That's something I can get excited about. I'm not stupid; with enough thought I can solve a lot of Codingbat-esque problems. But it feels like high school math class.
- bradcomp 11y ago
  If the puzzle questions seem like high school math, I second the idea of building something. Try to get a website set up if that interests you. If not, try building a command line tool to help you with something you do regularly. The act of trying to build something that works is an incredible learning experience, and will teach you a lot about whether or not programming is something you should pursue.
apryldelancey 11y ago
Yes, you must definitely enjoy it. When it becomes a chore or you don't look forward to working on something you're probably not one with "programming aptitude". That said, I have met people that could pick it up quickly and then stopped because it wasn't their thing.

ak39 11y ago

Seconded. Quality comes only from quantity. And quantity can only happen if your efforts result in bruises you can tolerate.

sleepychu 11y ago
Thankfully most people no longer have to deal with 'segfault' related bruises! :-)
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Oh they do, it's usually called "Null Pointer Exception" or "X is unbound"/"not an Y" these days, depending on one's particular taste for typing flavours :). On the other hand, it is harder to make your monitor explode while trying out fancy graphics effects...

762236 11y ago

Right on. Enjoying it helps you accomplish the many hours that will bring you way beyond a natural. There is a lot of evidence that mastery is through practice --- not natural ability.

teekert 11y ago

Exactly, this is THE question! Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hatted it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it. This leaves one other option: If you loved it more than any other job but you sucked at it, what would you do? I'd say: Do yourself a favor and find a job where you do what you love. If you prove my advice to be bad, you'd be the first human who made it through childhood without the ability to get better by practice, so don't worry. (And certainly don't think you have be on the Linus/RMS level to do meaningful things.) (The options for sucking and hating and for loving and excelling are obvious ;))

hauget 11y ago
"Even if you were somehow very good at programming but you hated it, would you choose it as a job? I'd drop it immediately, don't waste your precious time on it." Not everyone has that choice, as making a living and doing what you love are sometimes mutually exclusive. Casey Neistat washed dishes before he got into making viral videos. Einstein worked as a patent clerk. Dreamtheater's Mike Mangini worked in IT to pay the bills before finding a way to make a living doing what he loved. TL;DR: find a way to pay the bills to make time to do what really matters to you
- bryanrasmussen 11y ago
  did Einstein hate being a patent clerk?
  - hauget 11y ago
    "He spoke of the patent office as «a worldly cloister where he hatched his most beautiful ideas»" source: https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/einstein/einstein-at-the-patent-office.html https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/einstein/einstein-at-the-pate... Take that as you will.
- teekert 11y ago
  Perhaps when you have finished you education and are choosing a job, but certainly not for picking your education. The job market may be radically different by the time you enter it.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  For some it's even worse; for me, "doing what I love" is not "programming", but "programming as long as it isn't my job". Weird and not 100% capturing the complexity (I increasingly believe I may have an attention deficit disorder on top of diagnosed depression I'm dealing with), but in my case it's: I program for money, often hating it, because I'm relatively competent at it, and then I program for fun because I love it. I would consider getting a job that doesn't trigger my mental weak spots but the value proposition for most things not related to software is pretty bad these days. TL;DR: It may be worth programming even if you don't like it, because it pays well. Also, life sometimes deals shitty cards.

reitanqild 11y ago

And just rememeber: Just as long as you have once enjoyed it you are good. Once you start being serious about it there might be bad days or weeks as in any other profession.

unexistance 11y ago

I enjoy programming, but not the slow / invisible result like any enterprise application, where you'll only see modules / sub-modules updated & no visible change... What I actually love is scripting / automating repetitive tasks... Still programming, but somewhat different in satisfaction (for me anyway)

canicode 11y ago

It's hard to say. Would I rather watch a TV show than solve a brain teaser? Yes. But I can replace "solve a brain teaser," with just about anything there. I'm not lazy, I can work, but I'd be lying if I said I enjoy work MORE than leisure. I'm interested in the practical aspects of programming, like being able to create something that produces value out of nothing. That's something I can get excited about. I'm not stupid; with enough thought I can solve a lot of Codingbat-esque problems. But it feels like high school math class.

bradcomp 11y ago
If the puzzle questions seem like high school math, I second the idea of building something. Try to get a website set up if that interests you. If not, try building a command line tool to help you with something you do regularly. The act of trying to build something that works is an incredible learning experience, and will teach you a lot about whether or not programming is something you should pursue.

apryldelancey 11y ago

Yes, you must definitely enjoy it. When it becomes a chore or you don't look forward to working on something you're probably not one with "programming aptitude". That said, I have met people that could pick it up quickly and then stopped because it wasn't their thing.