On 19/02/2011, at 10:30 AM, Casey Ransberger wrote: > I've been thinking a lot about why I like to code, and how that relates to > the fact that I will program for money. The programming for money part isn't > nearly as satisfying to me for some reason as some of the stuff I've been > doing for free. > > I did the groundwork for a themes engine which went into Cuis 3.0. That was > ultra-fulfilling, because I liked the feel of Cuis a lot better than that of > mainline Squeak (the keyboard navigation is a lot better, there's a lot less > "stuff" everywhere in the UI layer, etc) but I absolutely had to do > *something* about the look, as it seemed trapped in the 80's everywhere > except for the lovely antialiased fonts. So it was a bit like the nice > feeling you get after redoing a deck and inviting some people to hang out on > it. > > It got me thinking about an interview I saw on the tubes that Alan did on > collective cognition, where he mentioned a list of human motivators that > anthropologists had identified. Does anyone know where a list like that might > be found? Maybe in a book or a research paper with a title like _________? > > I decided it would be a fun experiment to ask the people on this list if they > might share some of their own motives for making and studying software. > > What makes your inner programmer tick?
I'm fairly similar to you in that it buzzes me if something I create or am involved with creating gets used often and I improve it, and also the fact that I've essentially been a catalyst to changing people's experience moment by moment, which makes people happier: this then makes me happier, so that's an answer to "why?". This would have to be one of the most basic reasons we'd all have, I'd wager. Sure, there's an aspect of the "exclusive" feeling one gets from feeling that one is somehow thinking and considering in ways that most people don't get to, aren't able to, or aren't even interested in... but mostly it's the happiness that is derived from doing some good work on something that changes an ongoing experience one or more people have in their lives. Also, I feel that the actual act of creating something with a beautiful form is in itself amazingly rewarding - regardless of its application. Julian _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list [email protected] http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
