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I’ve been asked many times by friends, acquaintances, family members and potential romantic interests the question: Why do you like programming so much? What’s so fun about programming?
Naturally, the people who usually ask this are those who do not have a technical background, and that makes it a bit difficult to answer without giving them a crash course in programming.
Here is my attempt at a concise answer that expresses the joy of computer programming without assuming any kind of technical background.
Imagine you’re building a house with brick and mortar. You lay down one brick. You lay another next to it. You lay yet another next to the second one. You keep laying more and more bricks, until you fill up the entire length of the wall. Now you start on the second line. You lay the first brick. You lay the second one. And on and on until you complete the second line. Then the third line and the fourth and the fifth, all the way up to the top. You finished building a wall! Now to build the next wall in your house. You lay down a brick. You lay another next to it…
Now, imagine the same exercise, except this time we’ll do it similar to how a software developer writes a program. You lay down one brick. You lay another one. You keep laying bricks until you finish the line. Achievement unlocked: You now have unlimited brick lines. You lay those brick lines on top of each other until the wall is complete. Achievement unlocked: You now have unlimited walls. You lay down 4 walls next to each other. Achievement unlocked: You now have unlimited houses. You build 100 houses in the same area. Achievement unlocked… Ad infinitum.
Of course, the metaphor is not perfect, and not all is happy-fun-time in programming-land. But I think this hits pretty close to what gives me the thrill about programming.
