Well here is my perspective - I did no science and all history/humanities in my final year of school - I did accounting and finance at university, and am now a chartered accountant working in financial services - I got my first lessons in programming in python and javascript recently (hat tip to Pamela Fox for taking the time!)
...and I loved programming. The reason is quite simple, and I have found a similar parallel when I am stuck in spreadsheets working on something to create analysis or producing a report interpreting the world: it engages your mind. Anything that forces your mind to think, and blocks out the outside world as you are thinking, is fun to do. People love to be challenged, because it creates excitement. That feeling of engagement creates an emotion which becomes addictive like a drug. The whole creative process is part of it, and I agree with what Nick and Ozran have said - but ultimately, it's about that emotion generated. That's not something restricted to the world of programming. Elias Bizannes http://liako.biz On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Sriram Panyam <sri.pan...@gmail.com>wrote: > i guess as scot adams puts it, remuneration is inversly proportional to how > happy your job makes you :D > > > On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 11:39 PM, Ozan Onay <ozan.o...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> On Apr 13, 10:36 pm, silky <michaelsli...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > *shrug* >> > >> > true of almost any field >> >> No, actually, it isn't. >> >> Some people crave all of those things, and struggle to find them in >> every job that they do. They go into law and are told they're not >> allowed to make things. They go into management consulting and find >> out that the 'puzzles' that drew them there have ostensibly been >> solved and so all that's left is to sell the solution. They go into >> finance and stop learning. >> >> I didn't spend a tremendously long amount of time working in the legal >> industry, but I did experience a variety of roles, and can say that I >> never enjoyed any of those pleasures for more than perhaps 3 billable >> units (that's 18 minutes) in a single week. And it wasn't just that I >> was too junior - all through the pay scale lawyers would be doing >> mundane, repetitive, under-stimulating tasks for 80% of their work >> day, and having boozy lunches for the rest. Many of my friends who >> still work in law complain that they want to build things, to build >> meaningful things, to solve problems, to learn... but their work >> doesn't permit it. I felt this too, which is why I'm a law graduate >> who writes algorithms and solves maths problems for a startup. >> >> Not every minute of your day as a programmer is going to be fantastic, >> but being able to build cool things with powerful tools to solve >> interesting problems is something that people in other positions >> absolutely crave. You shouldn't take it for granted. >> >> > > > -- > Blog: http://panyam.wordpress.com > URL: http://www.geocities.com/spany_1 > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/browse_thread/thread/99938a0fbc691eeb To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
