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Programming is the great game.
For those who enjoy creating, it offers an almost instantly realizable locus from conceptual thought to physical embodiment, thanks to a CPU, the wonders of persistent storage and the almost miraculous process of transforming a natural language like statement into moving electrons.
Next to mathematics, it is also perhaps the most humbling of all sciences, where we are often made fools of by the very we tools we created, when they expose the fallacy of our logic.
Above all, programming is truth - that transcends culture, language, gender, ethnic origin, location, age and physical disability.
/ravi
"There is always one more bug..."
ravib@ravib.com
http://www.ravib.co
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Well spoken (typed?). I was trying to explain to a friend the high you can get from crafting something and have it appear, fully functioning, fully alive on the screen in front of you. It is such a bizarre amalgam of logic, creativity and engineering, with instant gratification
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>> I was trying to explain to a friend the high you can get from crafting something
Thats it! Programming is a drug! And it's legal and we get paid for taking it and getting high! Yeah!
>> and have it appear, fully functioning, fully alive on the screen in front of you.
And it lets us play God too!
>> It is such a bizarre amalgam of logic, creativity and engineering, with instant gratification
What do you mean with "instant gratification" ? 
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>>> What do you mean with "instant gratification" ?
Instant gratification in programming could be from,
1.
Spending a week writing/designing a large class,
That first time compiles links, without any errors,
Then runs without crashing the system and without any logical errors and does what it is supposed to do.
The Gratification is as it dawns on you that you have finished that segment of your project. And you don't have to think about the silly CGooblygook for another year.
2.
After spending a year creating a shareware app which when you release it somebody purchases the first copy of your new project, and then sends you a thank you note.
The Gratification is in knowing that the Algorythm you solved was of some use to somebody else, not just interesting to you.
3.
Having spent the day with your accountant, Investment Manager and broker you hop in your shiny imported sports car, and whiz of to a top waterfront location to have drinks on your yacht with several stunning members of the opposite sex.
The Gratification is in your self acknowledgement that you to can put results of your work to good use
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Well, I agree with you. But I was just trying to be foolish. With the "instant gratification" quote I meant an innuendo to "self gratification", like in replace the company of the opposite sex with a computer... yeah, stupid! I was just having fun..
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I knew what you meant Eddie - I just wasn't going to go there! :
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I think by "instant gratification" he meant the fact that you can quickly see the result of your efforts on the screen and say to yourself, "Yeah baby, this is looking good!". This is most evident when you're working on GUI application with a RAD tool like VB. You put in a few minutes/hours of effort and almost immediately you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
... of course this is on a good day. On a bad day you get to curse at the screen and wonder how in the world they could have hired you... 
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Programming is, by turns, the most rewarding profession, the most frustrating profession, the greatest high, the lowest low, the easiest job in the world, the most difficult job in the world, the easiest to explain, the most difficult to explain, a job in which you are always learning, and a job in which you are always teaching...well, you get the drift.
At the tender age of 15, in 1969, I wrote my first program (in FORTRAN on an IBM mainframe), and I knew from the first moment that I had found what I wanted to do. I have since held almost every job title that exists in this field, but I never stopped writing code, and I've even managed to come full circle and go back to developing code full time.
It's been over thirty years, and probably as many programming languages. I still love it today as much as I did when I was 15. I am still learning something new every day, and I still get blown away when I see someone pushing a collection of electrons that I created from nothing -- just my own ideas, lots of blood, not enough sleep, too many jolts of caffeine, and too many frustrating discussions with users.
Here's to the little child in every programmer, and to hell with anyone who can't understand why our hobby is the same as our job
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I describe myself as a cross between an architect and Sherlock Holmes.
I create virtual skyscrapers then work out why the toilets aren't working on the 5th floo
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I could not have said it better. I would not have said it better. Your post actually got me to re-enable active desktop so that I could display your quote together with a picture of a gaily dressed mental patient in a Mardi Gras parade in Rio that previously was my background.
I hope that came across the way I intended, Ravi...
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Gosh, I am humbled.
/ravi
"There is always one more bug"
ravib@ravib.com
http://www.ravib.com
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This topic is a tricky one in that there isn't a single answer to this question for most people. Still - it's a question I've been asked by heaps of people looking to change careers, and also by friends asking what it is that can keep someone at their desk for so many hours a week
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