What made you want to become a dev? \ stacker news ~devs

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What made you want to become a dev?

6106 sats \ 30 comments \ @bitcoinplebdev 22 Jan devs

For me:

I wanted to work on/in Bitcoin
I wanted to be able to build my own tools
I wanted to make decent money
I wanted a safe skillset so I could have a risky career

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816 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 22 Jan

I wanted to write my own games. Which at age of 7 I actually managed to sell to other kids for decent snack money.

125 sats \ 0 replies \ @cascdr 22 Jan

My dad inspired me. He invented so many cool things
Combo of Ayn Rand + My dad got me to think: "Son, you can be a maker or a taker. Which one is it going to be?"
Throughout career made sure to avoid options like grifty startups and DoD
Realized through some tough lessons even something as honest as making power tools for construction there is pure grift and parasitism galore
Wanted more control over the impact of what I work on and who I work with
Took the entrepreneur pill
Switched from hardware projects to software ones after realizing that the marginal cost of production is low and leaves power asymmetry for David over Goliath
Accidentally stumbled into bitcoin through numerous strokes of pure chance and never looked back

241 sats \ 1 reply \ @satoshiplanet 23 Jan

Wow this is funny, my first steps in programming were out of pure necessity, one of my best childhood friends had a very high level of blindness, he was very fond of soccer and loved to read sports news every day. Unfortunately his vision got much worse in a few months and he couldn't read as much news as he liked, so I researched about tools that could improve his user experience.

Here I discovered the exciting opensource ecosystem, but on the other hand I realized that most websites were not accessible for people with special needs, something that still happens today. I was obsessed for weeks to get my friend could continue to enjoy reading that he liked so much, I spent the day saving lines of code to later juggle until he could hear the news directly, it was something simple but it made me feel like a little wizard of the web.

Months later I started to offer web accessibility services to some local companies, I charged ridiculous prices but I made sure I kept learning, my goal was simply to turn the webs into accessible spaces for everyone. So yep, I don't consider myself an expert, I just fell in love with python years ago, although my creative nature makes me feel happier and more comfortable in frontend and UI dev

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitcoinplebdev OP 23 Jan

Very cool story!

130 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 22 Jan

Its a long story but it started with me getting a programming in basic book from the library when I was kid. I didn't really have access to new computers so I used a Tandy TRS-80 until the screen died. I didn't touch a computer for many years after that. Then in my twenties after doing many different jobs I hated I decided to pick a career path. Took some programming and HTML classes at community college and I was hooked. It was the early 2000s and I thought this Internet thing was going places. Every other work I did bored me out of my mind. I needed to be challenged and have new things to learn. I didn't realize it at the time but learning new things and self improvement are things that give me energy. Things that drive me.

I often tell people that ask about being a dev that they can do it. But I can't tell them if they will love it. Its not rocket science but it also isn't easy. It can be very frustrating and you better be determined to learn. That drive to understand why and figure stuff out needs to be strong. It will help you get through the tough spots everyone hits.

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 22 Jan

I like to build things. I like to solve problems. I found that computer programming made sense to me, and it was fun, so I stuck with it.

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @john_doe 23 Jan

Automate work made for slaves. My first job was a slave job. I did my work at first, then got bored and progressively automated everything with bash and Python. In the end I just had to press keystrokes to do stuff. I became bored again and then applied for programming jobs. And then got back to university to get a CS degree. Software engineering became boring again until the moment I discovered bitcoin... Now I have sleep problems.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @hodlpleb 22 Jan

25 years ago it was really cool to make a personal website on AOL. One thing led to another.

The excitement of getting something to work how you want it to work.

Also being the “genius” that other people are amazed by, as a kid.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 22 Jan

once you began achieving these four things, were there any desires that you realized you either no longer wanted or didn’t need to be a dev to realize?

for example, do you still get the same enjoyment out of building your own tools that you thought you would when you began your journey as a dev?

166 sats \ 1 reply \ @stackerhacker 22 Jan

To prove to everyone back home that I’m smart

Now I center divs

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 22 Jan

Ha!

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @thebullishbitcoiner 22 Jan

I thought I’d learn how to program in case it caught on.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @sebastix 22 Jan

My curious creativity to build things in an almost borderless landscape

33 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b 22 Jan

It was three things:

I read about legitimate attempts to create AGI
I read about solo devs having permissionless success building iPhone apps
It felt super natural

110 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 22 Jan

Did you take stuff apart as a kid to figure out how it works? Looking back it seems obvious that I would become a dev.

I can relate to the it felt super natural. At a certain point I felt like i could build anything I wanted to exist if I decided to do it.

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 26 Jan

Did you take stuff apart as a kid to figure out how it works?

I was more of a math kid than anything, but I did love legos and model building. I was doing a lot of math problems by programming routines in Basic on my calculator and didn't realize I was programming until I started studying computer science. I did find myself taking random devices apart later. There are so many magnets in everything.

It took being an adult to discover my programming related interests. My parentally provided environment was nationally competitive team sports, so I was kind of unfed intellectually on the programming front until adulthood.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @030e0dca83 22 Jan

Online game DarkAgesWorld

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 22 Jan

lol I had a degree in computer programming but turned into a Scrum Master now. I love leading implementation teams. I’m stronger in lean processes and issue improvements than in my technical skills. Know your strengths!

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @rblb 22 Jan

An episode of lupin when i was 10 ¯\(ツ)/¯. I wish i had a better villain origin story

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Malachi17 22 Jan

Necessity.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 22 Jan

how so?

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @sasasuina 22 Jan

Coding makes me happy. You can make anything, control your universe, as long as you have a laptop and WiFi!

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullama 22 Jan

You don't need WiFi to program a computer though.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sasasuina 23 Jan

need the Internet to download dependencies🤣

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @03479d0ee6 22 Jan

Started playing those old games with a friend that had a gaming console when I was very young, then in my 4th grade as a homework I had to write what I wanted to do as an adult. My mom suggest programmer since I liked the games, that set my path.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @zarko 25 Jan

to build my own stuff

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @nym 18 Apr

I love the thrill of learning something new!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @antic 22 Jan

If you can't control computer algorithms, they will control you. Over time this gets more and more important. Got to level up or be leveled.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullama 22 Jan

Always found fascinating to make computers do whatever I wanted them to do.

I still do, but now things are a bit different. The whole industry has changed a bit.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @pbl_again 18 Feb freebie

I started with HTML in MySpace when I was younger but chose an accounting major to have a "safe" job at university. I spent hours in journal entries and Excel hell and had to learn VBA for a project. Learning functions and loops led me to learn openpyxl, pandas, and numpy in Python from books like Automate the Boring Stuff and Python for Finance. The best advice I received was to build things you're interested in because you will be more inclined to finish them. Best of luck!