Why I chose programming
During college, I made the decision to study computer science. I wanted to be a programmer. Gradually, I became one.
My choices were not primarily driven by money or prestige. I wanted to be a programmer because I thought they were cool. Not "cool" as in "popular," but more like "eccentric" and "passionate."
The programmers I knew of were people like Linus "Nvidia, fuck you!" Torvalds, racecar driver DHH, rant king Jonathan Blow, and the early Apple employees I read about on Folklore.org. I thought they were badass. The programmers I knew personally were people like my friends' parents who let us have LAN parties as teenagers. I wanted to be like them. I chose programming because of these people.
Recently, though, I've been considering walking away from my programming career. At the very least, I've been feeling burnt out. I've been largely uninterested in AI, Rust, and whatever else people are talking about nowadays.
I think what's causing me to feel such an aversion to programming now is actually the same thing that got me interested: the people. Many of the other programmers I've come across recently strike me as burnt out and unhappy too. The businesspeople appear greedier than ever. The legendary programmers I looked up to seem almost hopeless.
I guess I never really cared about the computers themselves because then I probably would have ended up as more of an electrical engineer. I care about how people use computers, which is via software. Now, those interactions seem more negative than ever. Social media is a scourge. Personal data is weaponized. Critical systems are unreliable.
An overwhelming amount of software sucks. An overwhelming amount of people in the software industry suck. Some programmers are still cool, I guess they've just been crowded out.
I think I'll go search for cool people somewhere else now.