Thursday, November 2

Live on Lamma, Life in Hong Kong -- something about myself

No matter what title my employer give me, a programmer, is to create software. That's I do and what I am doing right now. I enjoy the moment when the computer program runs and function properly. This is the same moment where the your job satisfaction come: not the praise from your boss, and not the penny that I got (yeah, I am not in Google).

It is hard for people not in the loop to imagine what programmer do:

It can be very boring, but yet very challenging.
It can be very abstract. but yet very realistic because we are modeling our world, and our mind.

I always think that being a programmer, just like being a half engineer and a half philosopher. Whatever it is, programming is a pure mental exercise and very intellectual. I found that I can only do very focus design work for 4 hours per day. If I work more than that, I will very tired.

Sometimes I felt like I am a construction worker than a programmer. Well, actually, we are quite similar: We both build things. We build new software component little by little, like a city in which construction take place while people inside go to work and go to school as usual.

Yeah, an educated construction worker. Ironically, I studied Civil and Structural Engineering in university. I will be a civil engineer, if I don't do programming.

And that is something I felt so wrong on me, and I keep thinking about it all the times: What makes me feel so bored right now?

Am I repeating myself too often? Is the current work too boring? Or maybe I got a habit of going into detail too easy? This is not a good habit as this world is full of information, and they are very very accessible. Google this and google that. Actually, too accessible and overwhelming.

Life in Hong Kong? Just too crowded. Buildings will suddenly stand in front of you and makes you feel so small and so insignificant. Unlike some insignificance, the insignificance I am talking here is harmful.

I have a old friend on Lamma (and, yeah, he is old too) and I once saw him playing his piano. I love the music coz he plays it well and very touching. He is so concentrated to some extend that I have never being so concentrated before. The music and the concentration somehow fit so well.

That concentration is what I need, and what I want to have in Lamma. Can I?

2 comments:

f.f said...

I like programming but not coding. Do you know the differences? So I may/can be a programmer but not coder. Being a coder is too boring. Apart from programming, there are still many many interesting things interest me in this world. Find your way~

Anonymous said...

The coding part is defintely boring. Yet, I don't always see things from the bottom. One level up coding, it is software architecture design. One more level up, it is work flow design, and finally, it is coporate I.T. strategy and innovative use of information.

The thing is whether we have the wit to ascend from one level to another, and have a think-out-of-box mind.