Chapter 9
Pride

The other day, I read an op-ed piece in the New York Times called “The Healing Power of Construction Work.”^[19] In it, a carpenter from Middle America talks about how an unusual number of his hired construction workers were also in trouble with the law at some point. Some of his best craftsmen were drug addicts and convicted felons. Even a paroled murderer was in the mix.

He wasn’t suggesting that construction work attracted violent people. Instead, it provided some healing escape from their otherwise troubled lives.

There is a calmness when we work with our hands and a cerebral quality about using raw materials to build something. The carpenter’s hired hands didn’t treat construction work as merely a job. Rather, it was an escape from reality and a chance to do something really well.

Construction work has a primal reward to it: the satisfaction of creating something that didn’t exist before. Construction is something that anyone physically able can do, if they learn, work hard, and care about the product. There’s success to be gained, even for those who otherwise have not found it in other areas of their lives.

As I read the piece, it struck me that I approach programming in the same way. I am not a convicted felon nor do I personally know any fellow programmers who happen to be running from the law. Still, I do know many who believe, whether they’d like to admit it or not, coding can be a soothing escape from reality. Programming gives you that same joy of building something out of nothing.

Most programmers I know don’t even care that much about what it is they build or who they’re building it for. So long as they are solving an interesting problem and so long as there is an opportunity to build something elegantly, they are content. The exercise of dissecting a problem and solving it masterfully is the mental drug that keeps programmers addicted.

We build and design software because, whether found near the surface or buried deep into our souls, we actually love doing it. The best programmers I know toil over every small, sometimes insignificant, development decision. Like those construction workers, it isn’t just about writing code; it’s about writing code well.

Those who love this job aren’t in it just for the money. There are easier ways to make money. This vocation is completely of our own choosing.