What Programming And Computing Represent
-->
Venam's Blog
// Patrick Louis
In an era where beauty took precedence over practicality, people subjected themselves (got forced) to the agony of the Venus corset, their bodies contorted into unnatural shapes in pursuit of an elusive ideal. As time passed, this insidious trend grew ever more absurd, culminating in dangerously constrictive corsets that threatened the very lives of those who dared to wear them. We must endeavor to expand our vision beyond the confines of narrow perspectives, to embrace the multifaceted complexities of the world around us. For only by broadening our understanding can we hope to attain a deeper truth and appreciation of all that lies beyond our immediate sight.
Hello fellow readers,
In this post I’ll discuss what programming and computing are for me.
Computers are tools. Their functions can be summed to entertainment,<br>utility, and information. It’s common to find persons loosing themselves<br>to a tool, slave to their creation.
Programming is something useful. It’s a big domain where you learn<br>languages to instruct a machine to take actions. Those instructions<br>can range from outputting things (maybe screen pixels but not limited to<br>that), taking inputs from the outside world (not necessarily a keyboard<br>or mouse), doing calculations at very high speed, storing data, and<br>transferring data.
There are two kinds of programmer dilemmas: the ones who build parts for<br>other programmers to use and the ones who build for end-users programs<br>to solve problems. It’s common to find persons that forget to whom their<br>tool is, frightening others with jargons and technical issues they don’t<br>care about.
While building something as the first kind of programmer no real<br>accomplishment is made. Success is rare. It’s hard to innovate and satisfy<br>others. Even programmers themselves don’t care about the implementation<br>details. Those programmers should be humble, brave, and patient. The K&R<br>duo is a fine example of this. They are the authors of the C programming<br>language and UNIX operating system on which run almost every platform<br>today. Yet, who of your non-techie friends has ever heard their names. Ask<br>them about Steve Jobs or Bill Gates instead.
It’s common to find persons that seek attention for building blocks,<br>craving the look of others because they aren’t fulfilled by humble<br>work. Things are build for someone to use and this someone is yourself<br>most of the time. It’s common to find persons that build things they<br>would never use.
Let’s not forget the essential. Programming is an immense power, it<br>makes you a creator. It’s satisfying to see ideas taking concrete shape<br>and becoming real. On the path to the goal there are obstacles taking<br>the form of learning experiences. Motivation for the end goal helps you<br>climb the mountain.
It’s common to find persons that have replaced the whole idea of<br>programming by the techniques. They forget that it’s a mean to an<br>end. Nevertheless, it’s exciting, but not very useful on its own, to<br>learn and be able to do things only a few can. It’s not contributing<br>to anyone’s life. Even researchers don’t do that. They have goals and<br>projects that innovates. It’s common to find persons that are learning<br>simply to brag to their peers. There should be something driving you to<br>code and learn, curiosity, or the pleasure of creation, or anything else.
It’s not all logic, imagination is deeply involved in the process. If<br>someone ever says that programming is strict and requires a head full<br>of algorithms and maths, that person is wrong. Programming is asking a<br>sculptor for a piece. Every sculptor has his own technique, his touch,<br>his peculiar way of thinking, and imagination. Does the person asking<br>for the beautiful piece of art care about what he was thinking while<br>sculpting, in what manners he held the tools, and what he has been<br>taught by his teacher to be able to sculpt this way? Probably not. Maybe a<br>bit if the person is also a sculptor. Would the sculptor enjoy his work<br>if it only was about techniques and books? Probably not. The sculptor<br>enjoys taking a bit from all the techniques he has learned and found,<br>mix them together, make them his own, to create brand new master pieces<br>that bring joy to the community. Pieces that bring smiles.
Who would willingly linger in the presence of a sculptor fixated solely<br>on the mechanics of his craft? Or worse still, a sculptor consumed with<br>the accumulation of wealth, obscuring the true beauty of their art? For<br>behind every masterful sculptor lies a team of skilled carpenters and<br>diligent workers, toiling tirelessly to ensure the perfect tools and<br>materials are at hand, ready to bring forth the sculptor’s vision into<br>breathtaking reality.
Programmers are not alone in the field of computing, it’s an ecosystem. We<br>have our immune system, the hackers and pentesters, we have our artists,<br>the graphic designers, we have our engineers, we have our cleaners,<br>we have our business man, we...