Programming is Life?
Work is not life, no?
As I explained somewhere else, probably for more than once now, programming is my calling. Well, that is very corny, isn’t it? I don’t know, if it is the truth, it is not here or there in terms of corniness. At least in my opinion.
What does it mean though?
Let me use someone famous as an example. Tom Thomson. The painter. Obviously, I am not comparing myself to him! His story is quite illuminative though.
Tom Thomson was a Canadian painter, the famous founder of The Group of Seven artists, even though he really wasn’t a member of that group. And that group had more than seven members. You know, it is a bit like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, which has more than three books in the series. This group of painters is very fascinating. I think I should write a bit about them from my perspective.
Anyhow. He was a commercial artist, designing and drawing the normal commercial stuff. If he used a computer to do the drawing, he would be called a graphics designer. He drew post cards, advertisements, anything a commercial artist was expected to do.
But he also painted. That was his passion. He would go to the Algonquin Park, painted sketches, took pictures, and when he had the time he would paint a full-size painting of what he saw and sketched and photographed in the park.
So, painting was his job. And also his “hobby”. His actual purpose in life. His calling.
He drew for a living. He painted as it was what his life was about. Painting was life for him.
For me, programming is what I do as work. It is what I do as hobby. It is my life.
For me, programming is Life.
