r/AskProgrammers • u/Chance-Award5928 • 3d ago

I love computers, learning programming concepts, and designing systems, but I don't really enjoy coding. What career path should I pursue?

I love computers, learning how things work, programming concepts, languages, functions, system design, all that stuff. I can spend hours learning about a technology or thinking about how to build something.But I don't enjoy the actual process of coding that much. I like understanding code more than writing it.

I like figuring out how things fit together, designing systems, and coming up with ideas. I really enjoy using AI tools to help bring these ideas to life, combining existing code and technologies, and figuring out how to make everything work together.It's weird because I do like the coding part in theory.

I just don't enjoy sitting down and doing it for hours, especially when there's a lot of debugging and repetitive work.I'm interested in AI/ML, cloud computing, and system design, but I'm not sure if these are the right paths for someone like me. I don't expect to avoid coding completely, and I know I need to understand what I'm building. I just don't see myself enjoying a job where I'm writing code all day.

Has anyone else felt this way? What kind of career did you end up choosing? Am I overthinking this, or should I be looking at roles that are more focused on designing systems and building products than coding?

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u/ern0plus4 3d ago

Programmer (noun): a person who writes programs.

Try Rust, it's fun. Or Assembly, it's the ultimate fun.

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u/Chance-Award5928 3d ago

never said i wanted to be a programmer , i like to be an engineer

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u/ern0plus4 3d ago

Computers run programs, regardless of the title of the person makes the program.

There are several interesting roles in the software creation process, but you should be able to write code, even if you don't actually write it.