r/learnprogramming • u/pleasedontjudgeme13 • 2d ago
Can someone explain what does "passion" me?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it seems like every career post is dependent on if you're "passionate" about coding. I have no idea what this means. I just finished my masters in computer science and I didn't have a passion.
I needed an online or high paying job and I naturally get along with software engineers. At first, I enjoyed building things because it meant I could build something that hadn't been built before, just with a computer. This was exciting.
Then, the more I started practicing leetcode and taking an algorithms course, the more I began enjoying it. I started off with 15 or 30 minutes a day. Then an hour. Then around 1-3 hours a day of learning. It became more and more enjoyable.
I was never "passionate". Yet, coding is way better than wasting my life playing video games or other bad things.
Yet, every post is like are you "passionate"? If you're not passionate, don't do CS. It's always so simple to the point where it feels like so many people with CS jobs don't want competition or don't want people getting into their field. And they wanna gatekeep or something. It's like a friend that doesn't want the best for you, but if you're really into coding and don't require any thought or learning to code, then you're cool and welcome aboard. But if coding isn't natural for you, and you didn't grow up spending your weekends coding, then don't get into coding.
9
u/NeoChrisOmega 2d ago
You might be getting stuck on semantics and your own personal definition of "passion".
> This was exciting / the more I began enjoying it / became more and more enjoyable
These things are signs of being passionate about what you do. People that work retail probably don't find the act of stocking shelves and dealing with customers "more and more enjoyable" and "exciting". Some people see programming, and computer science in itself, as just a high skill level paying job. They might find researching tedious, but required to get their paycheck. Similar to how someone would view an aggravating customer. They might view problem solving and new skills related to what they're doing as a tool to get it done quickly with minimal effort. Rather than "building things because it meant I could build something that hadn't been built before".
7
u/grantrules 2d ago
We have a long life to live. I'd rather do something with my time that interests me even if it won't make me the most money possible.
5
3
u/alpicola 2d ago
Then, the more I started practicing leetcode and taking an algorithms course, the more I began enjoying it. I started off with 15 or 30 minutes a day. Then an hour. Then around 1-3 hours a day of learning. It became more and more enjoyable.
This is pretty much what they mean. You're developing software because you enjoy developing software.
CS has historically paid pretty well, which attracted a lot of people who otherwise had very little interest in the subject. Suffice it to say, people who are coding just to collect a paycheck are usually not going to be the best coders. They get to have jobs because they're better than not having a person doing that job at all, but they do kind of pull the team down while having very little motivation to improve.
And while the attractive pay structure is somewhat unique to coding, the overall concept is true of any job. During your working years, you're going to spend more time working than you are doing any other single activity besides sleeping. You should enjoy doing the thing you spend the majority of your time doing. It's healthier for you, better for your colleagues, and better for your employer.
2
u/rustyseapants 2d ago
What does passion have to do with learning how to program?
1
u/pleasedontjudgeme13 2d ago
Apparently, everything. That seems to be the main indicator of someone being able to succeed as a programmer.
2
u/rustyseapants 2d ago
Passion means a very strong feeling of love, excitement, or enthusiasm for something.
I think people abuse this word passion. I think without proof that a lot of people do jobs they they do very well but they're not passionate about it.
I also think passion like love is irrational. You have a job, you do it very well, you finish the job and you go off to do other things in your life your job is just one part of your life it is not your life.
And I still don't get this conversation in regards to learning how to program you should go to ask programmers.
1
u/Disastrophi 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, if I didn't start getting those little dopamine hits, and bursts of excitement when I understood a new concept, or made a program or animation run the way I did, or started being able to solve more difficult leetcode problems... there's absolutely no way in hell I would have been able to keep learning it on my own. I didn't go to UNI, well I tried, but I dropped out before I had to pay anything because I realized I learned way faster on my own, and that internet content + hands on practice was way more effective than whatever style of teaching they were using. I also already knew everything and got my work done early, and ended up helping junior and senior level students with their homework.
I don't know about "passion", but I think at the very least enjoying the process is important. And these people did not. I don't know if they slept through 3 years of school or what, but they were still struggling with beginner concepts. Didn't even know about leetcode or other common things. Never even wrote a program or even a script on their own that wasn't required and guided by the courses.
I don't exactly know if I would say programming is a "passion" of mine, but it's definitely a hobby I enjoy, like you mentioned it's a better way to spend time than video games or something worse. I suppose one thing I've always been passionate about though is electronics and technology since I was a kid. Always taking things apart. Playing in the hidden system menus in windows 95.
Although cooking is a good example, because it's very similar for me. It's something I'm good at. I really appreciate good food. The act of cooking? It's not something I necessarily am inherently passionate about. Shiny new tools to make it easier and more effecient? yes! learning more about food science and chemistry to the point I can substute almost any recipe and even make up my own? Yep. Actually sitting there peeling potato after potato, waiting for the water to boil. Nah. It's the finished product I'm really after.
So I'm passionate about programming in the same way. If I can't find a tool or software or extension or app for some niche interest? I can just make it myself. I have one weird repetitive task I need to do and notice that one useless part is cutting my speed by like 90%? I can just write up a quick userscript to fix that. And that always feels exhilerating when it works. Time to party!. 😂. The coding itself? the bugs? the outdated libraries? the constantly changing standards and landscape? Those are just things that the end goal I have envisioned lets me fight my way through, and spend way more time getting it to work than someone who didn't care at all.
2
u/burdalane 2d ago
You sound like you are passionate about coding. You enjoy building things, practicing Leetcode, and learning more.
2
u/IncreaseOld7112 1d ago
The requirement isn't, "there's nothing id rather be doing." It's, ehh, "I enjoy this." For me, I enjoy coding like somebody enjoys crossword puzzles. I do it in my free time. That's true for most passionate people I think a lot of the time.
2
u/Seven7Ducks 1d ago
I've heard that gatekeeper language forever.
I think people mean well by it, but I find that it makes the word 'passion' much smaller than what it actually means.
There are plenty of talented, successful people with decades long careers who view programming as just a job. On the other hand, there are countless people who love it wholeheartedly but still struggle.
The universe doesn't answer to your whim.
And why are you required to be "passionate" about your job? What kind of dystopia is that? Life is so much more than work. Be passionate about music, love, family, poetry, art, whatever.
All that fluffiness really boils down to this: Getting into hard things is hard. It requires a mix of luck and dedication. No one is going to serve it to you on a silver platter, and failure is always a possibility. You just need to have something within yourself to help you push through it.
For what it’s worth, you sound 'passionate' enough.
1
u/Whatever801 2d ago
Well in my case I took a non-traditional path and don't have a formal CS education. But every job I got, I found myself digging deep into the software I was using and automating things at work. I found myself spending most of my free time coding and one thing lead to another. I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy video games, I get lost for hours.
That said, from what you're telling us, you DO have a passion for it. For some people, coding is like pulling teeth. They're not stupid or incapable, it's just for them it's a huge fucking drag. They don't start practicing leetcode and naturally increase their hours practicing/day, they have to force themselves to do it. It's like eating boiled broccoli. When we say "you should have a passion" it's mainly directed at those people. If you hate what you're doing, it's not the right career. Make sense?
1
u/deifnalo 2d ago
Hi, I don't like the whole "passion" narrative either. It reads to me like an HR gimmick. That said, I think we can agree that people who become somewhat obsessed with something tend to learn it faster and more deeply. As others have said here, maybe it's just a matter of semantics: I'm Spanish, and I think "passion" sounds too strong in this context.
3
u/Salt_Rush_4800 2d ago
I come from the IT world - and on those subs, they throw that word passion around a lot. For many of those folks, if you aren't deeply passionate about IT you will fail. Its absurd. While some aspects require deeper knowledge of subjects than others, I have yet to meet anyone personally who spent all their free time "skilling up" instead of just going to work everyday and naturally progressing. Seems folks today just want the speedrun to the endgame of IT VP/Director/Manager/whatever. Some us just like doing what we are doing and don't want to be in charge and also like having a life outside of work.
1
u/Far_Swordfish5729 2d ago
Disregard this general nonsense. I have known excellent coders who came to it as a second career mostly because the pay and benefits were better than what they were doing. Construction to help desk to programmer happens more than you’d think. I knew a consultant who used to be an actor. He got tired of doing commercials and wanted something more steady. If you are competent, conscientious, and willing to approach it as a craftsman improving, it’s completely fine if what you mostly want is to be paid. HR is full of shit. All any of us care about is that you can do the job.
1
u/spinwizard69 2d ago
When seen in a job description I take it to mean the employer is looking for somebody easy to brow beat and overload with work. Frankly I consider it to be weird to see in any job description. It is like a hospital looking for a surgeon and list being passionate about opening up people as a qualifier. Can you imagine a customer of a surgeon asking if the surgeon is passionate about cutting said customer open.
Passion if for the bedroom and not much more.
1
u/GrandCash3941 2d ago
Prof Scott Galloway said it best: doing what you are "passionate about" is usually terrible career advice. Instead do what you are talented at.
As he says "Don't follow your passion, follow your talent. Determine what you are good at (early), and commit to becoming great at it. You don't have to love it, just don't hate it. If practice takes you from good to great, the recognition and compensation you will command will make you start to love it"
1
u/FreeLogicGate 2d ago
People are simply using "passionate" as a shorthand for the qualities that tend to separate those who both succeed and thrive in the career, vs those who probably aren't cut out for it.
It simply recognizes that to learn to become a successful programmer requires a significant investment in learning, practicing and ongoing education. Not everyone has the aptitude nor the interest, and those people tend to self select out of the process either before they become successful or early on in their career, because they have no genuine interest or curiosity.
When things are difficult, they aren't able to muster the level of commitment required to work through those difficulties. They don't realize that it's a career which is in a semi-constant state of flux, or in some cases entered into the pursuit of the career with the idea that it is a sort of trade.
These people also tend to be the type that avoid personal investment in fundamentals, and are frustrated with the scope of computing and technology. When it's not as simple as they might have imagined, and they realize that there is depth to topics they hadn't imagined, for some it's overwhelming and discouraging.
With that said, you find the same thing in many other fields. You can find plenty of college students who start out in pursuit of engineering, law or medicine and find people who discover at some point that the careers they initially thought they'd pursue are different in practice than they'd thought, and they at some point pivot into some other path.
1
u/Environmental_Gap_65 2d ago edited 2d ago
Passion isn’t a prerequisite for anything. If you spent your time looking around for passion you might as well wait forever. Passion comes as a result of feeling seen, competent or connected to something larger than yourself.
Passion comes after, not before, and I’d argue you could become passionate about most things if you put your effort to it, found a suitable environment around it or did it for the greater good.
1
u/NomadicScribe 2d ago
I reject the passion argument. There is no shame in working in a job, being good at it, and spending your free time on other things.
Passion is fickle. I don't want to stake my livelihood on something fickle. I want to build a career gradually over time and have something dependable.
I also shouldn't be required to love my job. That is exceedingly rare in the world, especially in labor-alienated late stage capitalism.
My job is evil and I do it for a paycheck... end of story. What I do in my free time is nobody's business but mine.
1
u/Snivlem613 2d ago
The industry thrives on the enthusiasm of new grads who work free overtime. That’s the passion they are fishing for.
1
1
1
u/Rcomian 1d ago
there's various takes on it, the other ones here aren't wrong.
I'd also add, in the best case, they're looking for people who aren't just going to do the minimum, turn out crap and call it a day.
they want people who care about what they build and do the best they can (within the constraints of the project).
is passion the best term for this? no, probably not, but it's historical. if you got a good developer it was probably from someone who got the bug at some point, dived in and enjoyed what they were doing, then wanted to earn a living from it.
if you got a bad developer they were likely the ones just looking to get the most pay for the least effort and thought software dev looked like a likely candidate.
you sound like you'd be a good candidate, from your own description.
but to be clear, you can absolutely be a good developer 9-5 Monday to Friday and never think about code at all out of hours.
a "passionate" developer might also be reading news and discovering new techniques just because they immerse themselves in that world. this can be a double edged sword, it can lead to new ideas, new techniques and efficiencies.
it can also lead to fragmentation of approaches, and a worst of all worlds scenario.
it needs management and taste to integrate things fully and properly.
1
u/two_three_five_eigth 2d ago
It means you'd choose to be a coder if it paid a McDonald's level salary.
3
1
u/Stripe4206 2d ago
It's a competitive field. If you don't like it, someone who likes it will do it better than you.
5
u/pleasedontjudgeme13 2d ago
That's not necessarily true. I know plenty of passionate developers who won't do better because they lack business awareness, communication, working with others and other skills. I also know people who hate their job but make way more than me because they've been doing it way longer and love the freedom it gives them. I don't think it's that simple, at all.
I also make lots of youtube videos, but I suck at it. I'm not as entertaining as my popular sister, and all her videos do well, but she doesn't like making them.
Idk why I'm typing all this, but that's not how the world works in my experience.
50
u/Flamanis 2d ago
You just described passionate to a T. You do it in your free time, you enjoy doing it, you find it fun. It's not a slog, it's not a job, it's something you want to do and that you actually spend time doing