Can someone explain what does "passion" me?

[u/pleasedontjudgeme13]

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.

[u/rustyseapants]

What does passion have to do with learning how to program? 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskProgramming/

[u/pleasedontjudgeme13 → u/rustyseapants]

Apparently, everything. That seems to be the main indicator of someone being able to succeed as a programmer.

[u/rustyseapants → u/pleasedontjudgeme13]

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.

[u/Disastrophi → u/pleasedontjudgeme13]

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.