I wonder if it is the nature of the beast that when someone does something for a living day in and day out, it stops being fun. I’m starting to worry that may be the case with me.
Why am I bringing this up? One reason is due to watching my friend Rab having fun with Python. He’s having fun. He’s doing it for fun, and thus he’s having fun. Doesn’t that sound like fun? It does to me. Yet he’s doing the same thing I do as a job, and I don’t have fun. Maybe it is because he’s writing a game?
Reading his adventures, and talking with him about python programming is fun. It makes me want to start programming for fun too. As it doesn’t make sense to me for the idea of programming to be fun but the programming itself not to be, I suppose I’m just looking at the the wrong way. Maybe all I need to do is adjust my point of view, and I’ll start having fun again. I say again because I did enjoy programming once. I know it is possible for me to do so.
Thus starts the experiment. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to approach this. Perhaps the best method is to just adjust my thinking — find the “game” in whatever I’m doing, cling to it, and use that shape my overall view.
I have mentioned that even insurance can be fun, have I not? It is perspective and challenge that make things fun for most of us.
Programming is composition, just like essay, poetry, or music. You can program with sarcasm, with wit, or with elegance.
You may want to save the sarcastic programs for home, just as I will not be adding a dash of sarcasm to any insurance policies. But overall, there is much to have fun with in any language, and I think you will find it.
I know the feeling. I am notorious for getting bored of the things that, on paper at least, should be the things that set my hair on fire.
For a short time, years ago, I ran a web design company out of my home. Nothing major, 3-4 clients, strictly HTML sites. It was decent money and relatively fun… at first.
I found that what used to be really fun (making websites for myself and my friends) started to feel like a job very quickly. I tried to tell myself that it was just as creative an endeavor as my writing and my music — only I was actually, you know, getting paid for it — but that didn’t stop me from banging my head in frustration.
I don’t know if it’s possible to force one’s self into believing something is fun when it’s not. At least, it’s not possible for me.
P.S. This is Yorvald.