Even after being a front end dev for the last 10ish years it blows my mind. I can open up a blank text editor and make something that can evoke emotion in other people.
I can create beautiful and amazing experiences for people (self high 5!) around the world in just 1 night of coding.
What about you?
Age 9: It's fun
Age 13: It's fun, and my parents won't buy me any games for my C64 so I have to write my own
Age 24: It's fun, and I can automate all this boring repetitive business stuff to get my work done faster so that I can play more Freecell and Tetris.
Age 26: It's fun, and The Internet just happened and suddenly everybody wants to pay me three times what I'm worth to do it. Woohoo!
Age 31: It's fun, and if I do just one day of it for freelance clients each month I can live on this beach indefinitely.
Age 37: It's fun, and if I put up a credit card form on one of my side projects, people seem to be willing to pay me money every month just to use it.
Age 43: It's fun, and I seem to still be doing it even though I could probably pack it in and live off that SaaS income.
There seems to be a common thread there. I suspect I'll still be doing it in another 10 years.
* Enjoyment. I like constructing intangible things inside computers such as data structures, and manipulating them.
* Problem or task solving. I like making tools that do things to take away burden from my and others' lives.
* Self-fulfillment. I like guitar but I'm terrible at it. I like snowboarding but I'm mediocre at that. I love rock climbing but again I'm not remarkable. I'm not very good at lots of things, but I'm pretty good at coding.
* What else is there to do? As someone who has leanings towards existential nihilism, eventually one sees no value in anything. So one might as well do something to pass the time. Writing code ticks that box.
To me, programming is like magic. It's that aha moment that you can induce in people (and yourself), that leaves them baffled and amazed (the sanskrit word for this is ascarya, wonderment).
Unfortunately, computer programs share two unfortunate aspects of magic:
(1) The trick, once repeated, rarely evokes the same reaction in the audience.[0]
(2) The implementation details are often mundane and boring (to laymen) when compared to the effect produced.
edit: formatting.
Unfortunately, the hobby was never discouraged by my parents (constantly told to get off the computer because I was "melting my brain", being heavily pushed towards business and law related subjects etc.). Although I can't entirely blame them, the result was I lost interest around high school. I didn't rediscover my passion until about my Junior year of college (thanks to Skyrim modding, honestly).
I'm here now, and I love it. I'm currently learning C and I look forward to playing catchup with everyone who had a real head start.
Also, its well compensated. If this was a 50k/year job I'd have found a new career by now.
It also works the other way around. Code helps me think. It's rigid and exact, and doesn't allow for vagueness in ideas. It means that, when I'm coding, I'm required to think things through. It forces me to bring blurry notions into sharp focus.
And lastly, I believe it makes me a better person. Programming is a refined balancing act between abstracting and precision, between simplicity and complexity. Doing that balancing act makes me more capable of handling other situations. It trains your mind to understand complexity and reduce it, just as it trains it to see the problems with simplicity that make it more complex.
Oh, and it's also a great way to pay the bills. But I would still be coding if it didn't, I'd probably still be coding if I had to actually pay money to do so.
I like the puzzle of creating fictitious miniature, living worlds, over which I [can sometimes] exert complete control. I like words and names. I like formal elegance. It is also pleasant that I can get paid to do this in a very stable, corporate environment.
Secondly, because it is very rewarding. To create something non-trivial and watch it work for the first time, after a dozens of failures, gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Wow, the question actually made me more aware of my motivation. It seems that everything I did was some case of "it looks simple, I can do it! Others will admire me. :)".
I, as a kid, played a lot of games on Amiga 500. Naturally, I was amazed by them and didn't even dream of doing a game myself. Later in life, a friend showed me how to do a 3d model in 3d Studio.
I liked it a lot, I could spend nights polishing minor details on car models (like those: http://hrekin.za.pl/) As I was spending a lot of time in front of a computer, parents decided it would be nice thing for me to study Computer Science.
I remember, that my expectation then was something along the lines "They will teach me there how to make an application like 3d Studio Max", or actually any other desktop application. I was truly believing it would be the case. I was trying really hard to learn as much to make it happen.
But still, even 3 years after graduation, I didn't know how to write a desktop application which does some very rudimentary things. I was expecting it would be very easy to it, since everybody else seemed to do it: you click on a file with a certain extension and appropriate app opens.
Today, I am actually writing a very simple desktop application with all the pieces in place.
Of course, in the course, I had successes in more job related fields. I did survive a financial app maintenance and even got to sell one Android application to a commercial bank - which wasn't trivial, since it had some advanced computer vision stuff implemented (in pure C, no libraries used). I also wrote a C# game.
Honestly, I don't even become interested or inspired to solve a problem until I experience it for myself (unless it's a job).
I feel that my interest in coding stems from the fact the I enjoy challenging conventions. I like asking why things are the way they are, and then breaking the rules to better the creation process & product.
The fact that I can learn on my own (as opposed to lectured) is what also drives me to code more. When I finally find something I want to build, I can learn how it's been done in the past, and develop my own opinions on how it should be done.
Also, coding is probably the first thing that I've ever felt I could do with my life.
As a programmer, I still need to be creative but in a much different, much more straightforward way. I've got clearly defined problem that I need to solve, and I solve it.
I do sometimes find I get emotionally invested in whether I solve the problem or not - so if I'm stuck on a problem for a whole day and haven't solved it by the evening, I go back home dejected and depressed. Vice versa, if I've done everything I wanted to do, I'm in a great mood all evening. These sorts of ups and downs make my job exciting and refreshing.
The first thing I did was writing everything down for the next exam (combined with a simple interface to all the info and things like calculating some simple chemistry stuff) and making sure everyone else in the class had it on their calculators (the teacher never understood where the sudden increase in grades came from...).
I had fun back then and I still feel this way. It is something I can completely immerse myself in (luckily not the only thing) and I just really like doing it.
I like it because it's creating something from nothing. I like writing for the same reason (I'm better at programming though ;). For me the idea that I can simply get a <=$5 device of Ebay or the local thrash heap and open up infinite creativity, ideas, experimentation and even wealth is why my work and hobby is creating software. I don't have to anymore, but I like it and the more I learn about it the more I like it.
* I can be god-like. When working on a side project, I get to make ALL the decisions.
* It's rewarding. Being able to take an idea born purely from my thoughts, and make it into something real, is inherently rewarding. Although I guess this applies to any creative endeavor, with coding it's cheap (all I need is a computer) and the feedback loop is short.
Apart from the motivation to prove to myself that I can do it, it's fun. Nothing quite like getting some piece of code to run successfully, or making something that people enjoy using.
I had previously tried to learn to program and hadn't really gotten anywhere (attention span and lack of determination), so I was already interested. But without the external impetus, I have no idea if I would have ever started.
Now, it's because I'm fascinated by the process (and also because I need to be paid...).
Good luck!
I think its a great technical field that also rewards creativity. I'm also and hobbyist musician and I feel that the two skills really work well with each other.
I love going from a blank slate to a working piece of software. I love that I can create things with just a terminal and a text editor.
The fact that I get paid to do it for a living is amazing, and something I find a little surreal from time-to-time.
Which is all well and good, really. By developing better internal software packages, we move faster and more efficiently and churn out better research and products. I have no desire to sell the software that powers the engine that will overtake my competitors. Maybe in five years when we're the market leader and we can sell the software for a few million dollars per year. :)
I'm decent at it and it puts food on the table. Sorry ...
Except compared to daytrading. Eek.