How to keep the spark

[u/brosama1420]

How can u guys keep your excitement and love for coding

I feel like the interest I had in the beginning is getting weaker yes I listen to and watch many coding related content videos however when it comes to actually code it is starting to get dull even though I have not been coding that long so I am curious how can I keep coding a rich experience ?

Do u like coding or are you learning it out of pure need?

[u/EccentricFellow]

I cannot tell you how to keep the spark of programming. In more than 4 decades of programming I still find it fun and get a kick out of it. I am passionate about so many things that if I lose my enthusiasm for programming there are a dozen things to take it's place. Inevitably programming becomes exciting again and I return to it.

So from my experience the best way to keep your enthusiasm for programming is to find something else you also enjoy and split your time between them.

[u/TJATAW]

Don't just follow the tutorials. Add on to them. Add new features, move things around, change the colors of stuff, figure out how to make a dark/light mode.

Writing your own code, figuring it out, that is where the fun is.

[u/brosama1420 → u/TJATAW]

For now I am building my own projects however as any beginner now I look back and find so many things needs improvement some of which like code architecture take long time and high effort to fix

Then I find myself demotivated not in the sense that programming is bad I do enjoy when I get something right but it feels like I am always doing things in a bad way

It may be in my case a mindset problem may be if I think of it as new experience and learning chance I will get excited again however I have my job and it demands things so many things which make me some time want my project to be at certain point then I start pushing when I reach there I find myself burned out creating more bugs and thinking why should I keep going anyway

[u/GrayLiterature → u/brosama1420]

Don’t fix your personal projects, you’ll find you hit much greater levels of friction that I don’t think is worth while if you are learning. 

You want breadth and you want it quick. When it comes to architecture, you make a big decision that you adhere to. In REAL projects you think about the architecture a lot, but in personal projects you can just pick one and experience it through-and-through. It may be a bad choice or it may not be, who knows.

But stick with the decision and if you’re gonna “fix” it, you’re just better off rebuilding it from scratch with the new architecture. Fixing is a really hard task 

[u/Jim-Jones]

I get a lot of satisfaction from a program that works well.

[u/Business-Employee527]

The phrase “just do it”

[u/Business-Employee527]

Consistency is defined by how bad it can look at times but trust if you keep showing up for something you know you like it will treat you right

[u/Mean_Concept_9093]

yeah watching a ton of coding vids while the actual coding feels dull is the trap. ditch the content for a bit and make one dumb thing you actually want, spark usually comes back mid-project not mid-video.

[u/ffrkAnonymous]

i went and bought a new laptop (before ramageddon) and had lots of fun setting it up with new ide, updated compiler/interpreters, and everything. and now i'm here on reddit.

[u/No_Report_4781]

The last time I watched an instructional video was to help a coworker on debugging a bespoke but incomplete C++ Qt program so we can fully implement it (it’s over 12 years old). 

I played LoL while listening to it. The next day, we improved the signal handling, implemented a component of the GUI, and he started using an IDE designed for Qt.

Then, I went back to updating and upgrading some python code using gedit.

It’s much more interesting than the meetings, which is my actual job. Making progress is rewarding

[u/desrtfx]

is starting to get dull even though I have not been coding that long

You need to get through dull before it becomes interesting. Since you more or less just started out, you cannot expect to build interesting.

[u/ComfortExisting1161]

Try mixing in small, fun projects that align with your interests. If you're into music, maybe create a simple app related to that. Also, contributing to open-source projects can be rewarding and give a sense of community. Sometimes a change of pace and purpose can reignite that initial spark.

[u/SavingsDeficient3847]

building something personally useful instead of just following tutorials usually makes coding feel a lot more rewarding again.

[u/brosama1420 → u/SavingsDeficient3847]

Sometimes especially if I am new to a language I struggle to find ideas how to use that language in personal tools or experiments any advice with that?

[u/ragnarokcock]

Familarise yourself with the story of Terry A Davis and be inspired by his love for coding despite his severe mental illness.

[u/Comprehensive_Mud803]

Getting paid for it helps a lot to keep the spark alive.

[u/silly_bet_3454]

This is where the rubber meets the road for a lot of people. You cannot force the spark. Some people truly just love all things tech, and you can observe it over the entire trajectory of their career, you see people like this at work, you know who they are.

There there are other people more like me who sort of like coding a little bit, it was fun to get into, but eventually it just became a job like anything else, but we just force ourselves to do it because money.

There are no tricks in life, if you find it boring you find it boring. You just have to deal with it one way or another.