Because It's Fun!
Twelve years ago, computers were a mystery to me, but a friend of mine showed me how I could just go down to the computer parts store, pick out a motherboard, CPU, RAM, hard drive, power supply, &c., and put it together myself. It was so empowering! Those mysterious black boxes that our lives depend on were one step less mysterious.
I learned how to download Linux and install it myself for freea€‰-a€‰then, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Then, I was building my own servers. Now, the whole web server/Internet thing was less of a mystery. This was, again, fascinating and empowering.
Ten years ago, I was the founder/owner/CEO of a music distribution company that grew from just me to 85 employees.
As the company grew, I enjoyed building all of the office PCs and web servers myself. I enjoyed setting up the same FreeBSD distribution for everyone, and writing shell scripts to automate the installation of everything. It was a fun challenge, and I'd often stay until midnight setting these things up, totally a€oin the zonea€¯ and loving it.
Ten years later, I mentioned this to a friend. He said, sarcastically, a€oPffft. Yeah, that's a good use of the CEO's time!a€¯
In the moment, I laughed, but later I thought, a€oWella€¦ yeah! It was my company, and I was the CEO. So, I could do whatever I wanted, and that's what I wanted to do! What else should I be doing? Something less fun? Sitting in meetings? Why?a€¯
Just this week, an investor friend asked what I'm working on now. I spun my laptop to show him a screen filled with PHP. He said, a€oWhy are you doing this? You can hire someone to do it!a€¯
I said, a€oThis is the only thing I love doing. Programming is pure creativity. Why would I hand off the fun stuff to someone else?a€¯
It was clear that both friends were just assuming that what I should have been doing is whatever is the most profitable thing, as if that's the only measure that matters.
Even now, I'm trying a geeky project; I'm setting up a JSON-only REST API and requiring even my own site to use only that. When I tell this to other programmers, a few have asked, a€oWhy go to that trouble? You don't need it!a€¯
My answer is the same for everyone. a€oBecause it's fun!a€¯
No other reason is needed.
Never forget that all of these things we doa€‰-a€‰making money, building a company, whatevera€‰-a€‰are all leading to the eventual goal of having enough money to do whatever we want. So, take a shortcut to that goal, and do whatever you want in the meantime. Never feel embarrassed or defensive about doing something just because it's fun.
Developer Gift
I recommend any loud, ticking timer to use with the Pomodoro Technique.
Don't use an app. Get the actual physical ticking thinga€‰-a€‰it really makes a psychological difference.