I don’t think I chose software development, so much as it chose me. I know this sounds like one of those determinism debates, and this is how it all played out for me: I found that the more I opened my mind, while directing my energy towards where my [sometimes misguided] curiosities lie (business, finance, economic policy, social sciences, design, etc.), the road always led me back to software development.
Naturally, there was only one conclusion I could make. It seemed that no matter what I was learning to do, I wanted to transform those learnings with new technological creations and tools that could communicate reorganized ideas to myself and to the world. It’s the field that touches all other fields and discriminates against none, as the one uniter.
Writing code gives people a voice, and a seat at the table. Not speaking a word of English when I immigrated to the United States at 8 years of age, I had a lot of catching up to do. When I was introduced to programming languages in high school, I was hooked! For the first time, it felt like I was put on equal playing field as everyone else. That sense of empowerment was a much needed boost in confidence for this 3-year ESL student. (And despite all expectations, I really wasn’t that amazing at math either!)
So here I am, after a long winding academic and career path, at the source that unites the world.
If I can sit back and take a bird’s eye view of how software development fits into human existence, I see it as the inverse of all things organic. It helps humans discover who they really are relative to the universe, not quite unlike my constant search for identity. It’s the gateway to machine learning and artificial intelligence, and will ultimately help us answer the questions of ‘who are we?’, and ‘why are we here?’
But more relevantly, why aren’t you learning software development?