Developing a mindset
31 Aug 2017
Why code? That’s the question that I’ve always been asked when I say my major is computer engineering. My answer has always been “because I like it”. I’ve never really put in the thought. I got into programming by chance. Before I switched into computer engineering, I was in civil engineering. This was because my family members are made up of mostly architects and CEEs. I remember it like yesterday. I was scrolling through the list of classes that satisfied my general education requirements and then I saw it. ICS 150, introduction to computer science 1. I’ve never done any sort of programming before, but I’ve always been interested in how a computer works, so I decided to take a chance and take it. The first few classes were horrible. I just sat there completely lost and understood nothing. Then we started programming. This just made things worst and frustrations grew. The computer was just not listening and did not understand me as much as I didn’t understand it. I told it instructions, but it would just give me back errors. This was a disaster.
As the class went on, I started to understand how a computer thinks and understood programming a bit more. Next thing you know I was addicted. I was addicted to that feeling of having no errors in the error box. Addicted to the excitement you feel when you finally find the one problem that you’ve been stuck on for hours. When I couldn’t solve the error, it would keep me up at night. I could not do anything until that problem was solved, but the thrill of solving the problem kept me hooked. As time went on, I started to develop that mindset. That mindset of seeing the world as a different place, because I could code now. It completely changed my view on things. I started to recognize that most of the things I do everyday could become easier through coding. For example, programming my washing machine to text me when it was done or a program that could help me find PDFs of books. The possibilities were endless. There were so many aspects of my life that I could change through code.
Looking at it through a bigger scope, I could now see the importance of coding and how powerful it was. Code can completely change the world by itself. Now when I get the question of why I code, I’ll just tell them “because I want to change the world”. There are infinite possibilities of changing the world for the better through code. From coding the next generation gaming console to sending astronauts to mars. Every aspect of your life can be improved through code. Once you learn to code, you’ll start thinking in a different way. You’ll develop that mindset.