Why we do IT

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Why we do IT

Hey! It’s been a while but I’m back with a new blog entry.

I want to chat about why we’re in the I.T., is it just another job, is it the chicks, is it the money? Who knows?

Now, I’ve met a fair amount of people for who IT is just another job, something they heard about after school, heard there’s a lot of money in it (This was probably during the whole Y2K shebang)

A lot of these sort of folks does however experience a rude awakening later on, IT is not for everyone. Sure everyone can do it, but not everyone can do IT well (Pardon the pun)

I can tell you why I am in the IT industry:

  • I think I might be addicted to code….yes, isn’t it great to code up a storm and write the coolest piece of code ever!
  • The fact that you can start learning something new, not knowing anything about it, and the way everything just starts falling into place eventually. Those light bulb moments.
  • The buzz I get when I show a user just how my app will change his life…no more waiting until midnight on every last day of a month to run month end! (yes, I’ve seen this happen)
  • The technologies are just getting better by the day, can’t wait to see what’s next.

If you’re wondering why you’re in the IT industry or just need some motivation, I recommend reading an article by Bob Reselman. Bob mentions two interesting things in this article:

  • The commercial, cultural, and political needs served by information technology have largely remained the same throughout history.
  • For as long as there has been information technology, there have been people who can "work" it and people who can’t. Those who can, control the world.

After reading this article, say to yourself: What have I done to change the world? Think about it. It’s kinda cool, isn’t it? That small little code generator you wrote to make your life easier, and that you later posted on the internet could be changing 10 more people’s lives. Even if it just changed one persons life, it still pretty cool. The comment you made on a development forum, helping someone solve a problem, that did not just change the person you were helping’s life, but also the life of the user he was writing that code for.

It all comes back to Code Karma.

So next time you write that piece of code, think…today I’m going to change the world.