It just hit me today….I’ve been dabbling with programming and personal computers for 30 years. Yes, 30 years. I knew that I’ve been programming for awhile, but I didn’t realize until today that it had been that long.
My first hands-on experience with programming was at a middle school I attended in Connecticut. It wasn’t anything formal. My brother and I heard that the PDP 11 (I think) was open for students to use after hours. So we gave it a try. Neither of us knew how to program. It didn’t matter. We just started typing, we looked over the shoulders of those that knew how to code, we just dug in figuring things out as we went along. It was a blast.
A couple years later in high-school I was introduced to microcomputers and had my first opportunity to actually build small computer systems. I didn’t know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor. It didn’t matter. I had a great teacher and a couple of friends that were as enthusiastic about learning how to build and program computers as me, that we just figured things out as we went along.
After a few years of tinkering with my home-built computers, I began to realize I wanted to learn more. I decided to get a formal computer science degree. I didn’t know the difference between a quicksort and a bubble sort, but that didn’t matter. I knew I could study and figure things out as I went along.
After I graduated from college I didn’t follow the traditional path towards an IT job. Instead I kept programming. I worked on a computer vision system platform. I worked on graphics libraries. I learned C++. I taught myself Windows development. All along, I realized I didn’t exactly know what I was doing, but I kept going. I knew I could figure things out along the way. I read. I talked with friends. I practiced.
Over the next several years, the web came along. It took me awhile to figure out how to even get connected up to the Net and when I did, it took me awhile longer to learn how to set up a server, write a CGI program, code in HTML and the like. I really didn’t know what I was doing. A few friends showed me some key steps on how to get on the Internet, but most of it was “discovered” through lots of reading and experimentation. I just figured things out as I went along.
And then came the Tablet PC. Here was a chance to challenge the traditional notion of what a personal computer was and how, when, and where it should be used. I didn’t know where it was going to take me. All I knew was that I could figure it out.
Today, I’m part of a PC market that is strongly embracing many of the concepts central to the Tablet PC–that mobility is a good thing, that wireless connectivity changes how you think about being connected and when your computer needs to be accessible and in what ways, that form factor can be as critical as the software it runs, that there’s lots more to personal computers than sitting in front of one at a desk.
What strikes me as I sit here and reflect on my years of programming, is that what interests me today is very much the same things that has excited me all along–the things I do not know.
I wonder about how I might create virtual “robots” that let me walk through closed doors as I inspect my house or place of business while away on a trip, how I might integrate handwritten notes into Google Calendar from my Tablet or phone, how I might create a virtual camera operator so I can make better video recordings using just myself and software, or how I might write a program that coaches me through painting a landscape I’ve just captured on my camera. There are so many things that would be interesting to work on. All of which I don’t know how to do. That’s the best part. That’s what keeps me going. There are so many things to learn and discover. It’s why I keep programming.