I write this in the midst of an exhausting season, with hope that there is so much life to be had in our industry of software. I want us to have a language that celebrates the ways we've been gifted. There is dignity in our work.
What we type with our hands is sacred and affects our culture. We are breathing life into programs used by billions of people everyday. We have limitless possibilities at the touch of our fingers.
Yet, I continue to have trouble seeing the importance or significance in software development. Maybe it's because most of my family and friends aren't curious about what I do for work or maybe they're too overwhelmed to ask? Maybe it's because I don't hear enough stories of how software helps people? Maybe it's the lack of inspiring movies and documentaries? Maybe it's the lack of diverse perspectives leaving our soil nutrients depleted.
I hear plenty of stories about startups making millions of dollars. We grow up hearing about legends (mostly white men) like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. I need other types of heroes if I'm going to continue in this industry. We need more people like Linda Liukas, a poet who writes code. She's someone that puts a smile on my face when I hear her talk about software.
My imagination of what coding can be used for is limited and I'd like to sit with that more this year. I think in past years, I've run away from that reality. I've thought, "Well coding pays the bills." I need people to help me see outside of the box of coding for a paycheck. I recently heard Makoto Fujimura share how people see his art. He challenged his audience to expand their mind. We often think of how 1 + 1 = 2, but what happens when you take two pieces of gum and put them together? That metaphor blew my mind and has shed light on how two dimensionally I perceive things. I want to have hope that there are possibilities for software that fit my desires and giftings.
What I want to try to do this year is learn less about the latest version of React and more about the culture around our industry. I want to learn about our history. I want to understand what caused a female dominated industry to become male dominated. I want to understand why there are so few people of color that have won a Turing Award. I want to learn how people are using our craft to help others.
I want to be more wasteful with my work. We need to create things, not worry about being the next facebook. We have the opportunity to find healing for ourselves and the world through what we write.
Our keyboard is our potter's wheel--our paint brush. Let's stop banging out 1000s of lines of code, without ever viewing it again. Let's slow down, spend some time marveling at what we write and push ourselves to make it more beautiful. In the Lord of the Rings, Treebeard's favorite saying was, "Don't be hasty." How hasty we are with our lives and our code.
I believe there is potential for an entire industry of culture around computer science. We need you to write poems about the magic of what we make. We need artists to help us marvel. We need historians to help us learn from our past mistakes and victories.