Programmers. Human After All.

After a long time without posting anything in my website (focusing only on twitter basically), I’ve noticed that it’s time to really start writing about ideas, concepts and life.

In the past months, my life abruptly changed. I decided to give up a secure job way of life and start living as a freelancer web developer. I didn’t notice that this change would give me amazing opportunities, and I’m really glad to have made that choice.

I’ve worked on a few projects, started working on a coworking space, and met many people from several backgrounds. It’s a remarkable world out there, and how people manage to overcome hard times is its most impressive part. Almost all of those people wanted something quite similar: quality of life. Spending time with their children, being able to meet friends and not being stuck on a cubicle. They wanted autonomy.

Autonomy is a hard concept. It’s hard to implement and migrate to. I had the opportunity to talk with great people about that concept, and read some books that talked about working less and enjoying life. Those concepts really made me rethink what software development meant in my life. After lots of thinking, I’ve managed to grasp the essence of my struggle in one sentence:

If someone asks you if your work is your life, and you answer with a “no”, you are lying to yourself.

We are what we do. We are our jobs, and technology is about changing lives, enhancing experiences and helping people. Technology needs passion and time.

It doesn’t mean that we have to “work” all the time. On the contrary! We just breath/exist, hence, we are thinking about what we could solve and code. Right there, at that moment, you’re working. You’re working to help your mother organize herself. You’re working to better understand your wife. You’re making yourself a better human being.

Just remember, that we code for humans. Humans will interact with our APIs.

Addendum

This post was inspired after watching Avdi Grimm’s The Soul of Software presentation. I highly recommend any dev to watch this!