roomthily

1. “The sheer joy of making things.” Not to be underestimated.

2. “The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.” Seeing other people take delight in what we’ve created, or benefit from something we’ve done, is enormously satisfying.

3. “The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects…and watching them work.” Getting something to WORK. An under-appreciated joy. Gosh, when I finally got some songs to load into my iPod, I thought I would break into song.

4. “The joy of always learning, which springs from the nonrepeating nature of the task.”

5. “The delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff.” True — but the opposite of a profound truth is also true, and I think there’s a mirror pleasure to be gained from dealing with actual, physical, tangible materials.