Recently I’ve been listening to technology related Podcasts during my 40 minute commute to and from work. One day this past week I was listening to a panel discussion about the “passion” of software development. One of the panelists was attempting to describe what it was about software development that he loved so much. He made the comment that he couldn’t describe it as being “creative” because he didn’t consider what he was doing as being creative because he wasn’t inventing something new. Instead he was taking pieces that other people had developed (programming code, patterns, algorithms, etc.) and putting them together to do some task.
He then made a very nonchalant comment that literally floored me. He said that what kept him interested in software development was the “Joy of Construction”. He enjoyed building things; taking pieces and parts and putting them together. It didn’t matter to him if what he built was something new or just the same old mousetrap. The joy was in the construction.
Hearing that one phrase, I had an epiphany where I realized that this guy had just summed up not only my whole career, but a large part of my personality. This simple phrase explained so much about me; about the most successful portions of my career; and about my hobbies.
Before I heard those four words, if you had asked me to describe what motivated my career or my hobbies I would have gotten it wrong — if I had been able to articulate an answer at all. Then, within the space of literally seconds, I could explain it exactly with four words.
I’ve always felt like I wanted to be creative. I just couldn’t pull it off. I don’t have what it takes to create something new – something innovative that no one’s done before. I’m just not built that way. What I now realize is that it’s not being creative that drives me. I WANT TO BUILD THINGS.
During the rest of that drive home, I begin to think back over the five employers that I’ve had since graduating from college. I thought about what it was that I liked at each of those places and what was different when I became dissatisfied at the first four (I’m still working on the fifth). I realized that in each case I went into a situation where the company was lacking in some area of Information Technology infrastructure. In each case I made it my job (whether it was what I was hired for or not) to build that infrastructure; be it hardware, software, personnel or a combination of these. Once that was accomplished, I began to be dissatisfied with the situation and wanted something new.
I just read back over that last paragraph and realized it doesn’t even come close to articulating how profound this realization was to me that afternoon. I’m sure that I drove home with my lower jaw hanging open.
After having my entire 26 year career explained to me in four words, I begin to apply what I had just learned to other things that had held my interest over the years:
· Model cars
· Photography – particularly dark room work
· Painting cars for an online racing game
· Wooden pen making
· Home computers and network
· World of Warcraft
· This web site (and others)
· These articles
I begin to think about what it was that I really enjoyed about each of these activities. Like the panelist that I had been listening to, I realized that it wasn’t really creativity. I’m not particularly good at any of these things, and none of the work is really original and innovative. But they all involve building something.
Let me give you an example of how this explained so much for me. Every couple of years I’ll get an almost irresistible urge to replace my computer. This need to replace begins to grow regardless of whether my current hardware and software is performing well or not. When this happens, I’ll start researching the latest technology for each component that I’ll need (motherboards, processors, video cards, etc.). I’ll get on the web and find out what other people are buying and I’ll create a shopping list. Most of the time I’ll go so far as to actually put the items in a shopping cart. Just last week, I went through this very process and I currently have a shopping cart on NewEgg.com filled with enough parts to build my next computer. Most of the time, the process stops there; and I realize now that the act of building the shopping list is therapeutic and fills my need to construct something. Sometimes though (and I’m afraid I’m at that point now) I really need to build the machine. That’s when The Joy of Construction begins to cost money.
World of Warcraft? How does this need to construct explain playing an online video game?
This is a good example of why this simple phrase caught me so off guard. As I was thinking about what I had heard, and was contemplating all the things that I enjoyed doing and how they related to construction, I realized that this went so deep. What did I really enjoy about playing World of Warcraft? It wasn’t the social aspects of playing with people all over the world. Those of you that know me know that I’m just not that social (ok, not social at all). As I tried to fit this in, I realized that the portion of the game that I most enjoyed was “leveling up” a new character. Taking a character that arrives in the WoW world virtually naked; with no experience, money, armor, or weapons, and building that character into a maximum level fighting machine. Once I had my characters to the maximum level that the game allowed — a place where most people race to get so they can start experiencing “end-game” content — I begin to lose interest in them. For me, the joy was in building a new character.
I could go on and on about how this had changed the way I look at many aspects of my own personality (and some of you are probably thinking I’ve gone on way too far already); but why write an article about this? Why do you care what motivates me?
Of course the real answer is that I needed to build an article on something. Writing this has helped to satisfy a need to construct on some small level. But beyond that, I would encourage you to search for your own motivational epiphany. Why do you do the things that you do? Do you have a need to construct? Or maybe yours is a need to nurture. Go beyond the superficial and dig deeper to find out the real reasons for your actions.
If you’re really lucky, you’ll gain a whole new understanding of not only yourself but the world around you.
Wayne