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Motivation for scripting

Wambo

New Member
How do you find the motivation to script and code? Everything I think I may want to make or do pretty much already exists in a supported and stable platform.
 

willie

Active Member
How do you find the motivation to script and code? Everything I think I may want to make or do pretty much already exists in a supported and stable platform.

You must be easy to please ;).  Most of us see problems for which there is no satisfactory existing solution, so we code our own solution if we want it enough.
 
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HBAndrei

Active Member
Verified Provider
I think you're confusing purpose with motivation, which are two different things.


By what you've described, you're looking for a purpose to code but can't find any because all the ideas are already taken... even though this may (somewhat) be true, just because the wheel was invented doesn't mean the world didn't strive to make it better. So, it doesn't really matter that something has already been coded and it's stable, if you feel you can make it better, then go for it.


As for motivation to code, this has to come from within, it has to be a true passion in order for something great to come out of your code. Look along the history, pretty much anyone who accomplished something great did it because they believed in it 110% and they were extremely passionate about that thing.


So, find your purpose and if you fully believe in yourself and in your goal then you'll have no problems with motivation, it'll become an addiction, this I can promise you.


Best of luck in your ventures.
 

wlanboy

Content Contributer
My motivation has different sources.


A) Someone needs help to automate some process [Bash/Powershell, Ruby, C#]. 


B) Someone needs a read-only web replacement of an old (and insecure software) [Ruby, C#]. Rebuild the frontend of e.g. Wordpress (without comments) in Ruby to secure a public Wordpress instance. Mobile CRM client, ....


C) Someone needed an connection between embedded stuff and the Internet - years before anyone talked about IoT. [C, Ruby] Arduino ahoy.


So most of my stuff is skripting in Bash/Powershell and Arduino stuff. And as fare as I can tell there are enough gaps on the main stream topics.
These gaps needs passion because you won't find any solution in Google and you won't find books in your native language about possible hints for solutions.
 

eva2000

Active Member
My motivation is to learn and practice/do so is mainly driven by my development and evolution of my Centmin Mod LEMP stack auto installer + wanting custom automation to solve problems or needs of my own and/or my Centmin Mod users i.e. free SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt integration http://centminmod.com/letsencrypt-freessl.html :D
 

drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Reasons to code?


1. Learning beats watching TV.

2. Learning beats playing video games.


3. Coding is actually a fairly useful skill to have, even if you do it poorly.


4. There are many solutions we all need that don't exist or are incomplete for what we need.  My monkeying around with  a USB attached thermometer is a good example.  Sure I might cobble crap code and do so suboptimally, but I do so to get the data into format and in place I want it.  Without Winblows overhead, without some vendor lockin, etc. 


5. Coding can be freedom.  Kind of empowering to be faced with situation where others park their arses and toss in the towel and say 'that's how it is' about whatever solution.  Be it SolusVM, WHMCS, or something less hosting related. Nice to say yeah, I can make this do more or write something to enhance as an island over here.


6.  It can be a necessity. I create things, although far far less than in my youth.  Often what I am creating doesn't otherwise exist.  For instance I am quite fond of site scrapers that parse data into nice reusable relational database.  Why?  Because data is food for analysis and making decisions on data beats making decisions based on somewhat blind belief / perception.


7. It saves money.  If I think what even my lowly solutions would cost for hired developers to code, well it would be expensive.  It would cost beyond what I'd be willing to pay, be I cheap or unrealistic.


8. It makes for good resume.  Having more useful skills is better than being a warm body with no skills who repeats about fair wage and deserving $15 an hour just because you manage to roll out of bed.  #LIVINGWAGE,  #15FORLIFEYO
 

stim

New Member
I am not a programmer or scripter, but learning to script has given me a huge advantage I my job, where I am exposed to lots of disparate data sources. There's a deluge of legal and scientific data that I need keep on top of, to sort through and filter.


I started by learning how to automatically collect information from the web - via RSS, scraping, dbs, and storing these data in my own formats. Over time, this provided a nice pool of data to play with, analyse, display, chart, etc. Now I can set-up a simple web database with statistics, using almost any data source, in a matter of minutes using a Ruby/Sinatra template I have developed. 


While I sleep my scripts chomp through the web and at breakfast present me with a nice overview by e-mail. My colleagues think I'm superhuman. In truth, I do a lot less work than them, but I achieve much more.


My little secret :)
 
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tmzVPS-Daniel

Active Member
Verified Provider
Biggest motivation? Freedom to create what ever you want when you want it and it wont cost you a dime. I think thats pretty good motivation :) (depending on the language you learn to code). 


- Daniel :)
 

HN-Matt

New Member
Verified Provider
While I sleep my scripts chomp through the web and at breakfast present me with a nice overview by e-mail. My colleagues think I'm superhuman. In truth, I do a lot less work than them, but I achieve much more.

Hey, and no need to complain about a liveable income after rolling out of bed either, eh?

"If you teach a man to fish."

Just set up mass coding & scripting skill-share workshops for all of the warm bodied, unskilled labourers of the world and bada bing bada boom, living wages in the corporatist 'net utopia! Why not call up the IWW and volunteer, @drmike?
 
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drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
"If you teach a man to fish."

Just set up mass coding & scripting skill-share workshops for all of the warm bodied, unskilled labourers of the world and bada bing bada boom, living wages in the corporatist 'net utopia! Why not call up the IWW and volunteer, @drmike?

The idealistic techtards have started coding camps for the unwashed and unemployable masses many times over.  Brief exposure to coding and interest in only the money is exactly what those so called colleges and trade schools produce.  Coding just for work, like as in, need to get a job, tends to produce horrid results.


Same applies to the techtards dipping young students face first into compulsory technology washing in primary education.


Meh, those worth paying to code are a rare bunch still.  Requires true interest + good teacher + lots of practice.


Coding isn't going to fix the unskilled labor problem, ever.  Plus I am a realist and in this many decades.  In the next decade we will see more automation of programming as such becomes more simplified and self generating.
 
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fm7

Active Member
The eternal discussion about good code, good programming languages but rarely about good algorithms and good solutions :)


Anyone can be a coder. Can anyone become a programmer? No.
 

ServersBase

New Member
Staying motivated essentially means not getting so discouraged that you just give up.
It also depends on how fast you learn, and pick up new concepts. This is simply something that varies from person to person.
Ultimately, just know that everyone moves at their own pace. Try to gauge how your progress is going and don’t set up yourself for failure by having unrealistic expectations.
 

noez

New Member
bc I'm really proud of it when I finish a project and I know it came all of my brain/fingers
 
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