Programming Is a Game

I was on the plane from St. Paul back to Denver, and the code was going well. When that happens, it’s not work anymore — it’s a game. I want to keep playing and figuring the shit out, and I’ll keep doing it until the batteries go dead or I just plain fall asleep.

That night I managed both in sequence. Battery first.

I want to be a code cowboy, I told myself on that same flight. I’m still not totally sure what that means, but something about riding the problem down, not flinching when it bucks.

The 4D app I was building at the time talked to Oracle on one end and printed reports on the other, and the middle part — the part that was mine — that’s where the game was.