Kathy Sierra's Blog

Rekindle your passion for programming

I'm sitting here at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. I flew more than a thousand miles to get here, and I'm paying for it out of my own pocket. Why? Because it gets me excited. I'm surrounded by cool technology (I've waited my whole life for Apple's new GarageBand software). I do it because I'm happier and more productive if I stay enthused, and attending conferences has always worked for me. So I pay it for it myself, even if it has no direct *business* value.

Life's better when I'm motivated and passionate. And yeah, sometimes it's *easy* to stay enthused, like when I worked as a game developer. But as much as I deeply appreciate enterprise Javabeans, as an EJB developer the most thrilling part of writing and deploying a bean for me was coming up with a JNDI name (and we had a naming convention anyway, so that pretty much sucked the creativity out of *that* decision). So when I moved from doing fun GUI things (which I loved) to doing server-side enterprise things (which I, well, did *NOT*, unless it was Jini, but that's a whole different story), I had to find my own ways to stay pumped up. I don't mean pumped up for *life*-- that's what skiing is for. I mean pumped up for *work*. I'll be damned if I'm going to spend 7 to 12 hours a day with no passion. Life's just too short (or is it too long? I can never remember which one works best here) to spend that much time without this level of excitement.

So I go to conferences. That's *my* way. I've been doing it for the last 15 years, and it has always been worth every penny (although I try desperately to get my employers, when I'm employed, to pay for them).

Do I go to learn? Yes, but that's not my main goal. I go to become swept up in the enthusiasm. To risk my life trying to catch the t-shirt tossed to the crowd at the end of the demo. To see the dog walking the floor with a webcam on his back.

I'd love to hear about conferences (or any other events or activities) that get YOU excited, but here are my all-time favorites:

MacWorld San Francisco.

The Game Developer Conference (I don't care WHO you are, or whether you have ANY interest in building games, you'll still love this one)

JavaOne (duh)

GeekCruise (to be honest, this is one I have not paid for myself... I went as a speaker)

Siggraph

Now, I have to say that my experience with a conference will be very different from someone else's... a lot of people don't like JavaOne, for example. But I always go in with the attitude that I WILL get something beneficial from the show, by allowing myself to be caught up in the excitement. I don't go in with the expectation that I'm going to learn a gazillion killer tips and land a new job/promotion/raise. Last year's JavaOne, for example, was worth it just to hear Josh Bloch do his "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" poem. Not as cool as a Coldplay concert, but this guy has a lot of fans (me included), and most of the (standing room only) folks in the room were pumped up about Tiger after that. And yes, that enthusiasm fades as you get back to your cube and realize you have still MORE to learn (and still no time in which to learn it), but I believe that in some dark corner of your mind, that sense of excitement still hovers, waiting for you to encourage it. To water it and keep it alive.

To rekindle the flame and help remind you why you DO love Java, and why writing Java (even if it's not what you get to do on your day job) makes you part of a very exciting group. ; )

So, some might say that it's an employer's job to keep that spark going, by paying for the development of the developers. And I believe that this is one of the best investments an employer can make. But I'm not willing to make my level of personal passion dependent on my employer. Yes, my employer DOES benefit by the enhanced quality and productivity and creativity that comes from my having attended these conferences, both from a learning-new-things and feeling-more-excitement perspective. But if my employer's too short-sighted to see that, I'm doing it anyway. I'm doing it for the quality of MY daily life.

And to get the latest iSkin for my iPod (in a shade of blue that matches my eyes, of course).

Comments

• Yes...that is her shower curtain in the backgroun.
  And you were going to ask! Okay I am reading the "Head First Java" book. Really great book.

  Posted by: robertx on January 09, 2004 at 11:28 AM

• Passion is the ultimate investment!
  I agree completely. I have paid 'out-of-pocket' to attend conventions; sometimes feeling like I was the only one: and it still didn't matter! (It motivated me to get the very most out of it!)

  My personal passion is distributed computing. Over the years I have been able to get RMI to do such wonderous things, that I made the considerable effort to crystalise my experience, and launch a free framework project here at java.net.

  I was both surprised, and delighted, to see how well it was received. Just yesterday, the very first enhancement, submitted from Norway, was just added to the codebase!

  I attended a first year con because it sounded interesting, and it was driving distance for me: it was a blast! A Linux/SciFi conference called Penguicon. There I met, and had a chance to exchange ideas with two of my all-time idols: Terry Pratchett and Eric S. Raymond! (Eric, in fact, convinced to start the project.)

  Now I will make my next major transition as a con-goer; this year I'll be back at Penguicon, but this time as a presenter! I get to explain the workings of the framework, and about developing a successful open source project. And just maybe; represent Java, in a panel on: "Things every developer must know", with Linux being represented by none other than... ESR himself!

  How's that for passion!

  John

  PS I bought your book (Head First Java) for my son (14) who wanted to understand what all the fuss was, about his father's project. He loves it, and Java is his first programming language!

  Thank you.

  (I think I reviewed nearly every introductory Java book, and your's was by far the best :-)

  Posted by: cajo on January 09, 2004 at 06:14 PM

• passion
  yeah passion is really key, i mean if you're not passionate why do it.

  Miko

  Posted by: mikojava on January 10, 2004 at 02:29 PM

• agree but, oh, the money
  I agree completely with your remarks on conferences and the effect they have on your passion for programming. But I must say that I'm too cheap to pay out of my own pocket for JavaOne flying in from Europe.

  Some conferences I like that are on the European continent are:
  - JAOO in Aarhus Danmark. Not a very big conference so it's possible to rub shoulders with the likes of Martin Fowler (grumpy), Ward Cunningham (uncommunicative typical programmer), Frank Buschmann (with his grave manner and continually wrinkled forhead he seems the Kant of software development) etc. Unfortunately they seem to invite the same bunch of people every time so once was enough.
  - Javapolis in Antwerp. Also a conference that's relatively low on 'vendor-push' and high on interesting software development info.
  - I've frequently been interested by ECOOP thinking the academic world might provide some inspiration. And it is held in these nice cities: Oslo, Lisbon, Cannes etc. But I'm always turned-off by the fact that the really interesting workshops are invitation only.

  If I were living on the North-American continent I'd be interested in the No Fluff Just Stuff conference. Love their subtitle: "All you can eat buffet for the cerebral cortex".

  groetjes,
  Joost de Vries
  the Netherlands

  Posted by: yoozd on January 14, 2004 at 11:24 PM

• Employer eating big cake
  Passion good for heart, bad for stomach.
  Some say heart is first.
  Some say stomach is first.
  Wise say balance is best.

  Posted by: lee on January 15, 2004 at 01:40 AM

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