Sharing Is Caring, Your Code

Written by

Walter G.

Published on

December 22 2016

Modified on

July 22 2020

Filed under

programming

To many programmers, their code is like their legacy on this earth. Or like their children. You pick the metaphor. Their legacy/child that no one must know about ever. The one that stays hidden in a cave like enclosure full of bats and such. Because one day, when the city is ready, it will appear. And to me it was no different. I have dozens, maybe even hundreds, of scripts that I've created during the past 10 years in a multitude of languages and frameworks and I use many of them in my day to day work. But many more never see the light of day. They're fun to build in the moment, but soon after they become a distant memory and I get too lazy to figure out how they work. And so they just sit there, and at some point they fade away into nothingness.

And I'm not alone. I've worked with dozens of programmers in my time and they were all talented in their own rights. We all think differently, and so we all program differently. We can each solve various problems and more importantly, we've all picked up a tremendous amount of knowledge along the way.

programming is deep...

Many different people in many different fields horde knowledge. It builds a sense of self-worth and frankly, in this day and age, I get it. That knowledge doesn't come cheap unfortunately. If anybody wants a taste of this knowledge, it's going to cost them. You're looking at a good 10-20k maybe in student loan debt or maybe even more in order to learn a few concepts that may or may not ever show up in your life after school. But it's your knowledge, and if it's going to cost you then it's going to cost somebody else too. But maybe it's time to change that mentality. Obviously, if the knowledge is worth gaining, a student loan would definitely be worth considering (read more), as expert knowledge is extremely valuable in all areas.

Let's check our egos

So maybe we don't have the best code on the planet. That's a tough realization for many, but it's the truth. Your best code today, is your worst code next year. Just try it. Write a function today that does something arbitrarily simple. And then tuck it away and look at it in 6 months. After the self loathing goes away, just remember that this means you are better now. The worst thing that could happen to your code if you release it into the wild is that it will get better without you. And the best thing that can happen is that it will help somebody out there get one step closer to completing a project and that your code will mature and grow along with it.

Even companies such as Tesla, have gone ahead and open-sourced their electric vehicle patents in order to open the way for current car manufacturers to enter the electric world. And that's an important realization, because the future of technology and innovation doesn't lie in one person. Tesla's (Nikola) come around rarely in this reality. And more than likely, you are not said Tesla and you will not discover how the Earth's rotation can provide eternal power. (But prove me wrong please) But you can solve a problem. And that problem can help solve another problem. And in 10 years, you're one solution can lead to a wonderful discovery that nobody can see right now.

sharing is caring

If you're weary about sharing your code for now, you can help someone else out with theirs on Github or other open-source project sites. Help debug a function, or help a new project take off. You can jump on StackOverflow and browse for some questions with hard to reach answers and give your 2 cents. Someone down the line will thank you for your minutes and or hours of your caring time.

For me personally, I've always been protective of my code. For a few reasons. For one, there's this whole possessive attitude that I mentioned above that comes with programming. And that starts with college and ends with your salary. You're worth "x" amounts and that's what you expect at the end of the day. But more so than that, I think is the mentality that our work isn't good enough. Sure our function does the job, but it's just that. A part of the job. Nobody would want to use our credit card validator tool, or our calendar widget or our login system. At least, that's what we tell ourselves as we sit in our cubicles. Take it from me personally, that is not at all the case. During the past few years on this blog I've written tutorials on how to use certain libraries and frameworks. It's hard work, but there's something about this whole "helping each other" thing that I like.

And the kind messages that I get from people who find my code useful is more than enough thanks. So going forward I hope to share much more code and many more modules that I myself use and that may or may not help someone out there in the ethos that is programming. In every programmer's career, they will encounter moments where they just finished coding something and that sense of pride kicks in. They've given life to something new, exciting and useful. Now if every programmer shared just one of those ideas with the rest of the world, we'd have much more room for innovation.

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