Against Boredom Even The Gods Struggle In Vain

Sometimes, programming is fun and fascinating, but sometimes it's very boring. Having to implement the same things over and over tends to make a person bored. And yes, it is often necessary to implement the same things over and over. You have to write a new implementation because you have "lost" the old one, because it is in the wrong language, or is for the wrong platform, or adheres to the wrong coding style or interface style, or is optimized for different things...

The only way to combat boredom during programming, if it occurs, is to code right through it. Write the boring code, test it, get it out of the way. There are also ways to try to prevent the boredom from occurring, but they have to be in place before you write the code for the first time. Things like making sure your code is reusable, or making sure you are on the right language or platform to begin with.

Refactoring might be easier than writing things over again, but refactoring isn't necessarily any more interesting.

Laziness is the real mother of invention.

Any area of endeavor has its boring bits. Accept it and move on.

As an undergraduate, I was excited to be given the opportunity to work on data analysis from the Voyagers I & II spacecraft. Something you've seen in the papers, heard about, etc. I soon discovered that the 'exciting' project was visually sorting through reams of plotted "floating charge vs time" graphs to separate a distinct signature from line noise. (A computer program could narrow down the frames to 0.005% of total, but when you're talking about *years* worth of data...) The principal investigator of the project found me late one afternoon shuffling through frame after frame (ad nauseum)... the only advice he had: "Well, sometimes science can be just plain boring."

-- ChadThompson

--- See also ProgrammingIsNotFun, PlayHurt