While writing my why I make games post, I found myself comparing to why I make web apps. True, I grew up in games, but I also grew up using the internet for everything, and my interactions with it have shaped who I am. When I was playing Star Wars Galaxies, I was also prolific on the game’s online forums, selling items on eBay (sorry, I was a kid!), reading Allakhazam game guides daily to figure out what the hell I was doing, and more. In some ways, these apps shaped my overall experiences more than the games themselves.
It continues into my adult life too. Don’t get me started on how much misery CoverOregon and Healthcare.gov have caused me personally. On the flipside, I adore Todoist and use it every day. I think Plex is one of the coolest pieces of software around (and it’s basically free!). So many sites have been core to my life at different points in time, how could I not try my hand at building some? What I came to appreciate about these apps is that ultimately they had one thing in common: time.
While software can change the world on a massive scale–and it would be awesome (if scary) to work on something of that magnitude–what I love about it is that software saves people time, and time is valuable to everybody. Given enough time and freedom, people do incredible things. I don’t need to write an app to solve world hunger when I can write an app which can save enough time for other people to. Which is good because I don’t know the first thing about doing that!
Time is worth saving, but there’s more beyond that. On top of saving you time, good software can save you frustration. Sure, filling out your taxes online is much faster than doing them on paper, but it’s also so much less mentally exhausting (when it works, but that’s another post!). Life is full of these kinds of necessary tasks which we have to make sure to complete “or else”.
These chores cost not just the time they took, but also the willpower needed to get yourself to do them instead of something less…awful. The more we minimize the time and effort drained by these tasks, the more people can do what truly matters to them. For some folks, I hope that is solving world hunger. For others, just helping give them more time to spend with their loved ones is plenty.
In a way, what software does is help me to to create freedom. It lets me automate stuff I don’t like doing, freeing me from chores. It helps me to efficiently learn whatever I need to, giving me the confidence to pursue my goals. It frees my mind from having to remember unnecessary information. It keeps me in touch with my friends and family, freeing me from worry and isolation. The list goes on.
That’s what it comes down to: software has the power to help people live happier, more fulfilling lives. That’s something I’m privileged to be a part of. This power extends to me too, as I find writing code personally fulfilling. Programming has a level of creative expression that I think people tend to overlook, as well as incredible depth of knowledge to explore. I’m always learning, always growing, and through it all, building software which saves myself (and hopefully numerous others) time and frustration. So that’s why I make software. Because software is amazing and I love building it.