What made me want to be a developer?

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a film director.

There is still a possibility that I can be a director. With YouTube, I can upload a short film that I recorded and edited on my phone…and voilà, I am a director.

Being a developer is like being a director. A director creates. Well, a developer creates too.

I want to Build Stuff to Improve People’s Lives

And with web development, the developer doesn’t even need a lot. It still amazes me that you need a text editor (I prefer VS Code) and a browser (Chrome), and you can create a fantastic web application. You don’t need a powerful computer or fancy developer tools.

I wanted to be a developer when I realized that a developer could create with basic (and free) tools.

I wanted to create and build stuff. And to help people improve their lives.

Being a developer allows me to do that. I can create a web app that can improve the lives of others.

My first web app was a breathing and meditation app — a simple app created with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

It satisfied the part of me that wants to build stuff. And it fulfilled the part of me that wants to help people - breathing and meditation can increase happiness and reduce anxiety.

Using my developer skillset, I can create web apps to help people that cost little money to myself and those I want to help. It does cost me time to learn the developer skills to build the web app. But that is time well spent, which leads me to the second reason I want to be a developer.

Exercising my Brain

Sometimes I can get in a rut and live on autopilot. I don’t do anything to push my brain. And that is not good. We need to exercise our brain so it doesn’t become mush. Exercising your brain helps prevent cognitive decline, increases mental capacity, and improves memory.

I needed to challenge my brain, and when I got interested in wanting to build web apps - I found my brain exercise - coding.

Coding makes my brain exercise from aligning elements on the web page to figuring out how to save data to a database to set up a local and cloud environment for your web app.

There are days I want to shake my computer because I keep getting errors, but eventually, I figure out what is causing the issue or find a workaround that makes the issue obsolete. All of that is exercising my brain. And it doesn’t feel like a chore like physical exercise because I am also working on something I love - building stuff that helps other people.

Summing it up (TL;DR)

What made me want to be a developer?

To create and build stuff. Being a developer, I can make a web app with little monetary investment.

To help improve other people’s lives. Being a developer, I can create a breathing and meditation app. I am working on a web app where people can read stories of others receiving gratitude that AI generates. Reading gratitude stories can reduce anxiety, increase motivation, and be optimistic.