I wish I could think of a persuasive reason to get back into software development.
Sure, I use software constantly. It’s habitual now. Often, I wish I didn’t.
I could write longhand. Though it would be horrible (I’m left-handed), and probably give me a cramp. I could send paper letters, draw with pencils, and otherwise go analog. Except for all the social and bureaucratic systems that make a computer or smartphone mandatory.
Once upon a time, I wanted to make video games. I play them often, but I have… doubts.
But, software. How much of it is really useful, and how much of it is mostly a distraction, or an unnecessary complication?
Even when it starts out with noble intentions, it often consumes and destroys what it was initially meant to support. Driven by corporate or bureaucratic motives, most software only wears the skin of some former human activity. It’s quite creepy.
I’m using software right now. Obviously. Is it better than if I wasn’t using it? Will sharing this on the Internet with strangers accomplish anything truly meaningful? It’s certainly faster to type and edit on a computer.
But to make new software means that existing software is insufficient. I should, probably, find some existing software that needs help. I keep telling myself that, but I seem to have lost the passion. Because I’ve lost the thread of connection between software and real change for the better. And I’ve too often seen the harm that it does.
Even when software is not explicitly harmful, it seems to consume a lot of time and energy, without much to show for it. It isn’t making society better. It’s not making us—collectively—smarter. But maybe that is too much to hope for.
So I ask, who is doing good, irrespective of software, and could better software help them?
But the first question is the most important: who is doing good? And the second question should be: what can I do to help them, whether with better computation, or some other way?