A colleague mentioned this the other day in the company chat:
I like coding. It's like knitting.
This is the perfect description of programming to me.
I've yet to discover a more suitable response to tell family, friends, and my girlfriend when they ask the repeated question "What is it you love so much about coding?!".
While I'm writing code, I'm:
- focusing on complex but isolated problems with a clearly marked goal.
- watching a movie with my girlfriend.
- gettings things done without thinking.
- blocking out other things, for a moment.
- getting to be creative.
Sounds like knitting!