Having fun again

I've been a coder for a long time, so long ago I used to store my code on cassette tapes.  it was a *lot* of fun.

Then I grew up, had kids, left my fun but low paying research project at the university and started coding Java for money.

I went deep into the dark side: Oracle stored procedures, waterfall, TPF reports, meeting to schedule meetings.. the whole nine yards!  I did this for 10+ years and it was not fun at all ( it did pay the bills and then some!)

Then one holiday break wanting to learn a bit about Python, I decided to re-write an old anagram puzzle maker I had coded time ago in Java to Python..

Hmm.. no static typing, less verbose, the code just flowed. one day after.. Wow! from 800 lines in Java down to less than 500 python lines on my first draft!  

Next I discovered map, filter, reduce! amazing! the LOC dropped to < 200! and it was still quite readable! Man, this is fun! lets go for some code golf !

By the time the holiday ended, I got down to 87 lines of code.. hard to read code (lots of list comprehensions) but 87 lines non the less!

Now please forget the 87 lines of unreadable code issue, the point of this story is I was having fun again and that day I decided life is too short for a one hour commute to a depressing job.

It has been 4 years since then, I code mostly in Python/Django, I take projects that allow me to work mostly from home, I get to pick up my kids from school, I do challenging stuff and I when I discount day care, gas, lunch outside, and such, I am making almost as much as I did before with a 100% improvement on my family's life.

I am having fun again and I am not having to fight with a cassette recorder to give me my code back!

nmmm brrriiip riiip rip riiiip rip (for the ones of you old enough to know what that noise means)