The absolute most fun activity in the world

(no, it's not what you think.)

When I was but a child, I imagined that the coolest thing in the world would be Flying.

I wanted to be a bird, or, if necessary, a pilot. As things worked out, I never did sprout wings, nor did I learn to fly a plane.

Cut forward to now, I've ended up as a computer programmer. I guess I'll never know just how much fun I'm missing out on.

Luckily, I have a friend who is both a commercial airline pilot and a programmer. (He writes airline safety systems)

He became interested in programming initially for practical reasons; he needed to track information efficiently. But over time, he's really gotten into it. He writes excellent applications.

Here's the thing: he told me recently that programming is more fun than flying a plane.

;-) So there you go. No regrets. Programming is the absolute most fun activity in the world.

'Craig' on Fri, 08 Sep 2006 18:07:08 GMT, sez:

I love to program but I would give it up for flying if it paid as well. I don't fly anymore because it costs a fortune but I can tell you that flying a small plane is a blast (something I have never said about programming). Sounds like your friend found the best of both worlds.

'Jan' on Sun, 10 Sep 2006 23:13:54 GMT, sez:

Well there's flying and there's flying. Piloting a comercial jet is just driving a bus through the sky. Programming is fun and all, but if you want to really blow your mind, take up hang-gliding or paragliding and find out what being a bird feels like. I just spent eight hours flying the coast this weekend, and there's nothing that compares to this.
Pity there's no money in it! By the way, programmers are way overrepresented in the free flying community.

'lb' on Sun, 10 Sep 2006 23:19:34 GMT, sez:

>programmers are way overrepresented in the free flying community

this doesn't suprise me too much. i've often noticed programmers who blog about their other hobby -- flying. jeff prosise springs to mind (http://www.wintellect.com/Weblogs/default,date,2005-05-02.aspx)

cheers
lb

'John Burns' on Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:02:58 GMT, sez:

I'm a full time programmer and hold a New Zealand private pilots license.

I'm telling you from experience, if I was to take my best moment in programming (Solving a problem in the number of lines inversely proportion to its difficulty) and my best moment of flying (not sure if it would be precision landings or aerobatics) they don't even come close.

Aviation as a hobby or interest is way more fun. Nothing compares to being able to fly a couple of friends 100 nautical miles for lunch to some random cafe. Most of my friends are not geeks and wouldn't appreciate sitting around the glow of my monitor enjoying the piece of art that is my code.

'Chris' on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:19:19 GMT, sez:

>programmers are way overrepresented in the free flying community

I disagree! I'm a JEE developer and I have been paragliding for 3 years now... I love both and find they compliment each other. One for my mind, the other for my soul. I also know at least two other IT guys in my local club.

Cheers!

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