John Derek Campbell

Featured image CC BY-SA 3.0: Petr Janeček | StackOverflow

“Hello, World!” is the simple phrase that programmers often learn to output (print) first from a variety of languages. There’s not a feeling much like typing in a line or two of code, compiling it as necessary, and hitting execute to reveal the computer repeating back to you these two words.

Is it life? Nay, not quite. However, if anything was born, it would be the endless possibilities that programming offers a developer. Indeed, the thoughts of the birth of a new creation are well known in the community. “A labor of love”, some developers say about their product. “It’s a project I’ve nurtured from its infancy now well into something mature.”

On the other hand, experienced developers might also describe their feelings while developing similarly to a parent handling a temporarily unruly child. “Tempermental, illogical, overall frustrating.”

But through the trials, over the missed semi-colons, and perhaps with some tears and choice words later, that “Hello, World” finally transcends into more than that one-liner: a vast photorealistic world for interactive gameplay that brings players into an engrossing and thrilling narrative, a robust payment system backed by extensive quality assurance and triggered alerts, or a new social media platform enriching users with new ways of sharing ideas, victories, or momentary setbacks.

I am a developer, but a human first and foremost. Creation is the result of many days, weeks, months, or years of labor and perseverance. My ideology around what I create is to develop efficient and performant code delivering relevant, user-friendly, and highly results-oriented products for end users.

Google’s motto used to be, “Do no harm”. I am not certain if they still actively advertise that or use it as a core value, but even if not, that continues to be the ideal I operate on.

Let’s get to it.