Why Are Programs Needed? #
If we get a little philosophical, programs aren’t really needed—but like most philosophical intricacies, that line of thought isn’t all that helpful in practice. So, why are programs needed? Simply put: because people want to create/use them.
At their core, programs help solve problems—whether it’s something humans can’t do (like decrypting complex messages), something they just don’t want to do (like performing mathematical operations), or they just want to create programs for the sake of it.
Many programs exist simply because people enjoy creating them. We’re at a point where programming has become a creative discipline—arguably a form of art in its own right. But, of course there’s also the less romantic reason: money. People write programs to get paid. What could be more motivating?
But seriously—programs exist to solve problems. That’s their fundamental purpose. Although, as mentioned earlier, some programs today seem to create more problems than they solve—intentionally or not.
I’m not going to dive into the state of the software industry—partly because I’m not in a position to make grand claims, and partly because that’s not the point. Programming is, at its heart, about expressing an idea and finding a solution.
If your reason for learning programming is money, that’s totally valid. There are still plenty of opportunities out there—even with the constant wave of new LLMs supposedly replacing programmers.
So if you don’t yet see any reason to write programs there’s really no shame in that. People hardly know what they want to do, so thinking through the why while learning (and perhaps being motivated by the sustenance it could provide) is the best that can be done until motivation kicks in.