Why I Write Software

One of my earliest memories:

It's a hot sunny afternoon and I'm sitting on the ground in our driveway. My dad is sitting next to me, his hands covered with grease, showing me parts from a '58 Aston Martin he's working on. I'm asking him questions. "What's that?" "What does it do?" I want him to explain cars to me in terms I can understand at 5 years old. He does.

I began writing software because it was the most satisfying thing I could do. It was more fun than carpentry or machining or electronics because I could make bigger, more complicated things faster and try them out right away.

The summer of my junior year in college a San Francisco company tried to recruit me out of school. "You don't have to wear a tie," I was told, "but you have to wear shoes. We're in banking, after all." That was when I realized I could make a living at it.

Years later I discovered another benefit.

A google search this morning for "+abajian +sputnik +repeat" returns over 800 hits, most of which are citations. A program that I wrote in my first month at the UW MBT lab seven years ago is still in use by molecular biologists today in hundreds, perhaps thousands of labs around the world (judging by the email). It's deeply satisfying to know that I've contributed to so many research projects. I try to think about that when it seems like all I do is go to meetings, or the code is getting the best of me.

I'm very fortunate to have made a career of something I love.