I am a coder and a writer. And it is excruciating to have these two conflicting personalities live within me.
When the coder wants to code, the writer checks his choice of words, the structure of comments, or the depth of documentation—the writer wants the coder to write an essay. The coder wants to bloody put bullet points and commands followed by commands. What ends up happening is that I take minutes to name one method because the writer didn't like my choice of verb. Urghh!
On the other hand, the coder makes life miserable for the writer in me. All the writer wants to do is focus on penning words together. Get coherent and impactful. And all the writer is whispering in his ears is, "Look at that font and the colour scheme of the editor. That doesn't look nice, right? What if there is a better editor? What if you make one?"
All the writer wants to do is read intently, and the coder shouts at him, "Why isn't your website this beautiful? Look how efficiently it uses JavaScript. Or doesn't use it at all?" Anything and everything can get the coder excited.
Boy, given the pain this causes, I'm surprised I am still a coder by profession and a writer by hobby. I, at times, feel they could very well kill each other one day.
This is a rehash of a post I wrote about three years ago. The feelings remain, and the two identities still live within me—fighting but healthy.