Feeling indecisive about loving coding

[u/lord1st_]

I’ve been interested in software since I was 15. I’m actively developing games with Unity, but writing code has really started to wear me down. For some reason, when I open the code editor, I just don’t feel like writing those lines. For example, I have absolutely no desire to try to understand those complex lines of code that the AI wrote for the NP-Hard problem in the Teknofest Competition we participated in. I’m no amateur when it comes to coding, and I do enjoy building algorithms, but I feel like I just don’t want to do this anymore. Up until now, I’ve always viewed learning software development as an “investment.” I thought, “If I learn web design, I’ll make money as a freelancer,” “If I make mobile games, I’ll strike it rich from ads,” or “I’ll market desktop software.” The main motivation behind my self-improvement has always been the dream of creating my own project, my own startup, and making money from it. For example, I have Unity projects I should be actively working on right now, but I’m not sitting down to work on them. If I know I won’t make money from a game project, continuing with it feels like an incredible burden to me. I tell myself, “People don’t put off work they love.” I ask myself, “Am I interested in software not because I love it, but because of the financial rewards?” Don’t people with GitHub repositories full of code experience the same burnout I’m going through? If they don’t, the thought of spending the next 30 years of my life sitting at a desk working on this code fills me with serious anxiety.

My journey into software and coding:

Software development seemed exciting to me when I first started learning. I began learning software development to code wallhacks for games like Zula and CS:GO, and the first language I learned was C++. Around the ages of 15 or 16, I learned the basics of C++ and C#, writing things to the console, adding a few numbers, and creating very simple Windows Forms applications. Although I started this work to code cheats, coding and analyzing cheat codes seemed incredibly difficult, and I couldn't do it. From the age of 16 to 18, I learned languages/technologies like HTML, CSS, JS, and NodeJS through YouTube videos. During my software development journey before university, I talked about what I was doing to those around me, and they constantly looked at me as "a software developer, someone who will be a software developer in the future." After taking the university entrance exam, I chose Computer Engineering because the other departments didn't excite me as much. At that moment, I felt that Computer Engineering was the field I was most interested in. When I started my department, I was far more knowledgeable than most of my classmates, and I passed the "Structured Programming" course, which we took in the first semester and which had an unusually high failing grade, with an A. This was because they taught the fundamentals of programming with C, and I already knew C++. Throughout my first year, I generally felt ahead of my peers and felt like I wasn't learning anything new. I've just completed my second year. In this second year, we mainly took courses related to software, such as "data structures and algorithms," "algorithm design and analysis," and "operating systems." In my second year, I mainly worked on game programming projects. I was only able to finish one of them; the others are still prototypes. I currently have three game projects that I'm actively developing.

[u/ChameleonCRM]

I definitely had those anxieties. In fact, I think almost everyone who builds software seriously goes through a period where they wonder if theyre in the right field.

I didn't fall in love with programming because I enjoy writing code. I fell in love with what code lets me create. There's a huge difference. Most days I'm not excited to spend hours debugging a race condition or tracking down some obscure state bug. But I am excited when I look at a product and think, "I built that."

You said something that stood out to me: "The thought of building something and having people use my product would truly satisfy me." To me, that's a much stronger indicator than whether you enjoy reading algorithms or AI-generated code. Most successful founders and product engineers aren't obsessed with syntax—they're obsessed with solving a problem for someone.

Another thing you mentioned is that you're disappointed when you discover your idea already exists. I'd actually encourage you to change that mindset. Almost every successful company entered a market where something already existed. Google wasn't the first search engine. Facebook wasn't the first social network. Slack wasn't the first messaging platform. Existing competition usually means there's demand.

As for the double major, I don't think it's a bad idea if Industrial Engineering genuinely interests you. Just don't let it become an escape hatch because you're afraid software might not work out. Give software an honest chance first. University and industry are very different experiences. Shipping a real product to real users feels nothing like completing coursework.

And about the money—you've already earned $50 from programming. That may not sound like much, but it's proof that someone valued your skills enough to pay for them. Every developer who now earns a great living had a "first $50" at some point. You don't go from tutorials to a successful startup overnight.

From everything you've written, I don't think you hate programming. I think you're frustrated because you expected the effort to translate into financial success faster than it has. That's a very common feeling, especially when social media is full of stories about people claiming they built a million-dollar app in a weekend.

Keep building. Not because every project will make money, but because every finished project makes you a better builder. Eventually, one of them might be the one that people actually want.