Watch A Programmer's Teenage Daughter Talk About Her Dad's Job

Kathleen Villaluz

Am I the only one who thinks programmers are cool? Based on this interview, it seems like the younger generations are completely unaware and oblivious of the technical efforts behind the gadgets they love using. In this video, Chris Hawkes tries his best to capture his daughter's interest in computer programming and gives her a short history of the origins of programming algorithms.

As an engineering graduate, I have used some software that requires a bit of programming or scripts such as Matlab. I have also used simple coding languages like C++ to analyze simple structures. Before you know it you're already fluent in speaking a virtual language - the coding language! C, C#, C++, Java, Fortran, Python and the list goes on. From the video, Hawkes explained to his daughter that many everyday gadgets only function because of programming. It's amazing to think that such a man-made range of virtual languages can manipulate almost everything in our lives.

If you're a programmer you'd believe me when I say that I lost a whole night of sleep trying to look for a coding error and only became stressed and frustrated when I discovered that it was only a semi-colon (;) that infiltrated my programming script!

Hawkes' daughter is witness to this kind of frustration as she told her father how she hears him screaming in frustration during his early coding days. The father and daughter also discussed how much time Hawkes invest in programming even after working hours.

Well, Chris, you're not the only one. Some of us have been down that road too and I tell you, it's one frustrating and narrow path. At the same time, it's also so rewarding when the code finally works!