Art is one of those things that intrigue me a lot. In a way, no one really knows what art is, and is mostly defined by a group or community’s culture. You could say that a painting or a musical piece is art, since you can see the amount of work and the craftsmanship put into it. Would you say that a brick is a piece of art? Sure, a handcrafted one could probably pass as one, or maybe a really old brick that was part of a historically significant period. The point is, what counts as art is just up to debate.

For me, however, art is simply this: tedious. …Well, obviously, that’s not all of it. An office job is tedious; is the act of writing up technical documents and graphs a form of art? Maybe?? Perhaps there is some form of elegance and respect that can be formed when thinking of it, but perhaps not everyone will sympathize. A lot of people see office jobs as excruciating and boring, which I honestly agree with in a way. It’s the same thing with math too: oftentimes, the act of creating a truly elegant solution, or even multiple solutions to prove without fault that something really is true is something very beautiful. Obviously, if all you remember from mathematics is memorizing alien-like symbols, formulas, and properties during an all-nighter before a huge exam, maybe you won’t really like math that much.

You may be thinking, “So… Where are you going with this?” Art is in the eye of the beholder; it is completely subjective if something can be considered art. Which brings me to the tediousness of art: how can someone even bear to put who-knows-how much time into practicing an art… Just for the sake of doing art?

You could argue that artists do make up for that time by selling their work: publishing books, selling paintings, getting commissions, and so on. A lot of people see art as a way to earn money as well. But… Why? Why would you put so much time learning a skill for a specific form of art, when you can spend half that time learning something practical instead? Why be a sculptor and hone your craft for decades and risk the loss of profits for starting out as an obscure artist, when you can spend only about 6 years learning to be a doctor and slowly working your way up to a high-paying career? Why not just be a lawyer and get paid by huge law firms or rich clients? Why invest your time in something that people pass off as a “hobby”?

I made this because of what I’ve been feeling as a “techy” person. Technologies and computers are incredibly complex topics, ranging from how electrons can flow from one point to another, to how different devices can interact with each other, and to how different programs can interact with one another to create a proper abstraction for a user to be able to use a computer. I’m not even gonna attempt to say that I know at least half of everything about computers. Everyday, I try to learn more and more about topics like this, constantly having to take in new ideas and terms for the sake of learning something new. It’s tedious and tiring, for lack of a better term.

And yet I still persevere. Perhaps it is because of my fear that all of the effort that I’ve put into this will be put into waste? In a way, of course it is. But it’s not like I’m forcing myself to do this, begrudgingly trying to look at the monitor of my laptop just to figure out this new unknown idea that I haven’t heard of.

And so I’ll keep going. And going. And going and going and going until my body decomposes into nothingness. After all, that’s what makes me human. I’ll be the greatest programmer this world has ever seen. Everyone will marvel at my great intellect, and people all over the world will know my name. Maybe that’s not possible right now, but maybe, just maybe, it’ll push me even further to keep doing what I’m doing right now. Although, it’s not like I’m gonna stop anytime soon.

Anyways, I just needed to get it out there. It’s not like anything I said is completely groundbreaking.