Learn for no reason

Why learn for no reason?

I've been trying to get proficient with TouchDesigner recently. My first project was to try and recreate the visual from Strawberry - Doss the music video. I got pretty close within a couple weeks and showed my friends via Discord screen share.

Quickly I was asked, why are you learning this? Is it for money or just time wasting? I don't think they had malicious intent with the question.. It's ultimately a fair one. You make decent cash, time is "valuable" and you're spending it on something so far from your day to day (Software Engineer).

I answered "more tools in the toolkit". That's generally been my motto from the start.

Why the toolkit matters

You really never know when something you've learned in domain X can apply in domain Y. The overlap across technical disciplines can truly be scary.

I started software by writing video games. 2D arrays as in-game maps. Understanding what static meant when making my enemies class have a static x and static y and watching all 10 share the position.

In TouchDesigners case, I really just wanted a creative outlet that didn't really map to programming. Unfortunately, I am already using the python API to do cool things, but that is besides the point.

Relating TouchDesigner nodes to various logic gates, thinking about things from a system perspective, all of this helps build your engineering brain.

Don't be afraid to learn for no reason

It's okay to explore random topics or things that aren't related to you, how you make money, how you define yourself, etc. Just learn to learn and it makes you more whole.