I sometimes scroll my feed and see the same thing over and over: a photo of an IDE, a black terminal, or someone’s 2+ monitors with the caption 'coding'. You can almost feel the pride in every pixel.

Pride in what exactly? In sitting in front of a monitor and hitting keys? Programming is just a job. Like being a surgeon, a builder or a courier. You do not see posts like: 'Cutting people open. Proud.' or 'Laying bricks. Achievement.' In those professions the results speak for themselves.

The problem is different: a huge chunk of the industry writes code that does not make life better. Often the opposite. Ad exchanges, betting, dark patterns, endless monetisation funnels. All this architecture exists only to squeeze money out of people and brings no real benefit. Is working on that really something to be proud of?

An unpopular thought: a programmer who spends their whole life 'programming' at work for KPIs and does not even have any pet projects often brings less value to the world than a courier. A courier delivers food, goods, letters, and their basic activity has a clear benefit here and now by making life easier for hundreds of thousands of people. 'Development for the sake of development' often revolves around someone else’s profit metrics.

Do not confuse a craft with a heroic act. You should not be proud of the fact that 'I write code', but of the effect: what exactly got better? For whom? How measurably? Exactly the same as in any other profession.

I try to follow this logic and my own principles and I am not proud of the fact that I work in IT (by the way, I have now been working for more than 15 years), but that I lead infrastructure as Head of Infrastructure in one of the largest blockchain companies in the world and every day design and build systems that support part of the new global economy.

In parallel at Improvy OÜ we are building a product against spam in Telegram so that communication in groups is cleaner and calmer. Also, a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, when people were suddenly deprived of access to something basic, unbiased information, I launched a completely free VPN service, InoVPN (currently frozen). It was great to see lots of users sign up who cared about access to information rather than using a VPN for illegal activity. During the whole time there was not a single complaint about unlawful actions through my VPN service, even though it was quickly blocked by censorship in Russia.

What matters to me is not a selfie with VS Code but that the service actually works and people get real value from it. That is largely why I have still not really learned how to 'sell' what I do, my products speak for me. It is often enough for me just to see mentions of Fullyst on Reddit or when someone adds Fullyst to a chat I am already in.

I admit this needs to change, but if (or when) I start writing about myself and giving advice, I will not be proud of my job title and daily routine. I will be proud of how much the things I create or help create improve people’s lives and at the same time help me earn a living.