The Adventure of “Likes” and “Interests” - Prelude: Chapter 1

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Prelude: Can What We Like Become Our Job? - Chapter 1

"I am a system engineer. I have been programming since I was 8 years old."

When I say this, people often think, "Oh, so your hobby became your job!" But for me, it wasn’t such a simple straight path. Because of that, I sometimes feel a little unsure when people assume that.

For me, programming is a hobby that I have continued for many years, on and off, that is true. But if someone asks, "Do you love programming?" I would say, "Hmm... I'm not sure." There are people in the world who are super programming nerds. So, can I really say I "love" programming at my level? Also, if programming disappeared from the world, I don’t think I would have withdrawal symptoms or anything.

I have believed for many years that "using each person's 'likes' leads to the best result for everyone." At least for myself, I think I have been able to follow the path of exploring my own "likes." But then, what exactly is this "like" that I am talking about? I can’t explain it in just one word, so I want to write about my journey with "career" and "likes."

Childhood Dreams for the Future

When I was in kindergarten, the adults around me asked, "What is your dream for the future?"

I thought, "A kindergarten kid doesn't have a real dream for the future." But I just gave the usual answer: "I want to be a cake shop owner! Because I can eat cakes!" At the same time, I secretly thought, "But you can't eat the cakes you sell..."

When I entered elementary school, I read the "Great People of the World" manga series. I thought, "I want to be the main character in a manga like this in the future!"

But Helen Keller was impossible for me. I wasn't very good at piano, so Mozart was also impossible. I was bad at sports, so Babe Ruth was impossible too. Then I thought, "Well, my grades are good, so maybe I can be like Schweitzer?" So I said, "I want to be a doctor in the future!"

By the way, why did I want to be in the "Great People of the World" manga series?

In that manga, most of the main characters had a story from their childhood, with a narration like: "People around them didn’t understand, but deep inside, they were thinking about many things..."

At that time, adults often called me "selfish Sato-chan." So I thought, "If I appear in the manga, they will write: 'People said she was selfish, but deep inside, she was thinking about many things...'"

It was, well... a bit of a selfish reason. And, of course, not realizing that Schweitzer wasn’t just a doctor—that just shows how much of a child I was.

When I was in the upper grades of elementary school, I started to realize that I was drawn to mechanic-related jobs. Whenever I watched anime and saw characters building, repairing, or maintaining airplanes, robots, or spaceships, I would get excited and think, "Wow, that’s so cool!"

But I never really connected that feeling to a realistic future. In my elementary school graduation album, I wrote my future dream as:

"I want to make Doraemon!"

Looking back at my later career path and current interests, that wasn’t a lie. But at the time, I didn’t see "a dream" as the same thing as "a job."

The First Time I Thought About a Real Job

So, the first time I seriously thought about a specific job was when I was in my first year of high school. I wanted to be a game programmer.

Going back to my elementary school days, when Dragon Quest III was released, it caused a huge boom. Many related goods were sold, and among them was a manga called "The Making of Dragon Quest."

When I read it, I was deeply moved by how a group of people worked together to create a game. I especially loved the scene at the end, where Koichi Sugiyama played the Loto Theme on the piano over the phone, and the developers listened, feeling a sense of fulfillment and taking a well-earned rest. Around that time, I had just started learning programming, so I clearly remember thinking:

"Someday, I want to create a game with a team, just like this."

Then, in high school, I came across a special feature in a game magazine called "Become a Game Programmer!" It introduced things like technical schools and career paths, and for the first time, I felt a real connection between what I wanted to do and an actual job.

But later, for three reasons, I completely gave up on that idea.

Reason 1: The Rise of Next-Gen Consoles

Around that time, PlayStation and other next-generation consoles were becoming popular. The gaming world was shifting toward beautiful 3D graphics, and the atmosphere was like: "The future of games is all about amazing 3D visuals!"

But I loved the simple games on Famicom, Super Famicom, and Game Boy. I started to feel that what I wanted to do and what I wanted to create didn’t quite match the direction the industry was going. (Though later, when Pokémon became a big hit on Game Boy, I wondered if I had given up too soon...)

Reason 2: "Don't Turn Your Hobby Into a Job"

Since middle school, I had been using PC communication and sometimes met people from online communities in real life.

Back then, in the mid-1990s, not many middle or high school students used PC communication. The community was mostly made up of 70% working adults and 30% university students, and I joined in as one of the few younger members.

At one of these meetups, I mentioned, "I'm thinking about becoming a game programmer." Then, a working adult told me:

"You shouldn’t turn your hobby into a job. If your hobby becomes work, you won’t have an escape when things get tough."

Hearing that, I thought, "I see… maybe that’s how it is."

Reason 3: I Had Achieved Making a Game with a Team

This was probably the biggest reason.

In my high school club, I actually achieved what I had dreamed of doing—creating a game with a team. In the computer club I was in, we usually displayed games made by club members at the school festival. But in my second and third year, for some reason, I was the only one who could program.

So I thought, "Then let’s make a game together!"

I called on my clubmates, and a member who loved drawing became the illustrator, a member who liked making music handled the BGM, a member who wanted to write novels and learn word processing took charge of the story, and I created the base system for the game.

And somehow, we made it happen!

The last-minute rush I had always dreamed of actually happened on the day of the school festival. We were saying things like: "This part isn’t finished yet!", "The new script is ready! Let’s secretly replace it!"

The only thing we couldn’t do was "staying overnight, working all night, and waking up after sleeping on the floor." (Unfortunately, we were still high school students, so that wasn’t possible.)

Whenever I thought, "I want to try this!", all I had to do was say, "Let’s do it!", and somehow, we made it happen. Because of that, by the time I graduated high school, I felt like I had done almost everything I wanted to do.

Choosing a Major Without Tying Myself Down

Since I was on an internal advancement track, I had to choose my university major in my third year of high school.But I remember feeling frustrated and thinking:

"How can I decide now when I don’t even know what I’ll be interested in a year from now? I don’t want to tie myself down for the next four years!"

Looking back, I realize that by this time, I had already understood that what I want to do can change depending on the people I meet and the experiences I have.

In the end, I chose my university major while telling myself:

"I’ll choose what I’m interested in at this moment, but this choice won’t tie me down. If I become interested in something else, I can follow that instead."

Then, I submitted Mechanical Engineering as my first choice—because I still hadn’t made Doraemon yet.

to be continued..

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