The Taxi Driver

The sun was shining. Palm trees were around; my favourite tree. My taxi arrived. I was headed for the airport.

I started chatting with the driver and he told me that he once wrote code. We spoke about his career; what he did before, what he is doing now, and what excites him. He worked for a large company. He started by writing documentation, but grew to enjoy the work less. He transitioned into engineering and told me of a system he built years ago that is still in use today. We spoke about my career, too; our shared appreciation for software fueled the discussion.

I thought to myself “wow!”. Building a software system that lasts is beautiful. I don’t remember the details of what he made, but my read was that it would fall into the category of “uninteresting to most, essential to many.” The kind of software that doesn’t get spoken about every day; the side of software that works in the background, helping a specific audience.

I could sense his eyes light up as we spoke about software, something that I believe I remarked as the journey came to an end. As if he wanted to create more with code. I’ll never know for sure, but that’s what I thought.

We arrived at the airport. I left the taxi, sharing a warm “thank you” for the excellent discussion.