Before there is a website, there is nothing.
Just an idea.
Maybe it's scribbled on a piece of paper. Maybe it's sitting in someone's head. Maybe it's just a sentence:
"I want to build something that helps people."
Then someone starts writing.
Not with a pen, but with code.
A few lines become a page. A page becomes a navigation bar. The navigation bar leads somewhere else. That page leads somewhere else. A button triggers an action. A form collects information. An API connects one thing to another.
And suddenly, there is a story.
This is why I've started thinking about software engineers differently.
All software engineers are authors, but not all authors are software engineers.
An author writes a story that takes a reader from one point to another.
A software engineer does something surprisingly similar: they create experiences that take users from one state to another.
The difference is that a software engineer doesn't always know which chapter the user will read next.
The user chooses.
It is an act of creation.
You start with nothing but an idea, and through thousands of small decisions, you create something that didn't exist before.
You write the structure.
You write the rules.
You write the interactions.
You write the experience.
And eventually, someone else comes along and experiences the story you wrote.
They may never see your code.
They may never know your name.
They may never realise how many decisions went into the button they just clicked.
But they experience it.
And perhaps that's what makes software engineers authors.
We don't just write stories.
We write stories that people can interact with.