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Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

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121–130 of 570 posts

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#121

Programming is a creative art, and when I say that to my non-programmer friends, they laugh it off, but if you think about it, it is true. Just like artists, the programmers, coders, developers all design and create new things that didn't exist before, and no 2 programs or applications or completely functioning code will be identical for anything other than a fizzbuzz type test. So it is natural for the creatives to…

Programming involves very little creativity compared to actual art, so to call it a "creative art" is a gross exaggeration. A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical. This doesn't even compare to the creativity involved in a real artistic endeavor like designing your own videogame, writing your own screenplay, or composi…

The latter will be done with four chords ;)

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#122
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask how you got started in the field? I actually began my career in Accounting (my undergrad is in it), and still find the world of finance pretty interesting. Somewhere along the line I ended up in Engineering and have been a Software Dev ever since. But I do still think about getting into trading at some point, but not sure how to transition.

How does an accountant end up in "engineering" without going back to Uni and doing an engineering degree?

Universities have a vested self interest in controlling who can join a profession, they would prefer it if every worker everywhere needed a degree. Just look at the slow assimilation of vocational studies into uni courses (stuff like wine making, nursing, etc.)

It is needed in some cases, you want people to be properly educated, but that's only when the tuition is necessary for that education.

Engineering (software) probably doesn't for the most part, and I think most people resent the hoops they have to jump through because a university wants to stay relevant, hence the down votes.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#123

Was a programmer and researcher in AI and security for 20 years. 15 years ago was feeling burned out and started looking for a financial planner for my family. I fell down the rabbit hole learning everything about the field and with the birth of my third child 14 years ago, I quit my job and opened my own business as a financial planner. Programming and computer research went back to being a pure passion. And I haven…

So do you still program, recreationally?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#124
Yes. But honestly most jobs i think are interesting too would get boring pretty fast and are badly paid in comparison.

The only reason i even thought about that is to have more joy in programking after work.

I fixed it by quitting my job and going digital nomad.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always figure that programming is the only thing that allows me to farm.

Eh ? Care to explain what you mean ?

I was referring to the capital intensive nature of the business. My fairly lucrative programming career is what keeps my farm operating. Being able to leave programming to farm is a long way off for me yet.

If you have family willing to hand down the business or already independently wealthy, then maybe leaving programming to farm is more realistic.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#127

Yes, I want to do something more meaningful than build and maintain web CRUD apps. Despite the media perpetuating this notion that there's a shortage of engineers, I actually feel that this field, particularly the web space (where most of the actual jobs are), is starting to get really saturated. And from a job security perspective, the barriers to entry are fairly low. These days I'm most interested in economics and…

Well said. If sectors like teaching, journalism were as rewarding as software. We could evolve a bit faster.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#128

I'm mostly happy with programming, but I often think I'd like to try working in a coffee shop, especially a Starbucks. I spend so much time in cafes as a customer, and I really appreciate the difference that a barista's smile or greeting can make to my day. I'm curious to experience that from the other side for a while. I also read books about retail businesses & brands & Starbucks & customer experience for enjoyment…

> I'm mostly happy with programming, but I often think I'd like to try working in a coffee shop, especially a Starbucks.

This line is beautiful. :)

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#129
post #31

Left to work in equities after 5 years of software dev. I find the work much more stimulating mentally, as you learn about the world and how business works, not just abstractions. Luckily there is still a lot of use from my old skill set, and I suspect there will be more as time goes on.

Interesting. I actually had the opposite experience. I majored in Economics and worked in commercial banking for a number of years, then moved to Chicago and took a job at a proprietary trading firm, mostly trading Grain contracts intra-exchange. It was incredibly fun, extremely lucrative, but also pretty stressful. That being said, it was great trading from 9:30 am to 1:15 PM, then calling it a day, heading to a ball game, taking in sun. Then of course, 2009 came along, I and a bunch of my peers were laid off by 2010, some of us (including myself) were actually profitable on the year. The firm as a whole really took it on the chin, and a few years later I found out they closed shop. Probably some errant trades in Treasuries or Eurodollars.

In any case, I'd already moved on. I started dabbling in web development in 2008, but by 2010 the Chicago startup scene was taking hold. I got involved, taught myself how to code mostly in Ruby. I had learned QBasic and VBA when I was a kid, and plenty of Matlab at the trading firm, so you could say I had some knowledge, but nothing career worthy at the time. I did the Michael Hartl tutorial for Rails. Started working on an overly ambitious startup idea that went no where. At some point I stopped applying for trading jobs. It occurred to me that I've never been so passionate about anything in my life. I could spend 24 hours straight trying to solve a problem like it was some kind of puzzle that needed to be solved. I redid my resume and quickly went from getting 1-2 hits on my resume a week for trading, to 6-7 hits a day for programming. Ruby on Rails had taken off and demand was soaring. I took a bunch of contract jobs, making $40 an hour. I still remember reporting that I worked on something for 4 hours even though it really took me 12 hours or more. I faked it until I made it. And it worked. Now, I know some 6-7 different languages quite well, and I'm respected by all of my peers.

The thrill of solving a problem still hasn't gotten old for me. Maybe some of the juvenile bro-ish culture has, but the challenges are getting more and more exciting by the day. I'm experimenting with home automation and AWS lambda on my free time, dabbling in hardware.

Now, 6+ years later I have the title of Senior Software Engineer. I've been a lead, I've mentored other developers. I work from home, have the flexibility to live and travel anywhere I please. I couldn't ask for a better career. I've made it a point to learn as much about all the little things that graduate students like to lord over us non CS wielding engineers' heads. I can hold my own and I'm proud of the choices and dumb luck that got me here. To me it is an incredibly rewarding and creative endeavor and I'm still as curious to learn as I was when I started some 6-7 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#130

I currently work in a good environment where I'm appreciated and paid well. Not many people in the world can say that, so I have a lot to be thankful for. Programming has done good by me. But I don't love it. Alan Kay is right, it's like building "an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves". There's no eleg…

> smart but artless

This is why it's so important for me to work on something people use.

At a previous job I'd sometimes hit a wall. I would log into one of the production API hosts and tail -f the access logs, where I'd see many different people and applications using a piece of software that I'd help write. I'd grab an IP address and geolocate it and see where the person was from.

The humanization of work can be extremely powerful. It reminds you that you're providing value to the world, that you've created something useful even if it sometimes feels so pointless.

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