Very. Used to be an accountant. It is much more satisfying to create something.
Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
231–240 of 549 posts
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would suggest looking in the mirror ;) Let's be honest. Freelancers are not there to find "interesting clients". They are a temporary resource that enables a client to get a job done they under-resourced. You have a choice as a freelancer 1) Become money focused. Earn as much as you can for as long as you can. 2) Become idea focused. Earn as much as you can until you have enough to bootstrap the idea. Rinse and rep…
Dumb question .. how does one go about getting started as a freelancer? Are there agencies or some other mechanism to get you started? Specifically, interested in how to get started in North America.
There really is no secret. Just go do it.
If you're serious about it then incorporating becomes a good idea to protect your assets.
I would suggest starting with family and friends at reduced rates to build a portfolio.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#233Watch out for repetitive strain injuries and high stress levels. Don't burn yourself out. Keep work at work, even though it may be tough because you love what you do. Make sure your current job and product are aligned with your goals in life. Be passionate about what you are working on. Keep yourself challenged and you will love it all. Don't undervalue yourself. Make an impact and change the world.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know this cooperative(aka socialism :) sounds good on paper but it does not work most of the time in real life. If someone takes a risk to build something valuable, he/she deserves to get rich.
Paying people the same value they contribute is not socialism. It's called: Being a good person. Capitalism seems to have made us all think it's completely okay to exploit someone else's surplus labour. How is the risk the founder takes that different to Employee #1's? Their payout is usually vastly different, but their contribution not so much.
> Paying people the same value they contribute is not socialism. It's called: Being a good person. I am sorry but the whole disagreement is on what value a worker contributes.
According to Capitalism and Capitalism supporters, a productive activity is the sum of (Land/raw materials + Labor + Capital). Capital is nothing but deferred consumption. If you don't consume what you could consume, then that constitutes as capital.
When you say that Capitalism exploits another's surplus labor, what you don't understand is that the Capitalist pays for that surplus labor via capital (or time). Any worker in Capitalism is entitled to the full share of the profit as long as he does not expect wages to be paid out immediately, and that he is willing to wait until the profits pour in.
Because most labor is paid immediately, and workers have no risk or delayed consumption, they don't get the share from the profit.
Karl Marx noticed this phenomenon, but was unable to understand the role of Capital(and yea I know he wrote a whole book on this concept). To him, careful inspection revealed a 'conspiracy theory' among the capitalists which he dubbed as class struggle and class interest.
> How is the risk the founder takes that different to Employee #1's? Funny thing is when people talk about a cooperative, it's no different than an early stage equity startup where nobody gets paid a salary. The moment a cooperative pays salary before the revenue, it will need capital and the person providing the capital would deserve a bigger share from the profits.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#235I worked in landscaping and then as a custodian making $7/hr before I started learning to code. Working as a programmer has transformed my life. I've got a lot of autonomy in my days, I enjoy solving technical problems, I get to work from home and see my 2yr old grow up. Yeah it sucks when your manager puts heavy deadlines on your team, or having to do things you don't necessarily agree with, or navigating corporate…
I have a side question, did you end up pursing a CS/Engineering degree? I'm trying to get a dev role and have a business background and looking for some advice on getting in.
I can give you a little advice from seeing some non-degree-having peers make it.
Have some idea what you're doing. Talking the talk is great, but you must be able to walk the walk. Apply to everything that sound like you can/want to do it, even if you don't technically meet the requirements. Those are mostly for HR pre-filtering since HR doesn't really know what they're talking about in 99% of cases - they're just looking for keyword hits.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm saying the job requires zero brains or education. I did not mean to imply people who work in retail have no brains or even less than average. in my country it's not really a legit career choice. it's mostly high school kids or people under 23 who do it as it's compensated below adult minimum wage. after a certain age you either get promoted or fired.
I see, sorry for getting you wrong. Meanwhile in Lithuania, it's fairly typical that the majority of people working in retail are in their 40s and been doing that for the last ~20 years with very minimal increments in salary (usually because of increased minimal salary).
Here in the US it's not so different. When I was 20, I worked at Target when I took a semester off school. I think only two or three of my coworkers were around my age. The rest were 30+.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#237Move! Here's the thing: I love programming, I've been working has a web dev since I was 18 (34 now), but I always loved design and creating desktop apps. And recently I've been learning Swift and mobile design. This year, the startup I was working with went bankrupt, and I just dive into depression and self-confidence as a developer. I couldn't stop thinking to myself: "oh no, not again all those web dev interview pr…
I'm just the opposite - I was going mad making microservices with C# and have jumped ship to being a full stack webdev guy. I love JS, it feels so freeing and easy after working with such a heavy compiled language (I still like C# though). I really enjoy doing front-end work and I feel that I can utilize my creativity in ways I couldn't working on the backend exclusively.
I just spent 3 years out of college doing C#, and while it is my first real 'love' in terms of language, I'm doing some JS/Python work now and thoroughly enjoying it.
C# is great when you know what you want to build already, or have more than a few people working on the same system. But it hurts more than helps with exploratory/experimental work, or when you're just 1 or 2 guys doing the same.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uhh... I have to ask: what, exactly, were you expecting? Exhilarating highs and a path to millions? It's a job. Most people don't have jobs that'll make them "rich". Be glad you aren't living paycheck to paycheck, or worse, are unemployed because the job you had was optimized away with computers. To be blunt, there's a sense of entitlement evident, here, that I have trouble grokking. You get to spend all day in a com…
Working with your brain takes just as much effort as working with your muscles. Think back to taking a multiple hour exam in school, and how knackered you'd feel at the end of it. Now imagine doing that for 8+ hours every day, trying to solve problems that you don't even know have a solution. Yes, your body may still be ready to go, but there's nothing left upstairs to make it happen.
Oh come on.
Working with your brain is a breeze. Yes, you get mentally exhausted. Eat some damn sugar, problem solved. You know what you don't get, that manual workers do ? Crippling disabilities, having no energy left once you get home, a terrible salary, dangerous work conditions.
We have it easy. Stop lying to yourself.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#239I started learning how to code at 14 when my parents bought me a Sharp MZ-700 instead of a C64 like I asked (I guess the salesperson had a better commission on that!) and since there were basically no games I had to write my own, that was about 30 years ago and I've been programming ever since
I still love coding, getting in the zone, learning something new, in general the feeling of being able to make the computer do what I want it to do, and I am still good at it, but career wise it's getting to be not nearly as fun anymore, since as the years go by it's a smaller and smaller part of my day, being pushed more and more into team leading and endless scrum / standup / grooming / planning / ... meetings, having to deal with politics and so on.
The money is definitely much better now than it used to be, but I would honestly take a 50% pay cut if I was able to just deal with the code working at home, I am a fairly frugal person and wish there was something like basic income so I could just spend my days programming on projects that interest me. You don't see musicians being forced to become conductors as their careers progress and being given less and less time to practice their instruments, why is it that we developers often end up doing that?
Unfortunately I don't have an entrepreneurial bone in my body so I am really not sure how to get from where I am now to where I'd like to be, and I am sure I am not the only one in this situation.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#240I enjoy programming but 'working as a programmer' is infuriating. There are so many interesting product ideas yet 'me-too' CRUD app recreations of previously successful incumbents products are highly desired. This is particularly true in the startup ecosystems where kids talk about 'interesting' problems and finding 'purpose' and yet are blindly following the mantras and motivational speeches of trite capitalists. I…
I enjoy X, but 'working doing X' is infuriating.
I would bet that most people feel this way. Maybe we should consider alternatives to wage labor that better meet the needs of people instead of the needs of the capitalists...