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Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#231

Post by romaniv »

I think answers here will be skewed, since people who work on trivial programming tasks often don't visit websites like this.

I've worked on moderately interesting problems in some positions, and I've also worked in positions where everyone with experience was sucked into fixing infinite streams of fuck-ups from junior developers and contractors, who end up doing all the actual development.

IMO, it mostly boils down to control. If you have control and you are knowledgeable, you can solve "boring" problems in interesting and fulfilling ways. If you don't have control over how you do your job, programming can quickly turn into glorified data entry.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#232

Post by m0skit0 »

some_account wrote: post #154
tw1010 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a name to the phenomenon that humans seem to become crushingly depressed once they start to grasp the big picture dynamics of the system they're encapsulated within. I think it's an effect that we're not quite prepared for as we reach closer and closer to science dotting all its i's. It's as if childhood primes us to think that life is all about figuring out what the heck is going on around us, and as…

This feeling is because in our current stage of development, we are very primitive spiritually. Some of us don't even believe we have a soul. That it is all meaningless. Science in its current form also looks at our material world and concludes the same. Nasa tells us we are just a speck of crap in a giant space as well, with no beginning or end. You guys talk about boxes. Well there are huge ones for the mind, caref…

Congratulations, you won a Dunning-Krueger!

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#233

Post by edjroot »

fullstackchris wrote: post #177
tw1010 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a name to the phenomenon that humans seem to become crushingly depressed once they start to grasp the big picture dynamics of the system they're encapsulated within. I think it's an effect that we're not quite prepared for as we reach closer and closer to science dotting all its i's. It's as if childhood primes us to think that life is all about figuring out what the heck is going on around us, and as…

You pass butter.

Oh my God.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#234

Post by hyprCoin »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #105

My suggestion : forget you CS degree, drop the idea of doing something interesting during your work hours, think about it as inevitable procedure to earn your montly salary. At 5pm run away from your office and focus on whatever you think is interesting.

Computation has made everyone able to connect with each other with practically no barriers. AI will make connection with machines and people seamless. These are super powers.

There is absolutely no reason to be miserable at your day job. You should be preparing for superpowers if not actively using them.

I recommend watching lectures/talks during work, skipping meetings and reading from thought leaders instead of working hard to reach deadlines. Everyone is connected which means you can read and watch what Ian Goodfellow has to say about unsupervised learning or see what the issues with the world computer are from Vitalik himself as easily as listening to your marketing department figure out how to grow 10% in the quarter.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#235

Post by WhompingWindows »

weliketocode wrote: post #131

I was raised to think that in many professions greater technical knowledge/experience would lead to greater challenges, pay, and value creation. This can be seen in medicine and law --> Doctors vs PAs vs Nurses / Lawyers vs Paralegals. But in tech, which feels like it should be as meritocratic as others, the links between technical challenge/pay/value creation are much harder to find.

As someone in the healthcare space, those positions in healthcare are gatekept by degree issuing universities and government-issued licensure. This is for good reason: we wouldn't want a system where drugs can be dispensed by just anyone, we want some assurance that those who we give tightly regulated powers to are indeed qualified. Tech to me feels like much more of a nascent industry, there is much less of a guild system with its pay-your-tuition and do-your-internship type of requirements. Rather, software is much more of a free-for-all, winner takes all type of labor market. Also, software is not given the same visceral examination as prescribing of drugs or prosecution of crimes. So, while technical skill in those other fields is likely correlated with the degrees, in tech it may be that highly skilled individuals get roped into management positions or into work on high-value yet low-interest business projects.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#236

Post by chauhankiran »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #182
TeMPOraL wrote: post #31

You might as well have asked who among us won the lottery. I've been struggling with this for years now; after 4 boring jobs I finally gave up even the expectation that what I'll be asked to do will be even remotely interesting (or socially useful). The chance of landing an interesting job is absolutely minuscule - the market rewards whatever it rewards at the moment, and that's where jobs flock. These days, one of t…

Eventually everything becomes "just a job." In my mid twenties this was hard for me to grasp. I was working as an electronics design engineer for a company that made low-end industrial controls. We had a customer who had what seemed like the dream company to me: he made robots for animatronics and lab applications. One day I was talking to him about how exciting the work was and his answer surprised me: it used to be…

What are the thing that is intresting ( as per your opinion, if you are willing to share? )? I mean not everybody will get the job they like and it will be the boring thing to do ( but, still we have to do this boring job! ). But, life shouldn't be boring and it should be beautiful and enjoying.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#237

Post by rileyphone »

jacques_chester wrote: post #54
TeMPOraL wrote: post #31

You might as well have asked who among us won the lottery. I've been struggling with this for years now; after 4 boring jobs I finally gave up even the expectation that what I'll be asked to do will be even remotely interesting (or socially useful). The chance of landing an interesting job is absolutely minuscule - the market rewards whatever it rewards at the moment, and that's where jobs flock. These days, one of t…

While I don't agree with Marx, your sense of ennui seems to reasonably represent what I understand to have been his concepts of reification and alienation. One might ask: what does the alternative look like? From what I can tell Marx is a bit wishy-washy on that point. Hayek more helpfully explained that the market provides a mechanism for determining value, not virtue . That it works, but doesn't uplift. And that tr…

For some Marxist readings on the alternative, I recommend Marx's own Critique of the Gotha Program and Cockshott and Cotrill's Towards a New Socialism, which seeks to develop a basis for a post-capitalism society with a cybernetically planned economy and direct democracy.

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#238

Post by tlarkworthy »

some_account wrote: post #154
tw1010 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a name to the phenomenon that humans seem to become crushingly depressed once they start to grasp the big picture dynamics of the system they're encapsulated within. I think it's an effect that we're not quite prepared for as we reach closer and closer to science dotting all its i's. It's as if childhood primes us to think that life is all about figuring out what the heck is going on around us, and as…

This feeling is because in our current stage of development, we are very primitive spiritually. Some of us don't even believe we have a soul. That it is all meaningless. Science in its current form also looks at our material world and concludes the same. Nasa tells us we are just a speck of crap in a giant space as well, with no beginning or end. You guys talk about boxes. Well there are huge ones for the mind, caref…

The Aeon of Horus is here: and its first flower may well be this: that, freed of the obsession of the doom of the Ego in Death, and of the limitation of the Mind by Reason, the best men again set out with eager eyes upon the Path of the Wise, the mountain track of the goat, and then the untrodden Ridge, that leads to the ice-gleaming pinnacles of Mastery!

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#239

Post by [deleted] »

gwbas1c wrote: post #223

You sound like you're very early in your career. It took me about 8 years before I found a job that I really, really found interesting. Think about it this way: The real interesting jobs don't take chances on recent graduates. There's just too much on-the-job experience needed. The best advice that I could give to my younger self would be to think a lot more critically about when to change jobs. The time that I left…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?

#240

Post by TeMPOraL »

fullstackchris wrote: post #177
tw1010 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a name to the phenomenon that humans seem to become crushingly depressed once they start to grasp the big picture dynamics of the system they're encapsulated within. I think it's an effect that we're not quite prepared for as we reach closer and closer to science dotting all its i's. It's as if childhood primes us to think that life is all about figuring out what the heck is going on around us, and as…

You pass butter.

I guess I don't understand the reference...
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