Very interesting comments itt.
My take is that can be happy when doing stuff that is either very (very) well paid, super cutting edge/interesting or have the power to change the world. Is my current job like that? It pays well but no. I try to make side projects then and iterate.
Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
471–480 of 549 posts
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that and a lack of responsibility sometimes attracts me. My whole career (+15yrs) has basically been in industries where things are not allowed to go wrong. Some days I wish I was a lumberjack or maybe a programmer in an industry where you don't kill people or cost millions of dollars with a bug... But at the end of the day I can't stop myself from programming and I want to work on things that make a difference…
Odd that you would pick lumberjack as an example since that is a job where mistakes frequently do kill people.
Yeah, I know, I realized that as I wrote it, but I guess I like to be out in the woods and do some heavy labor.
A bit of a simplification maybe, but as a lumberjack there are N+2 moving parts you need to care about, the saw, the tree and N coworkers in the proximity (N not killing someone during your working hours.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know how old you are, but I have a similar experience level with the person you're responding to and I think I and many of my peers relate in some ways. I think the parts he said about getting rich are a bit silly; that's probably more of a personal regret of his/hers then anything else. On the other hand, I think many other people I've talked to who have only worked for a few years kind of feel lost. I guess…
On the other hand, I think many other people I've talked to who have only worked for a few years kind of feel lost. And that, I think, is a failure in our culture. American Protestant ethics teach us that your job should be a deep, elemental, almost spiritual part of who you are as a person. The result is that, when people graduate, and get that job, they discover that working is, quite often, a pretty shallow experi…
Indeed I'll admit I had a rough transition but I've come to accept that my job is just a job. I really like the people I work with and the company I work for, but the thing I like most about it is that it enables me to do the other things I want in life.
Of course, one day I would like to pursue a PhD so that I could study full time, but that's a dream for another time I guess.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#474I love it. I've been programming since I was 12 (I'm 32 now). For me, the key to avoid burning out, is to constantly keep learning new things. I currently work remotely for a NYC dev agency, and we have a massively good team. I have a couple of side projects, and one of them is generating an income of $500/week. Just keep building stuff during the weekends. Try to learn marketing, UX, UI, etc. Apply those new skills…
How did you fall into side projects like that? I've been doing some side projects and while I could comfortably do all the mentioned activities, I don't even dream that it would turn profitable one day. Do you have some sort of method to determine these projects you work on?
I co-founded a startup and sold it ~3 years ago. There's no secret in turning something into profit. Just put your thing out there and ask for feedback.
At the end, users won’t care about the underlying technologies used in your startup.
They don’t care about what programming language you used. They don’t care if your website is a Single Page Application or you used Turbolinks. They don’t care if you have a micro-services oriented architecture or if you created a monolith.
They only care if you solve their pain or not. And they will pay you if you do a good job. That’s all.
If you build the wrong product, it won’t matter how many sound technical decisions you made along the road. Technical decisions are important to keep the team morale high, and to maintain momentum and speed, but your users don’t care about that. That's all there is. Really.
If your users don't like your product, get feedback and go back to the drawing board. Iterate.
Read a book or two about marketing, experiment and learn. Bad products win all the time, not because they are better, but because they are better marketed.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#475I love it. I've been programming since I was 12 (I'm 32 now). For me, the key to avoid burning out, is to constantly keep learning new things. I currently work remotely for a NYC dev agency, and we have a massively good team. I have a couple of side projects, and one of them is generating an income of $500/week. Just keep building stuff during the weekends. Try to learn marketing, UX, UI, etc. Apply those new skills…
Is there anyway to contact you?
`juanzuluaga` is my Twitter handle
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#476Currently, I'm not happy working as a programmer. I really love the job, I've done coding and software development as a hobby since I was 14, maybe 15 years old, because it was always my dream to do this kind of thing. After I've finished my apprenticeship as a java ee / android dev 2 1/2 years ago, I continued to work for the same company who hired me as an apprentice in the first place. After that, I decided that I…
Edit: Unless you work for a international company with budget.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#477I like programming but I'm tired of the hours, of being salaried, and of employers that could lay their filthy hands on everything I make outside of work. I hate "unlimited vacation" but it's nearly impossible to avoid. I like how my small company job is much more intellectually stimulating than my old big company one, but the work never ends and I should be making a lot more in this city.
Which city? and why you don't like unlimited vacation? I personaly don't like it because it's a bit hypocritical.
Boston, and because I feel like the culture at companies with unlimited vacation is that people are much more afraid of taking longer vacations. When I had 4+ weeks guaranteed, I took advantage of it every year without guilt, even the full amount all at once, as did most engineers. Now I feel guilty for every day. I don't feel like there are any borders between work and leisure. Slack is always active even with inane dialogue.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just a side question on the issue of animal welfare, but how do you handle the paradox of the spider and the butterfly? I'm not sure it has an official name, so a simple description is that some animals kill other animals to keep themselves alive (such as a spider hunting a butterfly), so how do you provide for the welfare of both?
Good question. I am not opposed to the killing of animals, just the torture involved in the killing. If you see videos of how animals are farmed in slaughterhouses and warehouses, you wonder how humans have degenerated into something so vile that they dont even consider the pain and conditions these sentient beings go through.
I'm fairly certain spiders are not concerned about the suffering of the butterflies they consume..
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To be really effective in your non-work time, x would have to be at most 5 or less That doesn't sound very effective to me > Reducing expenses to half is pretty tough given the biggest expense is rent/mortgage. This is simply a matter of finding a location to live where rent is not a big expense. All you need is an internet connection. You don't have to live in the Bay Area to create software and there are plenty o…
I feel like you're missing the point here. You've made it pretty clear that it's possible, if you're willing to jump through a bunch of hoops and are a programmer, to begin to have the privilege of an altruistic lifestyle. That is, the kind that will help thousands if not millions of persons to get higher quality of life. 'just move somewhere with low cost of living' - what about family and friends? non-profits are h…
I have answers to all your points, but I can't help but think you'd just come up with ways to debunk all of them. All I can say is that I wholeheartedly suggest you take a step back and ask yourself why you see roadblocks everywhere instead of opportunities. Skepticism and even a little cynicism is understandable, and I indulge in it every once and a while too. But it seems to me like you're going out of your way to convince me (or more likely, yourself) that it's impossible to change your situation or make an impact in this world, and that's something you should really examine. I say this without a hint of derision or condescension.
Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
You misunderstood me, I am not saying you should exploit your workers, pay them fair wage. What I am saying is that founder who took the risk should enjoy the fruits. > How is the risk the founder takes that different to Employee #1's? Employee #1 will probably be getting a salary, if the company fails he can get a job somewhere else. Meanwhile the founders who worked on the idea probably used their savings initially…
>if the company fails he can get a job somewhere else // Because it's so hard to adapt CEO skills to the jobs market? Whilst peons can pick up a low paid job and should just lap it up and be happy about it?? If the founder is taking a risk running the company then the employees are taking a risk working there; their risk is often as great, the chance to lose one's livelihood. To my mind a guy in sales that wrote up £…
The founder is also putting his money on the table while the employee is not. The employee can just say no to working in a startup, nobody is forcing him to work there.
The janitor should be paid the market rate, nobody is denying that but he should not expect to get rich via the company