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Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

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Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#481

Post by dikdik »

lgieron wrote: post #157
dikdik wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a horrible comment. There is 100x more to a career than living a comfortable existence. Personally, I want to feel purposeful at work and that I am contributing to a better world. I also absolutely require regular challenges or I end up severely depressed. Also, I have undertaken extensive education partially as a way of raising my standard of living and having a more enjoyable life outside of work. THERE ARE…

> This is a horrible comment. There is 100x more to a career than living a comfortable existence. I thought so too. However, the funny thing with market economy is that it IS pretty efficient, so jobs that are regarded as satisfying and challenging are approached by so many talented people that they don't have to pay very well and the conditions are usually not great. The solution is to either accept that the role of…

Yes, I am beginning to realize that a lot of people actually don't want to bang their heads against the wall regularly at work. I do, though :/

Solving an insanely hard problem I have struggled with for days, weeks, or months is the most satisfying thing I've ever experienced.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#482

Post by peatfreak »

ck425 wrote: post #304
marknutter wrote: post #275

Any time I catch myself complaining about my career I do my best to jolt myself out of it. That's not to say I have nothing to complain about or that aspects of my career and my job can't be improved, but my god, is there really any other profession in the world that is as lucrative, open, and challenging as programming? There are no bullshit certifications to go through, the best tools and resources are free and ope…

I agree with this, except for the last line. Software Engineering is a great career in a lot of ways (interesting subject, smart people, flexible, relatively less bureaucratic, good pay etc) and sometimes I forget how damn good I have it compared to most folk. But at the same time there are lots of other things I enjoy and want to do in life beyond just software engineering. I think as an industry we get a bit obsess…

> smart people

Uh, I'm not so sure about this. Programmers tend to have a bad habit of severely overestimating their own intelligence. This is one of the things I dislike about the profession: Everybody is so self-assured of their own brilliance.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#483

Post by dikdik »

forgetsusername wrote: post #158
dikdik wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a horrible comment. There is 100x more to a career than living a comfortable existence. Personally, I want to feel purposeful at work and that I am contributing to a better world. I also absolutely require regular challenges or I end up severely depressed. Also, I have undertaken extensive education partially as a way of raising my standard of living and having a more enjoyable life outside of work. THERE ARE…

> Personally, I want to feel purposeful at work and that I am contributing to a better world. And yet you are depending on your employer to provide you with this? > but I am already looking at applying to medical school in a year if can't find a challenging and decently rewarding job in bioinfo I see you running into the same issue. Just because you've received "an education" doesn't entitle you to a glamorous, excit…

They don't owe me a purposeful, challenging job with a livable wage you are ABSOLUTELY right. However, I don't owe anyone 40+ hours a week when I get nothing out of it but the ability to pay rent and eat.

I am okay with dying. I don't see a point in living a life where I spend my days contributing to a company that does nothing for the world and I am bored out of my mind. I would rather work at McDonald's if that's the case. I am being serious! Money is only a secondary goal.

My ultimate goal is to work for myself and I will at some point. Hopefully that means starting a company focused on genomics, big data, or healthcare, but if not I will buy a gas station and run it myself.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#484

Post by Thirdegree »

marknutter wrote: post #478
cgopalan wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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..

Spiders don't have the luxury to be.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#485

Post by dota_fanatic »

marknutter wrote: post #479
dota_fanatic wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Okay, let's take a step back. I mostly agree with you and I'm not at all offended; there are answers and the way is open. I can go against the flow of money and work for other reasons, especially if I'm a talented, determined programmer. In fact, I have made huge strides towards being able to dedicate myself fully to work I think is important. Made an impact? No, not in any direct way, not yet, but I am trying and moving step by step towards that ability and execution. Through autodidactism, frugal lifestyle, a productive career in software, and planning.

What about everyone else? The question was, 'how happy are you working as a programmer?", and I answered, "not particularly, because I'm in a favorable position to see how hard it is for everyone else, and how much harder it seems it's going to get as automation continues to consume existing business processes".

Can you really say with a straight face that more than a very lucky small minority of the 7.3+ billion people can realistically pursue a lifestyle of altruism? Many of them can't even work for money, but can only think on how to survive to the next day, the next week. You don't even have to go to a third world country to find it. How happy are those people, and what is your advice for them?

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#486

Post by dikdik »

kaitai wrote: post #207
dikdik wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a horrible comment. There is 100x more to a career than living a comfortable existence. Personally, I want to feel purposeful at work and that I am contributing to a better world. I also absolutely require regular challenges or I end up severely depressed. Also, I have undertaken extensive education partially as a way of raising my standard of living and having a more enjoyable life outside of work. THERE ARE…

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE! And you're allowed to demand a hell of a lot out of your career as long as you are willing to create it . No one will ever just give you an interesting career tailor-made for you. Find out what is interesting, fulfilling, and challenging, and make that your career over time. You start in your company doing menial crap but then move to interesting crap over time, by being…

I spent 4 years in a healthcare company in a job that REQUIRED a BS in the life sciences. I never had single day where I was challenged by the goals set by my managers. For 2 years I doubled those goals every single month, some days I was able to quadruple those goals. I was the highest performing one in the department, I asked regularly for new "opportunities" only to get more crap that would not have been challenging for me at the age of 15.

I am sorry that doesn't fit with your world view, it was the worst experience I have ever had and I won't go into another job where they promise me career growth, opportunities, and challenges after I "prove myself." I've already wasted a HUGE amount of time, the past 4 years have been extremely inefficient compared to what I could have been learning in a challenging job.

The only reason I went to college was because I thought it would lead to a job that was actually challenging. My parents never had those, they don't have beyond a high school education. So fuck me for believing education could lead to a challenging job (and you better believe I am prepared for extensive work on top of my education). I've been working since I was 15, I had a full-time job the last half of my senior year in high-school as a stock room manager and yet I still have never had a regularly challenging job. I have never had less than a stellar performance review.

BUT, all my experience isn't the right experience. It seems I am assumed to be borderline mentally-retarded on anything I have not done 100x before.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#487

Post by elwell »

kendallpark wrote: post #268
phatbyte wrote: post #121

Move! 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 got burnout of web dev, I just couldn't see myself doing it any longer. I hate JavaScript and the whole current ecosystem, it's a fucking mess, I don't want to have anything to do with it. PHP bores me to death, it's getting more and similar to Java syntax. Traditional web apps are dead. Everything is an API with a frontend-app, and that's fine, but I'm done. I fear I'm on this path. PHP is dead to me. I also hat…

I went from PHP to Clojure and it was fun.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#488

Post by 49531 »

andy9775 wrote: post #229
49531 wrote: post #199

I 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 had a friend who started his CS degree at the same time I started learning on my own, and he is just about to graduate while I've been in the field for about 2 years now. So it worked out for me to not seek a degree.

He's also a vastly different person than I am, writing code is not a passion of his, while it is of mine. I'd be writing code whether or not it was my job, while he'd rather be doing other things.

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#489

Post by askafriend »

rocky1138 wrote: post #418
codingdave wrote: post #156

I loved it when I was younger. The older I get, the less satisfying it is. At this point, I just tolerate it. I realize more and more how damaging it has been to spend 25 years sitting at a computer. It is not all bad - the career is great for supporting my family and the life we have built. I work with decent people. But I do not intend to take another programming job after my current one.

What are you going to do with your username?

Make an offer

Re: Ask HN: How happy are you working as a programmer?

#490

Post by therealdrag0 »

cgopalan wrote: post #424
dota_fanatic wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. But what about everyone else? The longer I work in this field and the more I understand about optimization and physical processes, the worse I feel about the work I do and the work of most programmers. Not "but it's just a social app?!" people, but the people in medicine, law, education, small business, hardware, logistics, etc, all pushing business forward bit by bit, automating away the repetitive pieces an…

"Count me in as someone who, given the support of basic income, can and will live frugally and give my working self 100% towards ethical objectives, as I understand them." Amen, brother/sister, amen. Exactly how I feel. Also I see you are empathetic towards animals. I have adopted animal welfare and animal rights as my single biggest ethical objective. After working for about 20 years on writing software for domains…

Have you already done or have leads on what kind of work specifically you can do in the animal welfare area?
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