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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?

#71

Post by reidrac »

johanneskanybal wrote: post #65

I'm not a programmer, I'm much more, if you have 10+ years in software and only think of yourself as a programmer that's likely the root cause of your unhappiness. Like dilbert creator blogged a while back, be pretty good at two things is much stronger than being very good at one. to answer the op's question 10/10 I'm very gratefull.

I've been programming for more than 20 years, slightly over 10 professionally, and although I'm more than a programmer... programming is what I love most of my job.

I guess I'm around 8/10, probably because I'm not always writing code that has some impact in the business, people or whatever; mainly because I'm more than a programmer.

OT: I downvoted you by mistake, so I'm replying to cancel the effect (if that doesn't work, my apologies).

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

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

sumedh wrote: post #62
laxatives wrote: post #20

6/10. I'm less than 3 years into my career, but I think I've worked for some of the best companies with great pay, benefits, environments, etc, including a tech giant and two startups. End of the day though, work is boring. Its always work. Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich and their priorities are more important than your own. The only things I really look forward to are vacations and ev…

> Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich You are free to start your own business and get rich except it's not so easy, very few people can do it.

Unless you're rich to start with then you'll still end up making either your investors or your landlord rich. Do it right and you get rich too.

But then you're often still perpetuating the system by then employing people who work making you rich.

Start a cooperative, forget about being rich and seek the fulfillment of all its members.

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

#73

Post by DanielBMarkham »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #55
abalashov wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm utterly jaded at the constant replacement, or latest shiny framework that's going to improve little, just change lots and sell more crap. I can relate to that feeling intimately. The intellectual content of programming has definitely changed since the simpler times which were, for me, formative. There's a combinatoric explosion of proper nouns, frameworks and libraries, and doing anything seems to entail 95% of t…

Similar background here, and complete agreement with you! Started out seriously with the Amiga and it was a delight - the OS was beautifully designed, and there were so many ideas that should have caught on. I'll name just one - datatypes. Work started out with C and Unix, and so long as you had K&R and W Richard Stephens you were good to go. Loved the design of this too until I got to the GUI - X was not fun. Messin…

I remember being 16 and forging teacher's noted to get out of study hall to go to the library. Why? Because they had a REAL computer there! A Commodore PET! With 4K of RAM and BASIC!

I came in, sat down, and thought "what do I want this machine to do that would be cool?"

And so I wrote a game. Other kids loved the game enough to fight over who could play it. That was pretty cool.

But I look at programming now? Damn, those days are gone. You don't sit down and in a day or so create something totally from scratch that people love. Instead you get a framework, or another, or half-a-dozen frameworks bolted onto a 3-year-old programming language. You head a bit down the happy path -- until you don't. Then you spend the rest of the development effort either a) giving up on what you wanted to code and instead coding what the framework makes you, or b) struggling with the framework instead of the problem.

Worst part? I don't think it's needed. You can do a ton with just plain html, some css, and a bit of simple functional-like programming. But if you try to show that to a new programmer? It's like telling them they need to carve their computer out of bear skins and tree stumps. The culture itself rejects just freaking doing stuff people want. Instead, if it ain't new, it ain't cool. And if it's got one piece of complexity? Might as well have a thousand.

I hear you guys. Sad that it's turned out this way.

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

#74

Post by Ntrails »

dansingerman wrote: post #59
gregthompsonjr wrote: post #5

Can't complain. Great company. Constantly wondering if I'm good enough to keep my job, though. I'm trying to prepare for that day I'm told, "Let's talk. We like you a lot, but we've decided to let you go. If you need referrals, let us know." I mean, everyone says I'm doing well. I just don't feel it, so I work a lot more than I probably should, and I'm always ridiculously paranoid. I'd say I'm happy but I'm worried.…

Are you aware of imposter syndrome? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome You may not be up to your job, but probably more likely it's that.

Being aware of it does nothing to remove the certainty that at some point the people you work with are going to turn around and tell you to go home and never come back. Just as soon as they realise you're worthless.

The most interesting thing I've seen written was on here, pointing out a problem in the logic. "If they haven't noticed you're as stupid as you think you are, they themselves must be even stupider. Therefore imposter syndrome at some point requires that your colleagues are morons, yet if you believed that you probably wouldn't feel as inadequate."

Alas my brain still believes.

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

#75

Post by sumedh »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #72
sumedh wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich You are free to start your own business and get rich except it's not so easy, very few people can do it.

Unless you're rich to start with then you'll still end up making either your investors or your landlord rich. Do it right and you get rich too. But then you're often still perpetuating the system by then employing people who work making you rich. Start a cooperative, forget about being rich and seek the fulfillment of all its members.

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.

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

#76

Post by shubhamjain »

laxatives wrote: post #20

6/10. I'm less than 3 years into my career, but I think I've worked for some of the best companies with great pay, benefits, environments, etc, including a tech giant and two startups. End of the day though, work is boring. Its always work. Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich and their priorities are more important than your own. The only things I really look forward to are vacations and ev…

> Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich

I don't mean to harsh but I don't understand this sentiment. Will any serious company exist if everyone thought like this? Why would a builder put another brick if he thought he is getting paid very less compared to million dollar building he is creating? Will any sales guy put so much of effort if he thought he is getting minisicule % of what he is selling?

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

#77

Post by slavik81 »

It was the easiest and highest-paying job I've ever had. Unlike previous jobs where I had to be at work somewhere between 5am and 7am, I never had to had to be in the office until 9am. I regularly solved interesting problems, and I could go home after 8 hours without feeling exhausted. I had a regular schedule, and never worked more than 5 days in a row.

This is all past-tense, of course. It paid enough for me to work a few years, then take several years off to pursue a master's degree.

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

#78

Post by spacecowboy_lon »

onion2k wrote: post #46
laxatives wrote: post #20

6/10. I'm less than 3 years into my career, but I think I've worked for some of the best companies with great pay, benefits, environments, etc, including a tech giant and two startups. End of the day though, work is boring. Its always work. Your time and effort is going towards making someone else rich and their priorities are more important than your own. The only things I really look forward to are vacations and ev…

Its depressing to make comparisons, but 99.9% of developers will never make half of what a specialized MD or successful lawyer or someone in finance might make. Why not make a much less depressing comparison and compare developer wages to manual labourers or retail staff? Compare a typical developer to a typical retail worker and we get way more money for way less stress. We're not at the top end of the scale, but we…

Less stress? Retail workers turn up a 9 leave at 17:30 - they dot get called up outside of work in an emergency to fix some one elses code that causing a problem.

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

#79

Post by mbrock »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #73
anexprogrammer wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar background here, and complete agreement with you! Started out seriously with the Amiga and it was a delight - the OS was beautifully designed, and there were so many ideas that should have caught on. I'll name just one - datatypes. Work started out with C and Unix, and so long as you had K&R and W Richard Stephens you were good to go. Loved the design of this too until I got to the GUI - X was not fun. Messin…

I remember being 16 and forging teacher's noted to get out of study hall to go to the library. Why? Because they had a REAL computer there! A Commodore PET! With 4K of RAM and BASIC! I came in, sat down, and thought "what do I want this machine to do that would be cool?" And so I wrote a game. Other kids loved the game enough to fight over who could play it. That was pretty cool. But I look at programming now? Damn,…

> You don't sit down and in a day or so create something totally from scratch that people love.

Why not?

It's up to you.

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

#80

Post by timwaagh »

not happy but at least i can feed myself and go on a date. I was hoping I'd receive better compensation than I do. I certainly did not go to college for this. however I have been able to afford a (not big but okay size) appartment in a bad neighbourhood. this I use to rent out rooms. SO far it's been a very smart investment. which means hopefully I'll be able to move on to a better life someday.
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