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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?

#81

Post by mrweasel »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #29

I quit. I had a nearly 20 year career in software, excellent references and well paid. I became completely burned out and hyper-cynical at the pointlessness and shallowness of it all. I can't get excited or even much beyond passing interest in an industry that is almost completely devoted to making the problem of too much stuff far worse. So instead of getting excited at another pointless startup or tech that's "goin…

>The web has become an almost unusable mess where a single page loads 30 or 40 domains of ad, crap and tracking bringing us back to dial up speeds unless you block most of it.

I choose my current job because it was a small company, that actually shipped stuff to customer. You give us money, we'll ship you something in the mail. To me that is an honest, simple and satisfying business. Now the company has grown big, we spend most of our time figuring out how to do up-selling, tracking of users, social media bullshit and tries to push useless subscriptions. We still have basic stuff like order tracking and returns that aren't working correctly. Sadly better service always lose out to "more features" for some reason. I think we could save a ton of money by fixing the basics and trimming features not used by most customer.

The level of tracking and tracked advertising we do pretty much sickens me to the extend that I want out. I just want to solve people problem, not push them to buy hairdryers and batteries.

I don't think I would want to leave the business, but sadly I'm a little to insecure in my own ability to start my own business. Right now, what I really want to do is help small non-IT business getting the services and solutions they need, without ripping them of. It just quickly because terrifying. The prospect of maybe not finding customers, or not being able to solve a issue scare me beyond belief.

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

#82

Post by wanda »

As a programmer, very happy. As a lone dev propping up a design agency as it clumsily transitions from print to web, developing static sites and WordPress junk, not so much.

Occasionally something interesting crops up but I generally want to find an in-house role working on a web app or something.

I don't have to be happy because I am putting my partner through university so they can pursue an academic career and putting food on the table.

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

#83

Post by 1stop »

sumedh wrote: post #75
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

#84

Post by dagw »

spacecowboy_lon wrote: post #78
onion2k wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I'm 45 minutes late for work 3 days in a row with no good excuse, no one gives a fuck. Retail worker shows up 45 minutes late one day and they're most likely fired. I also don't have to worry about people fucking around with my shifts and thus how much money will be in my next paycheck.

Having even a modicum of job and financial security removes so much stress from your life.

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

#85

Post by Ronsenshi »

lolptdr wrote: post #45
anexprogrammer wrote: post #29

I quit. I had a nearly 20 year career in software, excellent references and well paid. I became completely burned out and hyper-cynical at the pointlessness and shallowness of it all. I can't get excited or even much beyond passing interest in an industry that is almost completely devoted to making the problem of too much stuff far worse. So instead of getting excited at another pointless startup or tech that's "goin…

I'm curious; what do you consider of something working with your hands? I came from the opposite background (former chemist, process engineer, chemical engineering) and opposed the minimal work that hardly anyone cared for. With programming, moving electrons makes it a much bigger impact with much ease.

I can sympathize with anexprogrammer and I think by working with your hands he might mean something like woodworking, metalworking, generally working "in the shop" making stuff.

I'm not unhappy being a programmer, but from time to time I immensely enjoy fixing things at home myself - I see result of my work here and now. Being a programmer I may not see finished result of my work for a long time.

I think it is quite beneficial for programmers to dabble in some hobbies that involve some handiwork - be it knitting or making playing dices out of metal.

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

#86

Post by dagw »

timwaagh wrote: post #63
onion2k wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

its not a good comparison since retail takes absolutely sero education or brains.

Depends very much on the retail job. If you're expected to sell stuff and work on any sort of commission, then retail jobs take a lot of (a certain type of) smarts if you want earn good money.

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

#88

Post by UK-AL »

sumedh wrote: post #75
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As someone who extremely capitalist and believes in free markets, I don't believe cooperatives are inherently socialist.

In a free market people are free to create their own ownership structures. If people want to setup up a company, and distribute equity equally to employees that's completely up them

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

#89

Post by dagw »

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.

What percentage of people with law or finance degrees to you think actually make what you seem to think people with law or finance degrees make?

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

#90

Post by sumitppawar »

bechampion wrote: post #58

I've installed my first linux(Slackware) at the age of 14 (im 35 now) .. since then I think i've been "programming" until i started working , when it became the thing that pay the bills. Now... i think it's like everything in life ... i have bad days and good days , I've worked for places where i felt challenged and for other places where i was in only for the money (that never worked) , at the moment it kind of suck…

Same thing happening to me, in my good days I worked with giant tech people, and I left them because of money and another reason.Now each and every day I feels like doing nothing, don't know how to get out. Just looking where to go, where to concentrate. I really love programming but now days I feel Im lost.
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