Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#51

Post by jevgeni » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:24 PM UTC

treerock wrote: post #49

jevgeni wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you? He's not talking about quitting his job, but his (former) passion. That's not retiring.

Did you really? She isn't quitting her passion, she's quitting doing it for someone else, i.e. her job. >"It’s not to say that I have no interest in software. Of course I do...What I mean is that I can’t do it for someone else the way I used to...I have some ideas of what I want to do software-wise, but I’m not ready to announce them yet."

So she isn't retiring, is that what you are saying?

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#52

Post by jevgeni » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

SlashmanX wrote: post #48

jevgeni wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, my mistake. Thanks for pointing that out. Not really familiar with less frequent English names.

It's actually Irish (so is her middle name Saoirse). It's pronounced Deer-dra in case you're wondering

I thought "deed-ree" initially. Thank you.

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#53

Post by Killswitch » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

dahart wrote: post #35

Wow, I thought I was critical, but there's some serious negativity going down here. Maybe the article is a little scattered, but the tl;dr is Deirdre switched to programming for herself, and quit making crap other people want. For those reacting to the title without reading the article, she clarified that programming is awesome, but programming for money on other peoples terms sucks. I don't know about you guys, mayb…

I feel she was gloating more on what she did than why she quit, but I am in the same boat, I hate programming for others. I have a single client I work for that pays my bills and the rest of the time I build my own stuff. Sometimes the work for them is so mind numbingly boring and not interesting to me, that I could go a whole month only putting in 15 hours of work.

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#54

Post by gozo » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:29 PM UTC

dahart wrote: post #35

Wow, I thought I was critical, but there's some serious negativity going down here. Maybe the article is a little scattered, but the tl;dr is Deirdre switched to programming for herself, and quit making crap other people want. For those reacting to the title without reading the article, she clarified that programming is awesome, but programming for money on other peoples terms sucks. I don't know about you guys, mayb…

People aren't being critical, they are being dismissive. Which is completely accurate with what the author is saying.

- "There a problem in software, no one is taking it seriously" - "There's no problem in software that I know of, why do you even care?"

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#55

Post by notacoward » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:33 PM UTC

robodale wrote: post #19

I got the "...back in my day, everything was all neat and tidy...now it's all gone to shit..." sort of feeling while reading this article. Websites have always been shit, and if you approach rendering/parsing/consuming web content programmatically and expect perfection...you're in for a frustrating experience.

In this case, "back in my day" far precedes websites, so it's entirely possible for both the OP and you to be correct.

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#56

Post by gozo » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:35 PM UTC

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #9

First world problems :) I'm grateful for the opportunity to work from home, support my family comfortably, be in a field with lots of employment opportunities to fall back on, and be constantly learning new stuff. Sorry it didn't work out for you, but it sounds like you found other interests to occupy you and (hopefully) support you, e.g. fantasy/scifi writing.

Yes, you and everyone else. That's why I don't do that much software anymore either. People are happy with a paycheck rather than to do good work and be proud over that. Then they sit on HN and criticize every other field they know even less about.

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#57

Post by jerf » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

jevgeni wrote: post #50

jerf wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equivocation; "practicing" law and "practicing" programming are not the same thing.

It can be compared. Both require to mentally navigate certain set of constraints and rules and build up a mental model of the domain problem, after which you produce a concrete result. In programming it's software, in law practice it's mostly a written consultation or a decision. The point I'm making, is that both are mental endeavours. Programming isn't constantly typing at a desk, hitting TAB, and letting the IDE d…

"Practicing law" specifically means performing legal services, in the real law system, for a real client. It is a term of art, not a generic English use of the term. Practicing programming has a much fuzzier meaning, because it is the generic English term.

My point is your snark doesn't hold, because "practicing law" is fundamentally a different thing from "practicing" programming.

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#58

Post by arca_vorago » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

I think this is a reasonable stance, mostly because she is saying it's not programming itself that sucks, it programming for others on matters that aren't what you are passionate about that sucks, and I think that's an important distinction to make. Her options are to either find something she is passionate about programming and do that for a living, or do like many of us do and do it on the side.

I'm a sysadmin, and I have almost no formal programming training, but on the side I really like experimenting with developing solutions to my very specific set of problems, and it is empowering to me. At work I often cobble stuff together in bash, perl, and python, but I'm sure if a professional programmer reviewed my code they would balk... but it works for me, and I document everything heavily to make sure the next fellow won't have too much trouble.

For me programming is about problem solving, because that's what I do best. I will admit though, sometimes I go through burnout phases, and perhaps this is where the author is at the moment.

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#59

Post by jxm262 » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:43 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #41

jxm262 wrote: post #18

> Instead, I need to pick projects that I care about and not spend long stretches of time on things I don’t. I'm getting this feeling myself more and more lately. And I've only been doing this for a little over 5 years. Although, I wonder if I'll have this thought regardless of what field I am working in.

After similar lines of thought, my conclusion is that you have to embrace the process of writing code and not get too personally invested in the end product - it doesn't belong to you, and a company can and will sell it, scrap it, or let it decay slowly. Step back and be grateful for the opportunity to apply your skills to help someone else create something they felt they needed, and don't worry about what they do wi…

Thank you. That was a much needed pick-me-up. And yeah, you're absolutely correct, but it's sometimes easy to get lost under pressure (speaking for myself).

Re: Programming Sucks and Why I Quit (2014)

#60

Post by jevgeni » Tue, Oct 06, 2015, 2:58 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #57

jevgeni wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be compared. Both require to mentally navigate certain set of constraints and rules and build up a mental model of the domain problem, after which you produce a concrete result. In programming it's software, in law practice it's mostly a written consultation or a decision. The point I'm making, is that both are mental endeavours. Programming isn't constantly typing at a desk, hitting TAB, and letting the IDE d…

"Practicing law" specifically means performing legal services, in the real law system, for a real client. It is a term of art, not a generic English use of the term. Practicing programming has a much fuzzier meaning, because it is the generic English term. My point is your snark doesn't hold, because "practicing law" is fundamentally a different thing from "practicing" programming.

Just because my initial comment was a short sentence, doesn't mean it was snarky; like this one.

And although I agree with your definition within a professional legal context, that context is irrelevant to the discussion, since we are discussing a person's personal relationship to the discipline.