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Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

bipolarco.de

31–40 of 124 posts

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#31

the entitlement is strong with this one

You are not giving the writer enough charity with your interpretation. Almost every single programmers I personally know around his age shares the sentiment. Ranging from SV startup jobs to the FB/Google/Microsoft/AMZN, even some doing programming in countries half way across the world.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#32

$65k in student loans to learn programming? The author is clearly an idiot. Programming can be learned from home for next to nothing, because you have all the tools you need there. It's not like you're a surgeon and you're working with expensive/complex equipment.

Yeah, but getting a degree (so that people know you're any good) is a tad more expensive than "next to nothing."

Perhaps not $65k, but not too far off (depending on where you go). If you choose a cheaper school, there can be issues with getting a job or getting the salary you want (as I've heard it said, anyway).

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#33

the entitlement is strong with this one

I rather much agree with him. What the hell was the point of getting a supposedly in-demand degree, graduating top of my class, maintaining my skills at the top of the industry, if I was just going to get stuck in a corporate hell-hole? Programmers of the world, unite.

I was going to reply to the parent saying, "He's not saying he's entitled to anything! He just doesn't like his situation and wants to change it!".. and then I realized the author replied first, and indeed is asserting he's entitled to happiness?

What was the point of any of that hard work? Maybe there was no point, maybe he/you made a mistake. From where do you derive entitlement?

If you live in the United States you're entitled to the _pursuit_ of happiness. Go, pursue it, but your career choices and mistakes are your own. No one owes you anything.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#34
Damn this is one bitter guy indeed. First of all, everything you do as a kid is more fun than doing it as a professional. I sure loved to play soccer as a kid, but guess what? Being a professional player is full of annoying things like training, lifting weight, being careful with your diet, traveling all the time, etc. And that could probably be said about any career. Being a professional at anything is tough compared to toying around as a child, that's how it is.

"At all three of my big boy jobs, I've been so far removed from the user that I have no clue if the product helped them or not." Even during the second job at a "small startup with 15 employees, 5 developers, no testers." ? Hard to believe.

"I don't like coding for you. I don't think any of us do. We only do it because you pay us way too much money and we have loans to pay off." Feel free to write whatever you want about your point of view, but leave the rest of us out of your vast generalization.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no one deserves anything

Everyone deserves everything. We live in a society that is capable of creating a post-scarcity economy (and in many cases, such as media and software, has) yet is putting itself through ever more convoluted contortions to make sure poor people don't get to have anything. Eff. That. Noise. Work is not a moral imperative.

If one of our descendants happens to be born into a society that grants him/her the _entitlement_ to happiness, that person will be very lucky indeed. We haven't been born into such a society, however.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#36
Wonder what this guy would say to the countless millions who toil away in factories, big box retail, and accounting offices. None of these people do this for the love of the job. They do it because it needs to be done and they get paid for it.

I wouldn't be so critical of your feelings but you whine about how society didn't let you do what you want to do on your terms. Change your circumstances. No one is just given everything. Its a combination of motivation and luck. And that luck comes from generating opportunities for yourself. So it all up to you.

I hope you get your debt paid off. Move to the cabin, but if you ever want to come back, just remember that society has her dues.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#37
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you pick these companies to work for, or did they approach you?

I picked all three. The first was a medium sized startup (90 employees, mostly sales, only 5 devs). The second was a small startup (15 employees, 5 devs). My current job is a huge hosting company with like 3000+ employees in my location.

Careful, I Googled your name and a couple keywords and figured out which company and location in about 12 seconds. Potentially someone reading this could make work less enjoyable than it is now.

Hope things improve mate.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#38
If programmers made twice as much money, it would be such a great job. And yet salaries have been relatively flat for over a decade (adjusted for inflation).

Something is wrong that salaries never seem to rise with demand in Silicon Valley. We know there was a secret deal to help suppress wages at one point, but it's not obvious why it's been so successful. Is it new graduates, immigration abuse, internationalization, illegal price fixing?

A programmers union could probably force tech companies to double salaries. They all could afford to pay it.

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no one deserves anything

Everyone deserves everything. We live in a society that is capable of creating a post-scarcity economy (and in many cases, such as media and software, has) yet is putting itself through ever more convoluted contortions to make sure poor people don't get to have anything. Eff. That. Noise. Work is not a moral imperative.

'Everyone deserves everything'

Does this include bonobo monkeys, sharks, dogs, snails etc. ?

'We live in a society...'

No. You(member of homo sapiens species) live on planet Earth with many biological organisms, like bacteria that's on your hands right now. Actually, even that is too specific. You live in 1 galaxy that has 100s of Billions of stars and other clusters of matter in it. That galaxy is just one out of 100s of Billions of galaxies in the whole universe.

'make sure poor people don't get to have anything'

What? Why would some homo sapiens automatically deserve something, just because they happen to be born as one?

'Work is not a moral imperative'

Do you have a method of determining what a moral imperative is? You know, people at CERN have built complex machines to detect certain particles. So, you're saying that work is not a moral imperative. How did you find that out? There are people who think that it is. How are you going to convince them they are wrong? Who is dictating these moral imperatives? Is it God?

Re: Coding as a Career Isn't Right for Me

#40
post #31

the entitlement is strong with this one

You are not giving the writer enough charity with your interpretation. Almost every single programmers I personally know around his age shares the sentiment. Ranging from SV startup jobs to the FB/Google/Microsoft/AMZN, even some doing programming in countries half way across the world.

So, a generation of entitled?

Me - I stay with a job (or side project or consulting) if it is fun and I am learning something. Pick and choose accordingly.

From the article -- "I write test automation to test the front-end" -- there were potentially interesting things here maybe some years ago, but he put himself into a position that frequently gets off shored and doesn't have a lot of room for growth/creativity.

Really, all these entitlement 20-something posts are basically the same in general content.

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