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My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

thecodist.com

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Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#71

Post by pjmlp »

tomp wrote: post #29
Zelmor wrote: post #24

He would have been unhappy with the other choice as well, because then it is the programming side he would be missing out on. I would advise everyone to read The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173536 You chose one option out of many, and the others may no longer be a possibility. However, the writer's unhappiness does not spawn from his inability to be successful at what he does,…

10X the assets => retire 10 times sooner => program when you're retired => no missing out

When one retires, there are lots of more interesting things to do with your life than spending the remaining days of your life in front of a computer screen.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#72

Post by Lerc »

chii wrote: post #63
studentrob wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we all have our own takeaways. What in your view is meant by the last lines? > I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

There's a contingent of people who believe that Robert Frost was lamenting the fact that he took the road less traveled by, and had a worse experience. There's a good reason why certain roads are more traveled, and by not going the common path, his life was much harder.

I took it to be a satirical comment on the way everyone expresses their individuality the same way.

Very much the in the same theme as the Monty Python gag:

    CROWD: We are all Individuals!

    GUY AT BACK: I'm not.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#73

Post by henrik_w »

amelius wrote: post #61

My biggest regret as a programmer: not sitting in correct posture for 30 years :/ On the bright side: I'm correcting this now, and I really feel like a different person.

It didn't take me 30 years, only 15, but I did develop problems - RSI in my arms. Luckily, it recovered, but it took a lot of effort: http://henrikwarne.com/2012/02/18/how-i-beat-rsi/

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#76

Post by eru »

askyourmother wrote: post #37

Regrets as a programmer: 1. Every piece of unpolished, unfinished code that management decided should ship to the customers regardless 2. Ever using node and npm. 3. Seeing and living through the train wreck of J2EE and the XML horrors that ensued. 4. Not seeing the beauty in simple functions early on. Not everything needs to be a class or module. 5. Most business problems are political/social - regret every time we…

> 5. Most business problems are political/social - regret every time we were called in to try and provide a "technical" band aid to those same problems.

Why? Social and political problems are really hard to solve. If you can use technology to sidestep them, that's exactly the right way to do it.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#77

Post by lr4444lr »

forgottenacc56 wrote: post #64
romanovcode wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Javascript was designed so that clown on your website moves when you click on it.

JavaScript is actually an incredibly flexible and effective language.

REALLY flexible...

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2010/10/every-day-i-learn-something...

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#78

Post by LoSboccacc »

labster wrote: post #51
studentrob wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP referenced the poem at the end. > I came to a fork in the road and took the one less traveled. Perhaps now I realize why. He seems to disagree with Frost that the road less traveled is the one worth taking, judging from the title and overall tone of the post.

The roads are equally travelled; Frost says that at the beginning of the poem. Life is a process of narrowing possibilities, and looking back at a particular decision doesn't have a lot of meaning. But everyone get it wrong: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10071717

http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/what-the-a...

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#79

Post by Swinx43 »

Swizec wrote: post #60
dakics wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$48k/y gig for US client converts in less than 2000 eur/month net with some creative book-keeping. Rent and utilities in Ljubljana cost us about 800 eur. What is left is maybe enough for one person, who will never own any property. $20k/y is close to a welfare level in Slovenia, except maybe in countryside.

These are specifics and probably not interesting to the rest of HN. BUT, you can open a sole proprietorship, fill out some forms, and voila: you pay 4% taxes. After all the healthcare and stuff, you end up with 1068 euro net on a $20k (17k eur) yearly revenue. At $48k/year, you get 3040 euro/month net. Now you're getting paid almost as much as the president. Your taxes will go up a bit next year, so save up, but for…

That is REALLY interesting! Quite a useful and nice way to work with tax. What does the percentage increase to in the following year?

It is a shame that the UK does not have anything like this. The best you can hope for is to contract and that give an average tax of around 26% to 30% depending on how creative your bookkeeper is.

Germany as my alternative example is quite a different story, there being freelance is very difficult due to the cost of healthcare that you HAVE to pay and their tax law is extremely complicated, you pay loads more tax than the UK for example. I know some friends who too permanent employment in Germany as it was more beneficial than being freelance.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#80

Post by wtbob »

forgottenacc56 wrote: post #64
romanovcode wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Javascript was designed so that clown on your website moves when you click on it.

JavaScript is actually an incredibly flexible and effective language.

> JavaScript is actually an incredibly flexible and effective language.

== vs ===

No integers.

Assignment is declaration.

Prototypes.

Curly brackets & semicolons.

Semicolon insertion.

It may be flexible (in the sense that an Alfa Romeo driven into a telephone pole at 120 mph is flexible), but it sure as heck ain't effective. JavaScript is the great shame of the computing industry: that it exists, and that it is used, and that it is used in more than just the browser, is an indictment of our entire profession.

JavaScript: take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

JavaScript: you'll envy the dead.

JavaScript: a mistake, carried out past the point of absurdity.

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