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Programming is boring

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Re: Programming is boring

#11

Post by Raphmedia »

Matachines wrote: post #5

Programming is boring after five years of CRUD/"business"/"enterprise" apps. Unfortunately they make up the majority of the jobs out there but making the effort to get a more interesting job is worth it.

Everything is boring in a repetitive job. Ask the baker if putting the same kind of bread in the oven every morning is any fun.

That's why you do personal project.

For the baker it could be baking a complicated recipe.

For the programmer it's learning something new and solving new problems... well, for the programmer it's also baking a complicated recipe.

Re: Programming is boring

#12

Post by eagsalazar2 »

sickbeard wrote: post #3

Programming is boring when you're solving mundane problems, when everything you need is already written in a nice library or package for you to put together like a 24 piece jigsaw puzzle. Get yourself an arduino, maybe esp8266, now program it to do something exciting. Another suggestion, an occasional after work punjabi sword fight might do the trick

Jigsaw puzzles are not boring, nor is mundane programming IMO. Challenging stuff is super fun of course but there is something satisfying and meditative about just doing a really meticulous job even if you are doing routine stuff. Just me?

Re: Programming is boring

#14

Post by vec »

debt wrote: post #4

"and making sure your solution is easy to maintain and nurture in the future" ...this is why programming is boring there's nothing actually more exciting then building out a whole idea and being like "didn't exist, now it exists and i built it." making it maintainable is a thing, but it's separate from that initial excitement. i never go "man i can't wait to make this thing maintainable and write a bunch of tests and…

Writing something new and cool gets me out of bed in the morning. Writing tests for my code lets me sleep peacefully at night. Can't have one without the other.

Re: Programming is boring

#16

Post by nxrabl »

blowski wrote: post #8
Matachines wrote: post #5

Programming is boring after five years of CRUD/"business"/"enterprise" apps. Unfortunately they make up the majority of the jobs out there but making the effort to get a more interesting job is worth it.

I love building CRUD apps! I guess I'm fascinated by learning different business models and mapping them to code.

I'd love to hear more about your workflow! It sounds like you've been able to take a thing people consider tedious, and find joy in it.

Re: Programming is boring

#17

Post by 6DM »

eagsalazar2 wrote: post #12
sickbeard wrote: post #3

Programming is boring when you're solving mundane problems, when everything you need is already written in a nice library or package for you to put together like a 24 piece jigsaw puzzle. Get yourself an arduino, maybe esp8266, now program it to do something exciting. Another suggestion, an occasional after work punjabi sword fight might do the trick

Jigsaw puzzles are not boring, nor is mundane programming IMO. Challenging stuff is super fun of course but there is something satisfying and meditative about just doing a really meticulous job even if you are doing routine stuff. Just me?

Sorta not really, I get where you're going with it, but for me it's finishing the feature and getting it to work properly. This can involve wiring up some stuff for CRUD operations. But hey it works well and someone appreciates it, therefore I enjoy doing it.

Meticulous to me is when I have to pour over some very badly written code, carefully stepping over all the frayed knots and ducking under wires, trying to make that one fix without introducing another bug. Hoping to leave behind my little corner of the room in a slightly better state than I found it. It's a thankless job and always takes longer than expected. :(

Re: Programming is boring

#18

Post by adambard »

huangc10 wrote: post #6

Truth but unlike other professions, throughout the rise of the internet, github, what-have-you, we, programmers have been able to counter the boringness and move to other opportunities in the industry. For example, someone who wrote test hardware code in embedded C, can move towards full software iOS development which is at two ends of the tech industry. The opportunity produces excitement and the further attainment…

> On the other side of the spectrum, a pilot who flies a Boeing 777 will not be able to easily switch to flying an Airbus 330.

This sounds super dubious, I feel like you fell down on this analogy. I mean, they probably have some different controls and systems, but you can probably just run co-pilot for a few flights to get acquainted and then be good to go (leaving out the fact that most commercial planes essentially fly themselves for most of the trip these days anyhow)

Re: Programming is boring

#19

Post by autotune »

Great! Since programming is so boring all that's left is to start understanding system administration concepts as well and making things easier for your ops team. Right? Right????????

Re: Programming is boring

#20

Post by rezashirazian »

sickbeard wrote: post #3

Programming is boring when you're solving mundane problems, when everything you need is already written in a nice library or package for you to put together like a 24 piece jigsaw puzzle. Get yourself an arduino, maybe esp8266, now program it to do something exciting. Another suggestion, an occasional after work punjabi sword fight might do the trick

And let's not forget that the analogy for the jigsaw puzzle falls apart when you consider that you may not know what pieces are available, pieces you think might fit end up not fitting, or that you may end up with massive holes that you have to paint pieces for yourself or you solve for a picture of the Amazon rain forest but now the client/customer wants Antarctica with half the time and budget, so you have to recycle and rearrange the pieces as much as possible. Or that once you've solved the puzzle, pieces start to melt because your room is too hot or change color because there is too much light.

Yes programing is boring indeed.

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