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Programming is boring

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Re: Programming is boring

#51

Post by jkchu »

tomc1985 wrote: post #43

This times a thousand. I love programming but I want it to be boring. Boring means no stress, attainable deadlines, repeat ability, the ability to walk away, and the ability to tell these 10-hours-a-day hacks to fuck off. Boring means 5-nines reliability without a devops team because the design was simple, elegant, and most importantly worked. Boring means you're able to get it right the first time. Boring means bein…

I agree with your notion of the importance of balance in a developer's life. I think work-life balance is important, no matter what your profession is.

However, behind every successful, well-crafted software project are still business needs and decisions. And a lot of the time, these businesses' success can rely on being faster than competitors. Obviously it is ideal to have attainable deadlines, but it is not always possible. Inevitably, there will be times of stressful, tight deadlines. With your firm attitude, I'd be curious to see how you might handle those situations.

Re: Programming is boring

#52

Post by tomc1985 »

jkchu wrote: post #51
tomc1985 wrote: post #43

This times a thousand. I love programming but I want it to be boring. Boring means no stress, attainable deadlines, repeat ability, the ability to walk away, and the ability to tell these 10-hours-a-day hacks to fuck off. Boring means 5-nines reliability without a devops team because the design was simple, elegant, and most importantly worked. Boring means you're able to get it right the first time. Boring means bein…

I agree with your notion of the importance of balance in a developer's life. I think work-life balance is important, no matter what your profession is. However, behind every successful, well-crafted software project are still business needs and decisions. And a lot of the time, these businesses' success can rely on being faster than competitors. Obviously it is ideal to have attainable deadlines, but it is not always…

I'm able to roll with business deadlines as needed. Programming can actually be a very quick, predictable endeavor once necessary infrastructure and management expectations are in place. As with all jobs, one needs to manage their manager (and management) to make sure expectations are in line with requirements and availability. Built-up influence, gained from prior successes, helps a lot.

Also: be in an industry where you're the last man standing and barriers to entry are high. Really helps dealing with competition-influenced deadlines :)

Re: Programming is boring

#53

Post by travv0 »

kzisme wrote: post #50
rietta wrote: post #21

I'm 34 years old and have been programming since I was 14. I loved it from day one. I still love it. Even after tens of thousands of hours, two CS degrees, and hundreds of projects, I still am still amazed that I get to get up every day, go to my office in the basement, and can literally type into existence complex systems. I love it. I love the problem solving and making stuff work. I get frustrated with people from…

I'm the exact same way I'm still very new in my career - I often hear co-workers say "The last thing I want to see/do when I go home is a computer" I'm the exact opposite of that. I work full time as a programmer - go home - do more things on the computer or work on tech related things. Maybe since I'm younger I feel this way, but I ~really~ don't think like my mind will change.

I'm the same way. I wouldn't want to go home and do what I do at work, but I love programming things that I choose to program.

Re: Programming is boring

#54

Post by blowski »

nxrabl wrote: post #16
blowski wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's nothing special - I'm just genuinely interested in learning about other people's problems. Every organisation has some pain points that can be solved with a CRUD app, and I love discovering them.

I know my tools very well, keep up to date with trends, and I'm constantly grateful at how lucky I've been. I'm a very mediocre developer, but I'm fantastically well paid for a job that really isn't very difficult.

FWIW - I use Symfony (especially the form bundle), Behat, and nginx. At some point, I want to start building Angular front ends as well. I try to be Agile by delivering early and often.

Re: Programming is boring

#55

Post by rezashirazian »

tomc1985 wrote: post #43

This times a thousand. I love programming but I want it to be boring. Boring means no stress, attainable deadlines, repeat ability, the ability to walk away, and the ability to tell these 10-hours-a-day hacks to fuck off. Boring means 5-nines reliability without a devops team because the design was simple, elegant, and most importantly worked. Boring means you're able to get it right the first time. Boring means bein…

You just described the fixed mindset to a T. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset...

Re: Programming is boring

#56

Post by huangc10 »

adambard wrote: post #18
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…

Ah yes. To be honest, both examples I used are real life examples. My brother happens to be a 777 pilot. He tells me it's not really feasible for him to transfer to an Airbus. He can see himself flying another Boeing, but both would take years+ of training.

Re: Programming is boring

#57

Post by huangc10 »

rogerbinns wrote: post #23
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…

> a pilot who flies a Boeing 777 will not be able to easily switch to flying an Airbus 330. Can you provide more detail on that? Pilots have to be "type rated" for the aircraft they fly, and some aircraft share type ratings because they are substantially similar. Flight Training International shows the same amount of time for A330 and B777 training, with the most intense complete training course lasting two weeks (pl…

Ah yes. To be honest, both examples I used are real life examples. My brother happens to be a 777 pilot. He tells me it's not really feasible for him to transfer to an Airbus. He can see himself flying another Boeing, but both would take years+ of training.

I guess you can say I exaggerated a bit. It might not be impossible. It's just you wouldn't really do it or as he tells me.

Re: Programming is boring

#58

Post by marcosdumay »

agentultra wrote: post #29

Programming is beautiful! I'm writing an authorization expression parser that generates a Validation applicative functor (whose errors form a semi-group, so cool!). The users will only notice that the error messages when they fail authorization will be descriptive of what they're missing. The developers love it because they get a rich, descriptive language. And it makes me happy because it's actually not a lot of cod…

> If I had written it the boring way there would probably be more code, be less useful

It's the bugs. If you write it the boring way, it will be complex enough to be full of bugs. And it will need to change all the time. And next thing you see is that you are now working full time on improving error messages and can't afford to do anything interesting anymore.

Still, that excitement comes from making things less complex. KISS always apply.

Re: Programming is boring

#60

Post by marcosdumay »

hawkice wrote: post #32
agentultra wrote: post #29

Programming is beautiful! I'm writing an authorization expression parser that generates a Validation applicative functor (whose errors form a semi-group, so cool!). The users will only notice that the error messages when they fail authorization will be descriptive of what they're missing. The developers love it because they get a rich, descriptive language. And it makes me happy because it's actually not a lot of cod…

> I'm writing an authorization expression parser that generates a Validation applicative functor (whose errors form a semi-group, so cool!). It's either the successful result or a list of errors. That's what you're describing here. Boom -- boringified.

Well, if you do that with the right interface, a "successful result or a list of errors" is a "Validation applicative functor (whose errors form a semi-group)".
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