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Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#171

Post by Radeo »

After master and 3 years experience I was a trader in a prop firm for one year. And this was...

Best experience in my life, I have learned a lot about myself and that world outside pure IT can be even more astonishing and challenging. Psychological leap I would say, advancing to new level. Despite my friends who couldn't understand with I sacrificed my top salary (yeah, I had it best among my programming friends).

Though I failed (yeah, can admit that proudly, because I tried) and I am back in my profession, with even higher salary then before 1-year challenge I got much better perspective now. I try to widen my horizons more often and in different ways. Oh, and after few months break aiming to jump back into trading on my own account... Real fighters never surrender, right?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#172

Post by Matthias247 »

alexhakawy wrote: post #20
jalayir wrote: post #2

Either a chef or a lawyer. Maybe both.

Why chef? sounds interesting and fun

It might be fun and interesting. But for most persons it has not a good salary and really bad working hours. So it depends on what you are looking for.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#173

Post by spraak »

JDiculous wrote: post #109
sean_patel wrote: post #83

Programming is a creative art, and when I say that to my non-programmer friends, they laugh it off, but if you think about it, it is true. Just like artists, the programmers, coders, developers all design and create new things that didn't exist before, and no 2 programs or applications or completely functioning code will be identical for anything other than a fizzbuzz type test. So it is natural for the creatives to…

Programming involves very little creativity compared to actual art, so to call it a "creative art" is a gross exaggeration. A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical. This doesn't even compare to the creativity involved in a real artistic endeavor like designing your own videogame, writing your own screenplay, or composi…

I think it's more similar to an architecture position. Lots of architects churning out copy -> paste work, but some offering really unique, inspiring and we'll thought designs.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#177

Post by jcoffland »

JDiculous wrote: post #109
sean_patel wrote: post #83

Programming is a creative art, and when I say that to my non-programmer friends, they laugh it off, but if you think about it, it is true. Just like artists, the programmers, coders, developers all design and create new things that didn't exist before, and no 2 programs or applications or completely functioning code will be identical for anything other than a fizzbuzz type test. So it is natural for the creatives to…

Programming involves very little creativity compared to actual art, so to call it a "creative art" is a gross exaggeration. A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical. This doesn't even compare to the creativity involved in a real artistic endeavor like designing your own videogame, writing your own screenplay, or composi…

> A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical.

That does not describe what I do as a programmer. I work with a lot of really smart people who respect my expertise and we discus the programming plan together. I am expected to come up with creative solutions to the problems we encounter and generally enjoy doing this. I code my own solutions and support the resulting software.

Frankly I'm sick of the whining from all the corporate drones who got into this field because they thought it would be a good way to make some stable money. If you sold out, if you didn't do it for the love of it, then you deserve what you got.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#178

Post by wingerlang »

The thought has crossed my mind, but only in the line of "What would I do?" to which I have no answer.

I also love programming (since maybe 12/13 year old me read HTML books and Flash actionscript to make games) and I don't really want to do anything else anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#179

Post by sverrirs »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #130
david927 wrote: post #114

I currently work in a good environment where I'm appreciated and paid well. Not many people in the world can say that, so I have a lot to be thankful for. Programming has done good by me. But I don't love it. Alan Kay is right, it's like building "an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves". There's no eleg…

> smart but artless This is why it's so important for me to work on something people use . At a previous job I'd sometimes hit a wall. I would log into one of the production API hosts and tail -f the access logs, where I'd see many different people and applications using a piece of software that I'd help write. I'd grab an IP address and geolocate it and see where the person was from. The humanization of work can be…

Seriously, create a small report based on the logs that tracks visits, popular calls etc. It will do you good every morning to check it (charts and comparisons are great) and it will be an asset when promotion time comes around and you have define your "contribution" to the company :)

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#180

Post by biztos »

I enjoy programming, and I count myself lucky to have a good, well-paying job in an industry that is unlikely to run out of work for the likes of me.

However, I originally set out to become a visual artist. While I doubt I'd be able to pull that off as a career now, I would still much prefer to be doing something in that world rather than instructing machines for the Man. I often think about "transitioning" but so far I haven't found a path (you pretty much have to self-finance), and remain an "artist with a day career."

If anybody is seriously thinking about another profession, and is under 30, I strongly encourage you to give it a shot. It gets exponentially harder once you pass 40.

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