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

Programming is a creative endeavour. Why can't you put any art into it?

Are you suggesting that you've learned everything there possibly is to learn, you're already brain dead (and getting paid for it).

Wait a minute...you don't work for the government, do you?

Code is clay. What you do with it can make you a Michelangelo or a bricklayer. Sometimes it can make you good money, sometimes it becomes tedious in the wrong job. Still if you pursue other economic means of production, code is always a way to express your imagination, a nice hobby to have.

I'm on the same boat. Music is my main passion, IT is my second passion.

I simply had to start working with IT. My parents were unemployed at the time and things were rough. My first job offered good pay and allowed us to survive the storm.

After my parents got re-employed, I continued working and advanced my career. With the money I bought a car (my other passion), built a home studio, and now I'm rebuilding the whole house.

I guess I became too attached to having financial security and the nice things it brings.

But I don't plan on letting my main passion die, I still have a rehearsal scheduled today after work!

> without having to play the development workflow game with the daily standups and so on?

It never used to be like this. I think management has reacted to the traits they perceive in programmers - get distracted too easily, work on things that don't need doing, take too long, cannot provide work-time estimates, etc - by putting in place this micro-managing approach: "only do it if it's on the kanban and tell us each and every day what you have done and will be doing". I know agile, etc, weren't designed to do that, but that's what they've been used for whenever I've been subjected to them.

Programming and dev-ops used to be fun, self-directed, creative work which kept me interested for a couple of decades. Now the pace of change (much of it unnecessary or over-sold) and the constant micro-management have me looking for other things to do.

I thought about it so many times I lost count.

My dream is writing for a living, and I'm currently writing the first draft of a novel. I'm about 1/5 of the way there, began a couple of weeks ago. I've tried a few other times, but couldn't get past the first few chapters. I'm now at 18k words and going strong, I hope this will be the one.