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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?

#441

Post by santaclaus »

ambicapter wrote: post #415
bsenftner wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look for older development companies, where the developer staff is all over 40. The work tends to be in C/C++, you'll find none of the modern programming fashions (Agile, whatnot...) and they expect you to be a mature adult capable of self managing. They don't care how one works, as long as you own your work, can fix if issues or bugs are found, and can generally operate as a respectful peer to the other developers.…

> honest, hard work that includes machine learning, advanced math and stats, 3D and GPU programming, plus responsibility for the entire UI, software documentation, and support of your development What kind of company is this?

Sounds like GIS, maybe custom computer vision work?

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

#442

Post by terminalcommand »

adav wrote: post #402
terminalcommand wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a law student, I experience this a lot. Computers and programming were/are my only passion and obsession. My life is dedicated to computers, but professionally I have to be a lawyer. I just had an interview at an IT Law Firm, and made a fool of myself. That's why I completely agree that, we as "people who are good at computers" need to keep seperate identities. Because if you go full Aspergers, you make yourself v…

Why do you have to be a lawyer?

Actually, you're right I don't have to be a lawyer.

I try to work on side projects and continue to develop my skills. But those are dreams and I need to be prepared for reality.

If I had the guts, I would risk everything and drop out of law school.

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

#443

Post by it_learnses »

grecy wrote: post #309
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…

> I would prefer, if I could retire, to make short films and maybe to write plays. But I can't retire yet. So I'll push stones. It pays well. Please don't stay because of the pay. You won't look back in 25 years and say "I'm so glad I bought a new iPhone in 2016, but didn't do the things I wanted to in life" The last company I worked for was full of people only staying because retirement was "only" 10-15 years away,…

would love to learn a bit about your travel adventures. How can I get in touch?

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

#445

Post by it_learnses »

novocaine wrote: post #342
grecy wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would prefer, if I could retire, to make short films and maybe to write plays. But I can't retire yet. So I'll push stones. It pays well. Please don't stay because of the pay. You won't look back in 25 years and say "I'm so glad I bought a new iPhone in 2016, but didn't do the things I wanted to in life" The last company I worked for was full of people only staying because retirement was "only" 10-15 years away,…

You were able to not work for two years, twice, because of the software money. What is the difference between you and this guy?

He didn't wait till retirement.

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

#446

Post by Unbeliever69 »

I came from the complete opposite direction. I actually learned programming in BASIC on an Apple II computer in a community education course at my local middle school back in 1980. Programming was a big part of my life for the next 5-10 years, until I fell into other career and education opportunities. It went something like this...

Drafter --> Teacher --> Education in Industrial Design --> Ux Designer --> Teacher --> Ux Designer --> Programmer.

During this timeline of about 30 years I never stopped programming as a hobby. I HATED the politics of teaching (which I did for nearly 20 years) but it paid the bills. Ux...well, everywhere I designed, I felt expendable and, like education, it was highly political. For many decades I felt like there was a big hole in my life. I wasn't happy. Then...I decided "F it!" and dropped it all to pursue programming as a career. While it hasn't been bliss, I am much happier. I am not inclined to slave away as a hired gun. Programming has been a way to express my ideas in a way that I was never able before. At 47 years old I feel like I'm preparing for a trip to the base camp at Mt. Everest. I figure that by time I hit the summit I'll be ready to retire, but I WILL retire on such a high note. Maybe I'll die on the summit :)

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

#447

Post by thenomad »

amelius wrote: post #242
cyberferret wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's an Asperger profession; smart but artless. Sorry, but I would have to disagree with you on this. I've been programming now for over 35 years, and really cannot see myself doing anything else. I find I can channel my creativity into programming in many ways, and writing a good piece of code gives me the same satisfaction as writing or recording apiece of music. Yes, I am a musician too, and while they are very…

But at least those jobs don't have the stigma of being (in the words above) Asperger professions. This makes it difficult to share your problems with other people, and of course, also because people in general would, I suppose, find the problems that musicians or theatre writers have more interesting, and more approachable than the problems of a software developer. Also, this makes that a musician can be a "musician"…

Speaking as an ex-film producer - nope.

It's tremendously difficult to share the problems inherent in most showbiz professions.

That's partially because they tend to be very complex and counterintuitive. If we wanted to have a conversation about my problems selling a feature film (assuming I was currently doing so - thankfully I'm not), I'd first need to give you a 90-minute seminar on how selling films works in 2016, unless you're also in the business.

It's also partially because people are usually very jealous of you working in such a cool profession, and thus any problems you have become "complaining about diamond shoes pinching".

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

#448

Post by d0lph »

meddlepal wrote: post #362
Clubber wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Agile (at least as thought of by management) is designed to make programmers interchangeable. If programmers are interchangeable, they are easily replaceable. We just started doing "by the book" Agile with daily stand ups. Now that you mention it, it does feel like I'm being micro managed. Put in your time every day so we can email everyone the burn down chart. Lets add some more pressure to the job if you…

Push back and you'll just be replaced by someone younger or more naive or willing. At the end of the day programmers are mostly just factory workers of the 21st century. The best ones are perhaps closer to the mechanics of the industrial revolution.

Except with amazing pay, serious benefits, and better working conditions.

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

#449

Post by nf05papsjfVbc »

crypt1d wrote: post #220
nf05papsjfVbc wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I know that your intentions were harmless, I'd like to add that it's not a good idea to do such a lookup without a sound reason. At some places where I worked, I could have been fired for doing that unless I was looking to fix a bug and this particular bit of data was essential.

I'm going to assume that those companies u worked at had good intentions as well, but this seems like an unfounded fear. Unless u are working on a heavily confidential project that has a certain legal anonymity requirement (in which case the user's IP should be scrambled anyway), I don't see how doing a whois query could create any damage.

- It diminishes privacy

- It shows by example that this behaviour is okay thus others are less reluctant to run queries of smilar nature

In itself each of them is not so big but all these behaviours add up to the 'culture' of either respecting the user's privacy or taking it not very seriously.

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

#450

Post by JaumeGreen »

allsystemsgo wrote: post #419
JaumeGreen wrote: post #195

I left programming for dancing. I'd been working at the same job for about ten years, and I started to work on a different group that made the same product with a never technology. I hated that, I found it hard to work in that and I wasn't that productive. Also I had some burnout, some depression, and not much to look forward to... Except for dancing. I had begun some years prior and I became somewhat good, and I eve…

Hey, shameless plug but, my SO runs danceweekly.org. Check it out and let us know if you like it.

Not my kind of site. My dancing information needs are covered by my Facebook feed, the swingdancing reddit and sporadically yahoodi.com.

As I don't think I'll be able to earn my living with dancing, nor will my free time be dedicated to it, I'm trying to finally learn lisp, so most of my news' search is about that.

Also.. I don't like pages with the look and feel that that one has, I know modern pages tend to be like that, but I prefer other kinds of formatting. Take this with a grain of salt, because I'm no longer in your target demographics.

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