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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?

#551

Post by jackgolding »

terminalcommand wrote: post #442
adav wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It takes a lot of courage to do this, but more less now than you will ever need. You will start earning $150k a year then and then the opportunity cost might be $80-100k to go down to a junior developer. Then you have a wife, kids, mortgage, credit card loan...

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

#552

Post by grecy »

it_learnses wrote: post #443
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,…

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

theroadchoseme.com is my website - contact there or in my HN profile

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

#553

Post by boggydepot »

I'd go historian. After spending sometime reading/watching about Marxism, Ancient Greek Philosophers (Epicurus and Socrates) and Confucianism.

History is probably something that will really give you context on a lot of things. Philosophy is great too.

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

#554

Post by Grangar »

thecatspaw wrote: post #221
gandolfinmyhead wrote: post #143

Sadly yes. It's been very frustrating at times. I thought of becoming an environment artist for videogames instead. Though OP hasn't asked for the following here goes, I feel the IT field has a lot of people wanting to change career paths, more than any other field because of the following: 1. Programming is an art, if not done right and assuming the product is in continuous development, will come back to bite you in…

> 3. The IT field has no concept of overtime pay this very much depends on the location. The US seems to be lax on overtime laws, whereas in europe its more strictly defined, and I have not worked for any company in europe where we didnt get overtime pay/compensation

Not true everywhere. In the Netherlands I'm expected to learn courses in my own time. A new major version of the opensource system we extend came out recently, it's completely different, and I'm expected to read it in my evenings and weekends.

I mean, I'm okay with investing in my own knowledge, but at some point it's just too much.

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

#555

Post by clentaminator »

williamle8300 wrote: post #542
clentaminator wrote: post #256

I think about leaving programming every day. I love programming, but I'm not sure I enjoy software development as a career. I enjoy coding and understanding how computer systems work, but I don't care for the constant changes in tools and techniques in certain domains of development. I'd rather practise with and improve my existing knowledge of a subject, instead of constantly playing catch-up with someone else's too…

I think it depends what kinda code you write. Also, what kinda management structure you find yourself in. Sounds like you're writing code with hard specs (enterprise company?) where you just feel like a cog in this vast code outputting machine. In that case, it's totally natural to feel like you're dying inside. That's natural. We're creative beings, and you either need to find a different job or calibrate other dime…

Surprisingly no, it's not an enterprise place.

The actual company feels more on the other side of the spectrum, and has a fairly 'young' culture, along with an overwhelming amount of 'social coding', for want of a better phrase, including various guilds for different technologies, tech meetings, demos, meetups, ad nauseum.

I feel pretty out of place, but I can't help feeling like I just can't cope with this much day-to-day interaction. I just want something quieter, more low key, if that makes sense?

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

#556

Post by dolzenko »

JaumeGreen wrote: post #294
gcatalfamo wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but dancing is definitely not one of those professions where "if you believe you can do it". Depending on the specific dancing style there are strict body types and features that you need to have, and not all of them can be acquired by training. So yeah, nature is not fair but feel-good comedies don't always apply to real life.

You have it right. Others have pointed to you that to dance you only need to be able to move, to that I agree. But between dancing and have a profession out of dancing there's a big difference. There are lots of reason why now I can't base my income in dancing, I'm telling them as to give a data point as to why it's not allways as easy as "if you want you can". First: I don't live alone anymore. Married with some obl…

> Never stop dreaming!

At least that one doesn't not seem to imply dreaming about the same exact thing forever. In other words it might be something else if dancing didn't work out. Still seems to me (I'm in my 30s) that someone with a dream can definitely get further compared to someone with "bullet points" so to speak.

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

#557

Post by digler999 »

cloverich wrote: post #413
segmondy wrote: post #346

A bit too late, but if I could do it all over again, I would have gone into health care. I have lot's of friend in the industry. Ask them about their day, they just saved lives - heart surgery, brain surgery, trauma stabilization in ER, just saw a toddler through cancer treatment, and so on and so forth. What did I do? Oh, I wrote code.

I came the other way -- I quit medicine (completed Medical school then did not do residency) for programming. I very much enjoyed the material and rigor but the day-to-day work ultimately left me feeling extremely bored and depressed. What I found in the field was it was incredibly bureaucratic, inefficient, and quite frequently unprofessional feeling. Depending on the hospital, many patients were sick because they o…

I was interested in radiology after doing a contract development work for an X-Ray manufacturer. I thought "Hey, I'm young enough, lets check out the field and if its something that I really like, med school isnt completely out of the question", come to find out, the one slice of medicine that seemed appealing to me is among the top 5% of the most elite and selective practices to get into. Really disappointed me. Like, I get it, you have to be good enough to read films accurately so as not to kill anyone, but I disagree with the elitism. I mean, a bus driver also has hundreds of peoples' lives in his hands each day.

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

#558

Post by cloverich »

digler999 wrote: post #557
cloverich wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came the other way -- I quit medicine (completed Medical school then did not do residency) for programming. I very much enjoyed the material and rigor but the day-to-day work ultimately left me feeling extremely bored and depressed. What I found in the field was it was incredibly bureaucratic, inefficient, and quite frequently unprofessional feeling. Depending on the hospital, many patients were sick because they o…

I was interested in radiology after doing a contract development work for an X-Ray manufacturer. I thought "Hey, I'm young enough, lets check out the field and if its something that I really like, med school isnt completely out of the question", come to find out, the one slice of medicine that seemed appealing to me is among the top 5% of the most elite and selective practices to get into. Really disappointed me. Lik…

What's going on there has a lot to do with lifestyle. Some of the most challenging specialties (cardiovascular, neurosurgery) are understandably selective. But others (Radiology, Dermatology) have more to do with people wanting a good lifestyle. Those specialties which may already have short hours, then strategically limit the amount of Doctors they let in to keep the supply low and the salaries high. Thus you get highly competitive specialties because of short hours and high pay. So if you've ever needed a Dermatologist, but struggled to get an appointment less than 6 months away... its not because nobody wants to do derm. Its because they don't let many doctors do it. Its sad.

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

#559

Post by digler999 »

cloverich wrote: post #558
digler999 wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was interested in radiology after doing a contract development work for an X-Ray manufacturer. I thought "Hey, I'm young enough, lets check out the field and if its something that I really like, med school isnt completely out of the question", come to find out, the one slice of medicine that seemed appealing to me is among the top 5% of the most elite and selective practices to get into. Really disappointed me. Lik…

What's going on there has a lot to do with lifestyle. Some of the most challenging specialties (cardiovascular, neurosurgery) are understandably selective. But others (Radiology, Dermatology) have more to do with people wanting a good lifestyle. Those specialties which may already have short hours, then strategically limit the amount of Doctors they let in to keep the supply low and the salaries high. Thus you get hi…

That is sad. So now the patient's $2000 MRI bill is at least partly due to Comcast-like monopolistic practices with both the equipment owner and the rads reading the films. And the dr's are incentivized to create their lucrative cartel to payback their $300k student-loans, which only cost that much because of...a cartel in medical schools (or at least certain residency specialties). I guess I wont feel too badly when Watson takes away all the rads'/ GP jobs (edit: GP's are good people, underpaid and overworked, I think it will be good when Watson liberates them to pursue more rewarding practices)

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

#560

Post by digler999 »

baccheion wrote: post #417
NobleLie wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind explaining what you mean by targeted individual? Did you do something to attract someones attention in a really negative way? How did this come about through programming?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=targeted+indi... Most end up saying I have some sort mental illness (Paranoid Schizophrenia, usually) and am imagining everything. I'm not sure what was the cause of me being in this situation, but I had to deal with enough idiots and idiot managers along the way that I'm not entirely surprised. Based on information available online, it seems TIs are usually whistleblowe…

> the workplace harassment portion continued at the next job

Occam's razor: Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.

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