61–70 of 92 posts
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Can someone provide a rationale for the downvotes? While I feel there's a decent one, I'm unable to articulate it.
Because until you have children, you may think you have all your affairs in order, but once that baby comes, everything is out the window. The down votes are almost certainly from parents.
I have this ambition to move into the middle of a forest some where. I'd love to spend my day tending to a garden, and maybe a few animals supporting myself. To live life the way it used to be. At night i'd hack on code again, or actually spend time with my girlfriend (maybe wife?). At least in that case if I worked 70 hours a week, I personally would receive the value from 70 hours of work. Right now I'm just gettin…
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That sounds good, but I worked hard enough to get a job in my field that pays me enough to live comfortably and have a good college savings plan for my daughter. What advice for those of us who did not have outstanding early success, good savings and obviously immense talent?
why would you bring life into this world without having absolutely everything in order?
Even if he could not save for his daughter's college, there are always other options available: scholarships, working while attending college, starting a community college and transferring (I did this for undergrad and paid my way through graduate school).
I voted you up (because your question deserves attention), but "only families with two six digit incomes and significant savings should have children" (what you need for a "comfortable life" while saving for a college educate) is a very scary argument to make. Note, I am _not_ saying families shouldn't hold off on children until basic financial situation is stable: you should still be able to provide a healthy life for yourself and your children, etc...
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why would you bring life into this world without having absolutely everything in order?
That reminds me of the opening scene of 'idiocracy'. I didn't downvote you, but I think that there is something missing here. Nobody that has ever brought a child in to the world had absolutely everything in order. And even if they thought they did they would have soon found out that it was not the case. Then there is the period (pun not intended) between conception and delivery, in which a lot can change. Waiting fo…
In the roughly three years between when I was conceived and shortly after my sister was born, my parents went from having 2 jobs and no kids to having no jobs and 2 kids. 1981-82 was a harsh recession.
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but... I know a few guys who are absolutely awesome programmers; way smarter and way better than I hope to be ever... but some of them are working on things like the google IE toolbar. I mean, I only have an outsiders view of google, but certainly, there are many very bright people working on what look to me like not very interesting problems. (Obviously, there are also people at google working on very interesting pr…
Yeah, Google strikes me as first and foremost an advertising agency. They make their revenue from ads, and ads are not really the sexiest thing out there IMO. They do a lot of interesting research and large-scale implementations in the pursuit of advertising revenue but the bottom line is still going to be the bottom line, and other types of work are going to be better for a lot of people.
I have a story to share: I started programming computers when I was very young. Because of the skills I developed, and because of some connections I had, I got a very high paying job in the data processing department of the Livermore School District while I was still a junior in high school. (I was on independent study at the time.) I literally made more money than I knew what to do with, unfortunately. A couple of y…
the specifics of your chronology really matter to me. i read this with a lot of personal interest, and i want an as clear as possible picture of what is possible. 17: data processing department; 19: florida; 20: quit; 22: returned to computers ? what phase of the industry did all of this happen in? it seems like you've managed without a college degree?
17 (almost 18): data processing department, starting in 1996; 20: Florida, in Summer 1999; quit almost exactly a year later, at 21; got my first computer job again at 25, in 2004. So it was actually a 4-year gap (!).
I left the computer industry just months before the big dot-com crash, but I was really burned out by then, and predicted the crash anyway. (IPOs had gotten completely out of control.)
And no, I don't have a college degree or much in the way of a college education at all, unfortunately. I'm really not proud of that, but I haven't been disciplined enough for college until more recently, and now I'm too busy and have other goals. I would never brag to anyone that "I've gotten this far without a college degree"; I'm not fond of that trend these days, and I do think that having at least some college education is very important.
Not the first guy who has had thoughts of quitting IT and getting a real job.
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Please, no false dichotomies.
I have to agree with Hexstream here (2 downvotes really?). A pithy overgeneralized saying proves nothing. Nearly every occupation benefits from a worker who can learn fast: lawyer, doctor, architect, CEO, salesmen, stock trader etc... This is not specific to programmers and it is imaginable that a slow learning programmer with domain specific knowledge has value.
The ability to learn what users need.
The ability to learn how a how a system works.
The ability to learn the cause of a bug.
The ability to learn from mistakes.
And the ability to solve complex problems.
The only problem I have with this is that he left a job where he had the potential to make a net positive change in the world to one where he is a tool in destroying the environment. Sure personally he feels less obligation, but it just seems like eventually that will catch up with him, i know it would to me... especially for someone who professes to love the outdoors, and then contributes to its destruction. The mot…
I'm not sure if I agree with that assesement. Considering that the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted, they aren't cutting down old growth forests like "the old says". Compared to aluminum or steel, wood frame construction is fairly renewable and to be encouraged. Google is creating new products and services that increase demand for energy. Everything the…
That's because there are none left. Check out the maps over time here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest#Importance
"the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted"
I believe most commercial logging is clear cut. This is devastating to not only trees, but soil, animals, watersheds, migratory birds, and who knows what else down the line.
We need wood, so we have a lumber industry that grows trees and cuts them down. But don't think for a second that replanting a clear cut wasteland with monoculture seedlings is in any way "renewable" or "encouraged".
If you have any doubt about the effectiveness of replanting, zoom in and around British Columbia with google maps. What appears to be a massive unbroken forest is actually riddled with clearcuts.
I have this ambition to move into the middle of a forest some where. I'd love to spend my day tending to a garden, and maybe a few animals supporting myself. To live life the way it used to be. At night i'd hack on code again, or actually spend time with my girlfriend (maybe wife?). At least in that case if I worked 70 hours a week, I personally would receive the value from 70 hours of work. Right now I'm just gettin…
None of those problems seem to be because you don't live in a forest. They will not magically disappear even if you did live in a forest.