Ask HN: quitting programming? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#11

Post by edw519 » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 2:59 PM UTC

You may want to consider a third option, one that has worked well for me: Solve a hard problem.

This requires 3 steps:

1. Find a hard problem, with the emphasis on "Find". It must be someone else's problem, not yours. It also needs to be big enough to be important, hard enough that the elegant solution hasn't been found yet, but not so hard that you'll waste the rest of your life on it. Examples:

  Bad: Invent a time machine.
  Good: We need a better e-commerce website
  Better: We need software to build better e-commerce websites.
  Best: We need software to attack this problem differently.

2. Figure out your approach (how) and learn what you need to learn.

3. Build it, get feedback, iterate.

Your problem is that you're not challenged enough on something important enough. Do this and you won't be bored. You will also know once and for all if this is really for you.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#12

Post by wallflower » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:00 PM UTC

It sounds like you have excess creative energy. The nice thing about life is that success in one niche is not always easily translatable to success in another niche. Programming is easy for you. Why not push yourself and diversify out of technology? There are many things you could push yourself into, especially related to your love of travel. Assuming you are not already, please consider learning and studying another language other than your mother tongue. As you surely know, when you travel, you will always be a tourist until you speak the local language.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#13

Post by maxklein » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:01 PM UTC

Go into management and outsourcing all your programming jobs.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#14

Post by akozlik » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:04 PM UTC

If you really want to start a startup you should just go out and do it. Don't settle for just another job if it's not what you really want to do. Figure out what's keeping you from doing a startup and attack that problem.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#15

Post by tgrass » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:29 PM UTC

The wise advice, that my own father gave me yesterday, unsolicited, as I mentioned leaving civil engineering for a different field, was not to do it. I've invested so much, he remarked. It's secure.

But the wise advice is not so wise: those years already invested are sunk costs. Ignore them.

Compare the potential job satisfaction of switching with the possibility of falling behind your peers a year in programming.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#16

Post by fiveo » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:32 PM UTC

I'm on a similar boat.

I decided to quit pursuing technical excellence and heavily thinking to switch career to either DBA (I've been taking database courses at a local polytechnic college) or Sys/Net-Admin. More of the "Ops" kind of career for many good reasons.

I realized that what I like is to build software from a non-programming perspective (architect, designer, owner). So I decided to look for a lucrative yet stable career, save my money for the long run, and outsource programming jobs.

I know people have distaste with the word "outsource". But outsource doesn't necessarily mean to India. It could also mean to contract out part of the programming jobs to a local talent. I also have the advantage of being born on the other side of the world (somewhere in SE Asia) so I have 2 talent pools to choose from.

I viewed my moves as a series of problem solving steps. Perhaps you should too.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#17

Post by csomar » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:35 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #11

You may want to consider a third option, one that has worked well for me: Solve a hard problem. This requires 3 steps: 1. Find a hard problem, with the emphasis on "Find". It must be someone else's problem, not yours. It also needs to be big enough to be important, hard enough that the elegant solution hasn't been found yet, but not so hard that you'll waste the rest of your life on it. Examples: Bad: Invent a time m…

Just to add: Make it Fun!

That is travel, go to the nightclub, talk to people... all of that in relation to your problem solving (try to make even the smallest benefit/relation). Don't just put yourself in a tiny room coding 24/7. This should break routine, gets you new idea and keep you enthusiastic. (which seems to be your problem at the moment).

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#18

Post by eof » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:37 PM UTC

I quit programming for like six years and fell backward into it again.

Being able to program is in too-high demand for you to really do anything else with the intention of getting money.

That being said, you should absolutely follow your heart. My guess is you will come back to it naturally eventually; even if it's just little bits here and there. I see a million times a week how a few hours coding here or a couple dozen hours there could automate the shit out of boring repetitive tasks people do every day; you can at least automate those things out of your own life.

Sitting in front of a computer all day really isn't a good way to live. It's a good way to make a living; but you should definitely follow your heart.

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#19

Post by k7d » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:37 PM UTC

To be honest this sounds like first signs of depression - stuff that used to be fun is not anymore. Maybe I'm wrong but my guess would be that it's not directly related to programming, rather to lack of inspiration...

Re: Ask HN: quitting programming?

#20

Post by throwaway31337 » Wed, Nov 10, 2010, 3:39 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #11

You may want to consider a third option, one that has worked well for me: Solve a hard problem. This requires 3 steps: 1. Find a hard problem, with the emphasis on "Find". It must be someone else's problem, not yours. It also needs to be big enough to be important, hard enough that the elegant solution hasn't been found yet, but not so hard that you'll waste the rest of your life on it. Examples: Bad: Invent a time m…

Yes, this is indeed what I originally planned to do. Although I keep a book with the problems / ideas I have, none of them really motivates me (and I think there are about a hundred ideas in there). Given that there are enough ideas, I don't think the ideas are the problem...

I guess this is the perfect solution, but I don't feel like doing that now. I have the time, some money, lots of contacts and no car, expensive house or girlfriend. I have the ambition to become wildly successful. I've spend the last 5 years reading a lot on startups, but I don't see myself putting in long hours of software development at this moment.