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25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

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Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#21

Post by ryanwaggoner »

steve_taylor wrote: post #17
orev wrote: post #3

What every salary-person has to show for it: a life lived; bills paid; food on the table; health; a roof over your head; a body not ravaged and damaged by hard labor; the ability to relax and have some entertainment in the evening; a place to sleep; comfort; relative stability; the ability to make a living using mostly just your brain. Yes, perspective is important, and I’m not saying one should not strive to make mo…

You forgot to mention millions of dollars of value created for other people.

Maybe. Or maybe you got paid a salary and benefits for years by a business that then failed and took all of the owner’s investment and opportunity cost with it.

The point is, if you think that it’s just so easy and starting a business means you get to reap the benefits of someone else’s hard work, then go for it. Why doesn’t everyone do that?

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#22

Post by whateveracct »

friedman23 wrote: post #20
steve_taylor wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to mention millions of dollars of value created for other people.

A lumber jack cuts down a tree and sells the wood for $500 to a high end furniture maker. This furniture maker then produces an armoire that he sells to a rich person for $7000. Was that lumber jack exploited because he only made $500 from the wood?

Uh huh and who are these artisans multiplying value (not just selling but literally adding value) of software systems by 14x?

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#23

Post by friedman23 »

whateveracct wrote: post #22
friedman23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lumber jack cuts down a tree and sells the wood for $500 to a high end furniture maker. This furniture maker then produces an armoire that he sells to a rich person for $7000. Was that lumber jack exploited because he only made $500 from the wood?

Uh huh and who are these artisans multiplying value (not just selling but literally adding value) of software systems by 14x?

The business creates value by organizing thousands of software developers together, giving them PMs and EMs to manage them, using data analysts to determine the success or failure of a product launch, and having a legal team to navigate regulatory hurdles.

The business also takes on risk for paying software developers to develop products which may not be successful.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#24

Post by ryanwaggoner »

whateveracct wrote: post #22
friedman23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lumber jack cuts down a tree and sells the wood for $500 to a high end furniture maker. This furniture maker then produces an armoire that he sells to a rich person for $7000. Was that lumber jack exploited because he only made $500 from the wood?

Uh huh and who are these artisans multiplying value (not just selling but literally adding value) of software systems by 14x?

Code doesn’t make a business. Go look at the millions of failed startups and side projects that software developers have created and failed with. You need more than the ability to just create software systems. Code is a commodity.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#25

Post by nightski »

whateveracct wrote: post #22
friedman23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lumber jack cuts down a tree and sells the wood for $500 to a high end furniture maker. This furniture maker then produces an armoire that he sells to a rich person for $7000. Was that lumber jack exploited because he only made $500 from the wood?

Uh huh and who are these artisans multiplying value (not just selling but literally adding value) of software systems by 14x?

Any business whose business is not that of software.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#26

Post by claplouder »

ivanhoe wrote: post #19

Jordan Peterson has come up with this rule: "Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today". Aside all the controversy that surrounds him, this is really deep and solid advice IMO. You don't live the life to impress others, so who cares if you have to show "something", you did a tones of projects, you got knowledge and experience from those projects, that's what you can (and should) sho…

Pretty sure that Jordan Peterson didn't come up with that.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#27

Post by zmmmmm »

It's a bit of a side point, but this is one reason I almost insist on incorporating some of what I do at work into open source projects. I realise there are places that make this very difficult. Sometimes you have to do it in reverse - find an existing open source project, get that in the door at work, then contribute to that project. Done that way it doesn't seem like the same giving away the corporate crown jewels as open sourcing existing things originated in-house.

But the result is you don't end up 25 years downstream with nothing to show for it. You end up with a collection of open source projects to your name that you can keep working on and re-deploying over your lifetime.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#28

Post by pugworthy »

Speaking from 40 years of programming (not counting before 18), OP needs to move to a life that's not about just programming.

The idea that OP has nothing to show from programming is short sighted, in that it's assuming that all one can or should created in life is code.

Do you have stories to tell? Tell them.

Do you know more about how to create solutions now? Become a better problem solver.

Do you know how to talk to a client about the "why" and not the "how" of a project? Be a creator of solutions, not software.

Also, the OP should start thinking of personal projects in a new way. Learn to fish, start a garden, volunteer somewhere, write, create art, travel, learn to play an instrument, learn to mediate. Anything that's not programming.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#29

Post by bch »

whateveracct wrote: post #22
friedman23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lumber jack cuts down a tree and sells the wood for $500 to a high end furniture maker. This furniture maker then produces an armoire that he sells to a rich person for $7000. Was that lumber jack exploited because he only made $500 from the wood?

Uh huh and who are these artisans multiplying value (not just selling but literally adding value) of software systems by 14x?

I think PG said[0] it well:

Suppose you own a beat-up old car. Instead of sitting on your butt next summer, you could spend the time restoring your car to pristine condition. In doing so you create wealth. The world is-- and you specifically are-- one pristine old car the richer. And not just in some metaphorical way. If you sell your car, you'll get more for it.

In restoring your old car you have made yourself richer. You haven't made anyone else poorer. So there is obviously not a fixed pie. And in fact, when you look at it this way, you wonder why anyone would think there was.

[0] http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html

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