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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

#61

Post by sifoobar »

ilovecaching wrote: post #58

What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish. Programming is my selfish pleasure; I love it therefore I do it. Just remember, we are a tiny, insignificant speck in the history of our own planet, let alone the universe. If you truly believe you can improve people's lives with code, go do that. But don't make it about proving yourself to other people, or creating a la…

I often sum that up as follow your heart, however worn out the words may be.

Anything less leads in circles, and that's usually not the goal.

If there was another way, someone would have found it by now.

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

#62

Post by sureaboutthis »

unreal37 wrote: post #54

Fascinating comparison of comments. If you read the comments to the article, 100% of them are "same with me". If you read the comments in HN, 50% of them are "set your expectations correctly." I read this and I felt like I needed to talk with the guy. It doesn't matter if you "don't have anything to show" for 15 years of work. It doesn't matter. Where is it written that programmers must have a hand-coded website or a…

This is an article on dev.to. The home of frustrated redditors trying to make a name for themselves. I'm starting to see too many of these on HN and have never seen anything posted there worthwhile reading.

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

#63

Post by readingnews »

tehlike wrote: post #13
ui-explorer12 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first reaction was similar to the GP - not sure you can throw out the word "officially" when it refers to something you say you did at 11 years old, unless it's documented or there is some sort of record. When the overall post is how you have nothing to show for it, that's kind of the opposite of official. Don't really care if people want to measure differently, but IMO what you've done in the past 2 years is way…

None looks further than your last work experience when they are hiring you. That's true.

I suppose perhaps that is what I was also thinking. I too was doing nutty stuff at 12 years of age, soldering together computers, writing code, creating software. When I interview or talk to people, that would not matter much. Perhaps it just came off as pretentious in the context of the blog.

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

#64

Post by tluyben2 »

ilovecaching wrote: post #58

What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish. Programming is my selfish pleasure; I love it therefore I do it. Just remember, we are a tiny, insignificant speck in the history of our own planet, let alone the universe. If you truly believe you can improve people's lives with code, go do that. But don't make it about proving yourself to other people, or creating a la…

For me it's not ego, well not primarily I like to think. I find, after programming for 30 years now, that programming is deeply flawed and that it is basically a huge disaster waiting to happen (in many cases it's happening already). I want to try to at least progress the field a little bit further so it's not this bad anymore.

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

#66

Post by BurningFrog »

ellius wrote: post #56
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…

Hannah Arendt draws a useful distinction between "labor" and "work." Labor is effort required to sustain life: catching food, finding water, plowing crops. Because living creatures need these things continually, labor never ends. Food is eaten or decays and new food must be grown. Work, on the other hand, has a defined start and endpoint. Ideally, it produces something enduring and unique. In ancient times, labor was…

Completely different angle:

We're primates who by nature are very hierarchy oriented. We judge our lives by how high in the hierarchy we are. And no matter how rich society gets, how good our homes, health, food supply and culture are, we still end up on average in the middle of the pack.

And maybe that's what feels like you have "nothing to show for it".

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

#67

Post by ndnxhs »

sureaboutthis wrote: post #62
unreal37 wrote: post #54

Fascinating comparison of comments. If you read the comments to the article, 100% of them are "same with me". If you read the comments in HN, 50% of them are "set your expectations correctly." I read this and I felt like I needed to talk with the guy. It doesn't matter if you "don't have anything to show" for 15 years of work. It doesn't matter. Where is it written that programmers must have a hand-coded website or a…

This is an article on dev.to. The home of frustrated redditors trying to make a name for themselves. I'm starting to see too many of these on HN and have never seen anything posted there worthwhile reading.

Is dev.to the new quora? I haven't looked too much at it but it didn't seem to be the worst.

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

#68

Post by ajcodez »

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?

Illustrators and designers who make marketing pages.

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

#69

Post by TomMckenny »

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…

Being grateful makes perfect sense. But being satisfied with just that sees a bit of a waste. Perhaps even a bit ungrateful. Should I be satisfied if my headstone says simply "I was comfortable"?

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

#70

Post by enraged_camel »

ilovecaching wrote: post #58

What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish. Programming is my selfish pleasure; I love it therefore I do it. Just remember, we are a tiny, insignificant speck in the history of our own planet, let alone the universe. If you truly believe you can improve people's lives with code, go do that. But don't make it about proving yourself to other people, or creating a la…

>>What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish.

No, fuck that. Most of the world's problems are caused by selfish assholes.

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