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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

#151

Post by howard941 »

michael_leachim wrote: post #146

I am in a somewhat similar position, although I can't say that I have a solid career. I've started through working on a startup and then miserably failed, wasting three years. Then worked for a small company making money saving and useful services for them, but nothing extraordinary. Then I tried again. And I failed again. I was disciplined. I planned and worked hard for half a year, having nothing to show for it in…

FFS this comment resonates so deeply. I don't understand how to work directly with fear except for being completely occupied so as to make rumination impossible. Can you share any pointers?

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

#152

Post by coldtea »

xchaotic wrote: post #135
forinti wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've witnessed how one person who couldn't keep it together harmed a family two generations down the line. Life is hard and if you can give your kids a decent childhood, you've done your bit.

Please don't take that as my personal opinion, just a point for a good argument. If you have a nice family, raised and supported kids well into their adulthood, that is all very nice on a personal level, but globally what have you done? I by no means expect everyone to be the next Henry Ford or Edison, but if you're just living your life, you're just consuming planet's limited resources. Animals have lived like that…

>Please don't take that as my personal opinion, just a point for a good argument. If you have a nice family, raised and supported kids well into their adulthood, that is all very nice on a personal level, but globally what have you done?

You don't have to do anything "globally". We're not pop culture superheroes out to save the world. The obsession with "making a dent"-porn has to stop.

If more people were "very nice on a personal level" we'd already be paradise.

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

#153

Post by nickthemagicman »

I feel this same thing with coding every day. Architects and Engineers design building/bridges that last lifetimes, Doctors cure people, Lawyers can advance our legal system.

We crank out code under deadlines for projects that get shuttered/replaced within a couple years due to changing tech business.

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

#154

Post by bakoo »

TrackerFF wrote: post #105

I'm a musician, and I've been one for, well, 20 years now. Without a doubt, my most productive years were from year 2-6. At year two, I had mastered the instrument enough to be productive, and for the next four years, I'd practice up to 12 hours a day, writing and record stuff as I progressed on. Lots of times, I re-visit older stuff, that I now felt I could do much better - having progressed as a musician and songwr…

Interesting! In some ways, you're describing the difference between art and craft, which might help explain why I often enjoy early albums more than later ones, or at least appreciate them for different reasons.

I've always loved programming, but whenever I'm asked why I don't switch from ops to development, my answer is that I don't want to destroy my hobby by becoming a professional. I've seen it happen, not only to photographers that shoot weddings and anything else that pays, but accomplished artists who can't afford to not spend their time and talent to "create new artwork for our HQ reception and conference rooms, since the old artwork doesn't match the new logo". It can be heartbreaking.

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

#155

Post by abledon »

justaguyhere wrote: post #137
ratsimihah wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe some of us tend to mix up "a life lived" with overachieving. In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding.

In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding By this metric, most of humanity probably feels it worthless, isn't it? I understand this is HN and people here achieve more than the normal crowd - still, I don't get the obsession over being productive every second, the need to "produce something truly outstanding" etc. Whats wrong with just being happy, taking it easy, spreading happin…

i think when people focus on optimizing code they slip into a frame of mind where they try to 'optimize' their lives like they are a machine. the road to hell is paved with good intentions

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

#156

Post by michael_leachim »

howard941 wrote: post #151
michael_leachim wrote: post #146

I am in a somewhat similar position, although I can't say that I have a solid career. I've started through working on a startup and then miserably failed, wasting three years. Then worked for a small company making money saving and useful services for them, but nothing extraordinary. Then I tried again. And I failed again. I was disciplined. I planned and worked hard for half a year, having nothing to show for it in…

FFS this comment resonates so deeply. I don't understand how to work directly with fear except for being completely occupied so as to make rumination impossible. Can you share any pointers?

Several things that I am working with now:

1) Doing what is difficult. (Started commenting on here, planning to share some of my work here and on Reddit).

2) Asking myself whether I am doing the right thing or avoiding it. (That is when you can spend 3 months in refactoring when you really should just make a landing and share the thing everywhere gathering feedback and iterating along the way)

3) Constant exposure. I am planning to take some work in sales (which I dread). That should help with breaking barriers.

4) Observing the mind. A form of mindfulness approach that warrants its own larger explanation.

Now, I am nearly at the beginning of this journey, but I think I will be able to figure it all out.

Hope this helps.

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

#157

Post by adwn »

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…

> Capitalism transmutes nearly all work into labor.

In your opinion, was there ever a system where that was not the case? If not, then you can't really say that it's capitalism which transmutes work into labor, no?

Do you think there could be a system where that is not the case (apart from an anarcho-communistic utopia as in the Culture series)?

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

#158

Post by abledon »

TrackerFF wrote: post #105

I'm a musician, and I've been one for, well, 20 years now. Without a doubt, my most productive years were from year 2-6. At year two, I had mastered the instrument enough to be productive, and for the next four years, I'd practice up to 12 hours a day, writing and record stuff as I progressed on. Lots of times, I re-visit older stuff, that I now felt I could do much better - having progressed as a musician and songwr…

have you considered transitioning from music to yoga/taichi? I found the same creative force was required but on a different plane.

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

#159

Post by howard941 »

michael_leachim wrote: post #156
howard941 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FFS this comment resonates so deeply. I don't understand how to work directly with fear except for being completely occupied so as to make rumination impossible. Can you share any pointers?

Several things that I am working with now: 1) Doing what is difficult. (Started commenting on here, planning to share some of my work here and on Reddit). 2) Asking myself whether I am doing the right thing or avoiding it. (That is when you can spend 3 months in refactoring when you really should just make a landing and share the thing everywhere gathering feedback and iterating along the way) 3) Constant exposure. I…

Thank you

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

#160

Post by wrycoder »

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?

$50 is closer.
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