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I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

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Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#61

Post by AlexTWithBeard »

Isinlor wrote: post #40
fuball63 wrote: post #21

One thing that the article doesn't touch on is how a passion for software craftsmanship can be completely undermined by the recklessness of business decisions. I love the experience of writing and using rock solid programs, but in the real world, there are deadlines to meet, flaky requirements, and tech debt. For people in it for the money, it doesn't affect them. For people that appreciated good software, it turns t…

This is how most chefs lives look like. They prepare the same meals from a menu under time pressure years after years. Maybe it's not flipping burgers in fast food, but there is little space for artisanship in the food industry. You have to be really good to do more than prepare the same thing over and over from a menu.

Isn't any job is like that? I guess even super-duper-romantic jet fighter pilot will spend most of his time doing paperwork and explaining seemingly obvious things to the higher ups.

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#62

Post by fuball63 »

Isinlor wrote: post #40
fuball63 wrote: post #21

One thing that the article doesn't touch on is how a passion for software craftsmanship can be completely undermined by the recklessness of business decisions. I love the experience of writing and using rock solid programs, but in the real world, there are deadlines to meet, flaky requirements, and tech debt. For people in it for the money, it doesn't affect them. For people that appreciated good software, it turns t…

This is how most chefs lives look like. They prepare the same meals from a menu under time pressure years after years. Maybe it's not flipping burgers in fast food, but there is little space for artisanship in the food industry. You have to be really good to do more than prepare the same thing over and over from a menu.

This is true for brewers too. Beer is endlessly fascinating with the amount of variables to tweak, but working in a brewery is a fairly routine process of reading the recipe and executing then same steps over and over.

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#64

Post by writehappycode »

If you don’t like most of the software development lifecycle and are not willing to learn new strategies, you probably shouldn’t “write code” for a living, and that’s ok. You are more than just a requirement to code translator. Learn to grow a little task into something special. There is always a way to make it better. Spend more time designing and less typing. That’s my 2 cents

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#65

Post by pts_ »

dboreham wrote: post #52
pts_ wrote: post #27

What's 1000x worse than working on small code fragments, is designing programs by talking in meetings. Management types are drawn to it, not software geeks.

"geeks"?

Well someone passionate about thinking and implementing instead of talking and thinking loudly in a meeting room, and delegating the implementation to a low paid and low regarded individual.

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#66

Post by esotericn »

Ultimately I think it's difficult to find a job with the correct combination of everything you want. I don't think this is unique to software development.

I've worked in places in London that I really enjoyed. Good colleagues, good environment, tip top.

But then you're in a place with a hellish cost of living, and it's basically a requirement to play office politics and earn $BIGNUM, else you'll be in a pokey flat with a shit commute forever. And that can really eat in to motivation - because suddenly your work is no longer about the craft, it's about increasing your personal numbers.

I imagine the same to be true in SV/SF.

You can then have the other extreme, whereby perhaps you have a very low cost of living, but there's 1 software company and you either work there or not.

Remote work can help to solve this, but there are a whole bunch of unsolved social issues there.

A lot of the stuff I read on here about burnout I think isn't really linked to the work itself. It's the whole environment - everything feeds in.

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#67

Post by precisioncoder »

wslh wrote: post #26
precisioncoder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any idea how hard it can be to get a job in any decent circus? Most of them require decades of training and education and pay less than most manual labour jobs. Honestly working as a software developer (which I do) required far less investment of time and money then circus. (Where I am now a Partner Acrobatics trainer)

Clearly accepted Cirque du Soleil performers are scarcer than Google developers. This can also be applied to top performers in classical music as well.

The thing that shocked me is it isn't just the best. Even the worst usually have massive amounts of time and effort invested and the pay is normally awful. It's the hobby effect, similar to art and music, however the top performers make vastly less. Cirque du Soleil performers who are some of the best in the world still mostly make < 100k/year.

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#68

Post by fuball63 »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #61
Isinlor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how most chefs lives look like. They prepare the same meals from a menu under time pressure years after years. Maybe it's not flipping burgers in fast food, but there is little space for artisanship in the food industry. You have to be really good to do more than prepare the same thing over and over from a menu.

Isn't any job is like that? I guess even super-duper-romantic jet fighter pilot will spend most of his time doing paperwork and explaining seemingly obvious things to the higher ups.

I think this is why so many people fantasize about owning a business; it seems to allow for the most "vision oriented" work, which is what most people find enjoyable. Even that has its limits though, as there's just different kinds of drudge work involved.

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#69

Post by zerogvt »

dagw wrote: post #38
Synaesthesia wrote: post #25

I’d love to be a programmer but it seems that my job would likely consist of some database programming or nuts and bolts of a internal corporate program. Not exactly exciting or fulfilling work! Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not in the industry but that’s my impression. This blog kinda confirms my concerns.

The cool thing about being a programmer is that you can use it in basically every field of endeavor out there. If you want to work with movies, you can work with movies. Are you passionate about urban planning, ecology or archaeology, there are lots of roles for programming in all those fields. Want to be a journalist, lots of programming and data mining happening within journalism these days. There are basically two…

That is a naive opinion IMHO. In all but the core SW roles you would merely be a simple cog being told what to do. If for example you'd be coding for an archaelogy department you would be the code monkey of the professor heads. Even worse you would have to battle their ignorant views on SW. My guess is that you'd hate playing that role and that you would run as fast as you could back to a SW house doing fragmented work with people that at least understand a bit of software.

At least that's my experience of venturing into a non-hardcore SW field (health sector).

Re: I just don’t want to be a software developer anymore (2017)

#70

Post by andai »

yitchelle wrote: post #39

After reading this, I felt the she is painting all the industry that software is applicable to with the same brush. Software development as a discipline is applicable across many types of industry (automotive, mobile, communications, aerospace, Internet, etc). I wonder how much of her wanting to quit software development is due to the industry that she is in.

I've been wondering about this. I've heard that it can be preferable for various reasons to work at a company that does something other than software as its main thing.
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