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Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#41

Post by non-entity »

flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #27

>Working on boring, crappy projects for a living is just killing me, and you never know until you get on the job. How do you deal with this? I deal with it by choosing not to work on crappy projects. If a company or the project they want you to work on is crappy, don't choose them! There aren't many non-crappy tech jobs in my neck of the woods, so I branched out on my own. I do the odd consulting gig if you're a smal…

> I do the odd consulting gig if you're a small company who has a few technical problems and want to pay to fix them ASAP.

I've thought about this before, and imagine I could encounter some pretty interesting problems as well as collect some pretty valuable experience, but I just doubt companies acknowledge or care about a lot of tech issues. Particularly if they shakes up established processes

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#44

Post by scarface74 »

dyeje wrote: post #29
scarface74 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the framework of the day and “learning the fundamentals” won’t get you past the either HR filters or make you competitive with developers who are constantly doing Resume Driven Development and have a resume that is buzzword compliant. Especially if you are an older developer (I’m 45) and you will just be seen as just another old out of touch developer. That being said, the further down the stack you go, the…

So what? I don't care to compete with those developers or work for the companies who hire them.

Good luck with that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#45

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

ozim wrote: post #33
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're telling me most people just love making the "latest" and "greatest" CRUD web app? Because that's what most programmers do.

I love making our CRUD not latest and not greatest web app. I get not bad salary and I have great people to work with. No pressure, no assholes. Some point in time company owners may change, situation may change, but for what it is worth I am riding this wave until it dies and then will see. Not changing that job even for 2x salary.

I am genuinely jealous of your position. Sounds like you have a great situation going.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#46

Post by flyGuyOnTheSly »

non-entity wrote: post #41
flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #27

>Working on boring, crappy projects for a living is just killing me, and you never know until you get on the job. How do you deal with this? I deal with it by choosing not to work on crappy projects. If a company or the project they want you to work on is crappy, don't choose them! There aren't many non-crappy tech jobs in my neck of the woods, so I branched out on my own. I do the odd consulting gig if you're a smal…

> I do the odd consulting gig if you're a small company who has a few technical problems and want to pay to fix them ASAP. I've thought about this before, and imagine I could encounter some pretty interesting problems as well as collect some pretty valuable experience, but I just doubt companies acknowledge or care about a lot of tech issues. Particularly if they shakes up established processes

>I just doubt companies acknowledge or care about a lot of tech issues.

You're bang on, they sure don't.

Which is why I am extremely selective in who I will work with.

My consulting gigs are generally just favors for friends or friends of friends who are stressed out from having hired shitty programmer after shitty snakeoil salesman for the past few years straight... and are finally ready to bite the bullet and pay a few grand for whatever they need done... once and for all.

I would say that situation describes almost 100% of the consulting gigs that I have ever done.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#47

Post by scarface74 »

mieseratte wrote: post #13
scarface74 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the framework of the day and “learning the fundamentals” won’t get you past the either HR filters or make you competitive with developers who are constantly doing Resume Driven Development and have a resume that is buzzword compliant. Especially if you are an older developer (I’m 45) and you will just be seen as just another old out of touch developer. That being said, the further down the stack you go, the…

Perhaps I should clarify in that I don't worry about what's cool right now, but do in continuing education in what's new-ish and a solid solution. Having fundamental understandings of your domain is very helpful in spotting what's good and what's marketing flash-in-the-pan. > That being said, the further down the stack you go, the more stability there is in technology. IME, it's about where you go and not what level…

And then after you get laid off from the vanishing few remaining companies using old tech and can’t find another job, you’ll be complaining about “ageism” on HN.

If the market is paying higher than market salaries for the buzzword compliant “digital transformation consultant”, that’s what I will learn.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#48

Post by sailfast »

Find a mission you believe in and use your tech skills to help achieve it.

Warning: this might mean fighting bureaucracy, older tech stacks, lack of resources, etc but that is what you are there to solve!

Everybody needs help.

I’d also second other comments: use the downtime / boredom at your current job to your advantage. Only spend as much time as necessary there, focus on yourself - whether that’s wellness, side projects, vacations, etc. When you’re ready to figure out what’s next, make the move.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#49

Post by flyGuyOnTheSly »

redmondperl wrote: post #35
flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #27

>Working on boring, crappy projects for a living is just killing me, and you never know until you get on the job. How do you deal with this? I deal with it by choosing not to work on crappy projects. If a company or the project they want you to work on is crappy, don't choose them! There aren't many non-crappy tech jobs in my neck of the woods, so I branched out on my own. I do the odd consulting gig if you're a smal…

> working on an algorithmic trading bot right now. Any suggestions on how to approach building algorithmic trading bots?

Start getting some data in front of your face and start looking at it.

Really look at it... pore over it... think it... be it... once you start dreaming about price and volume data, you'll know you're on the right track...

...until you think you might notice an edge or something somewhere... then write unit tests to see if that hunch about the pattern your monkey brain thinks it saw is actually consistently profitable.

Then you do all of the real work that is implementing the actual trade execution engine. (Yes, I just yada yada'd over months of work)

That's how I went about it at least and it's working out great so far!

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#50

Post by non-entity »

seisvelas wrote: post #16

If your job is very 'real world engineering'y, work on projects that tickle theoretical itch. Try to implement a y combinator in a language you like without looking it up. Or learn physics and do simulations to help you. The real question is why should you keep your programming motivation up if its not something you're enjoying? Find something you enjoy and do that! Programming is a means to an end. If you want to en…

I'm starting to wish I went to school solely for the potential to get into research if I wanted. Unfortunately, although it seems like it would be more interesting and fulfilling, it also seems like financial suicide.

> you can try working in a very different kind of programming.

On that note, how do you manage to work in X when all your years of experience are in Y? I'd love to try different things, but I just don't know how to pivot

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