Yeah. Obviously there are those who enjoy it, but this line of work is kinda the pits. Best you can do is try to be well compensated so you can hopefully stop doing it soon enough.
Can’t wait to do anything else.
I no longer build software
21–30 of 891 posts
Re: I no longer build software
#22This made me laugh, because I actually am planning on making a transition to woodworking. My house is paid off, and I can live on a fairly small income that I can probably generate mostly from passive income. If I can actually supplement that with building furniture, bonus. If not, then I still get to build furniture.
Add me to the list of software developers who desires to switch to woodworking/machining.
Re: I no longer build software
#23Amen. Modern software development is frankly kinda sucky. The old days pre-2000 were arguably a lot more enjoyable. Today it's just digital plumbing and dealing with all sorts of issues that are not creative. The sheer complexity is frankly absurd as well. I've thought about moving on from software many times, and I know many who have. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's best way to spend your short l…
> The old days pre-2000 were arguably a lot more enjoyable.
The existence of Dilbert says you're wrong.
Re: I no longer build software
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The dude lives in Indonesia. Not sure he ever saw much of a reward for writing software, sadly.
From my experience, writing software in 3-rd world country is a reliable way to get out of the poverty. Some example numbers for Kazakhstan: average salary for many low-skilled labour workers is around $100-$200 per month. Average salary for junior software developer is at least $500 and you would quickly reach $1000 and very skilled developers might get $2000+ per month. The same is true for Russia or Belarus or Ukr…
There is a lot of people from US here on HN so you should clarify that you talking about salaries after tax. E.g $1000 in Russia would be the same as $2000 in the US since employer pays 33-49% of salary as taxes.
In my home town called Rostov-on-Don (10th largest city in Russia) I have friends who make $2500-3000 after tax for their software engineer and devops positions. Some of these people are far from being a rockstar developers, just have well-paid positions at large companies. Average salary is somewhat lower, but it's still good money here since living costs are low.
PS: Family of 3 can basically live there for $1500 / month with rent, food and entertainment and if you single even $600 is quite sufficient.
Re: I no longer build software
#25Amen. Modern software development is frankly kinda sucky. The old days pre-2000 were arguably a lot more enjoyable. Today it's just digital plumbing and dealing with all sorts of issues that are not creative. The sheer complexity is frankly absurd as well. I've thought about moving on from software many times, and I know many who have. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's best way to spend your short l…
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Re: I no longer build software
#26Sounds like a humble brag to stroke his own ego. Wood working grunt work is virtually infinitely less intellectually stimulating than software grunt work. If he’s working for himself now, good for him but the comment just comes off as superfluous and pretentious
This sounds like a humble brag to stroke your own ego
Re: I no longer build software
#27This made me laugh, because I actually am planning on making a transition to woodworking. My house is paid off, and I can live on a fairly small income that I can probably generate mostly from passive income. If I can actually supplement that with building furniture, bonus. If not, then I still get to build furniture.
Add me to the list of software developers who desires to switch to woodworking/machining.
I too would love to do it. It irks me to this day that I was taught nonsense such as latin in school instead of woodwork or metalwork.
Re: I no longer build software
#28Amen. Modern software development is frankly kinda sucky. The old days pre-2000 were arguably a lot more enjoyable. Today it's just digital plumbing and dealing with all sorts of issues that are not creative. The sheer complexity is frankly absurd as well. I've thought about moving on from software many times, and I know many who have. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's best way to spend your short l…
Honest question, what is a great career pivot for someone that's been in development all their life? It seems that nothing pays as well as building software, unless you go into management which most developers would enjoy even less than digital plumbing.
Re: I no longer build software
#29This is what Ive shifted to as well. Trades are much more useful in life, because you can't pay to get a job done right, and paying anyone else at all is far too expensive.
For most people you have the reality of needing a 40 hour week job to live, and there's plenty of people who spent the 4 years to get a bachelor's in compsci and nobody cares to hire them. Software is volatile, you can spend plenty of time making something that will not work and won't be at all useful.
Reality is the software job market sucks, and people have to learn how to build their own houses or else become stuck as rent slaves.
Re: I no longer build software
#30Sounds like a humble brag to stroke his own ego. Wood working grunt work is virtually infinitely less intellectually stimulating than software grunt work. If he’s working for himself now, good for him but the comment just comes off as superfluous and pretentious
I couldn't stimulate myself intellectually reading your comment :(