Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I no longer build software

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 891 posts

Re: I no longer build software

#271

Post by spurdoman77 »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #168

It seems like nowadays you just can't make money building interesting things anymore. Most of the available programming work is really just writing glue code to make big software systems work as intended, to the point where it can feel more like writing configuration files than actual programming. Put simply, 98% of programming these days is scripting. On the other hand, you have lots of fun things one can do with co…

> It seems like nowadays you just can't make money building interesting things anymore.

So what? Then it becomes just a normal job. Most jobs out there arent that interesring, just problems or doing tasks that people don't want to do themselves.

Getting interesting tasks while being well-paid is not any way normal or common, and I also think hasn't been ever.

Re: I no longer build software

#272

Post by Unklejoe »

snazz wrote: post #169
jacquesm wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I take chopping off my finger in a heartbeat I wouldn't make so light of that.

Totally off-topic, but the automatic blade brakes on modern table saws are really cool. It runs a current through the blade, so when something moist like your finger or a hot dog gets too close (maybe using capacitance?), it automatically drops the blade and instantly stops it with a single-use brake mechanism. Better to destroy the $100 blade-and-brake assembly than to lose a finger.

> something moist like your finger

I wonder how well this would work in a real life scenario. My dad does autobody work, and his hands are like dry, cracked stone. They probably have very high electrical resistance. I'd imagine a wood worker's hands to be similar.

Re: I no longer build software

#274

Post by GrumpyNl »

Keep it simple, build what you need. This is so hard to get through peoples heads, now the most simple landings page seems to need react. Im 61 and still love to code but the hoops and loops you have to jump through these days to host a web page is absurd. I can not emphasize this enough, keep it simple.

Re: I no longer build software

#275

Post by coldtea »

chpmrc wrote: post #208
DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #168

It seems like nowadays you just can't make money building interesting things anymore. Most of the available programming work is really just writing glue code to make big software systems work as intended, to the point where it can feel more like writing configuration files than actual programming. Put simply, 98% of programming these days is scripting. On the other hand, you have lots of fun things one can do with co…

I can order a comfy car anywhere I am with the tap of a button. I can order food from hundreds of restaurants and have it delivered in less than 30 mins with the tap of a button. I can book flights and hotels with the tap of a button. I can play with friends in virtual reality and actually sweat. I can watch a live stream of SpaceX launching reusable rockets in space. I could buy a car that is almost fully "self driv…

So we've mostly solved trivial non-problems if/not regressions?

People lived in 1990 and didn't feel that bad to have to call a travel agency to get a ticket, or, god forbid, to actually meet friends and not in VR space...

I'll give you "self driving cars" -- well, I would if they could work today, which they don't...

Re: I no longer build software

#276

Post by notacoward »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #237
notacoward wrote: post #125

Totally on board with not building software any more. In fact, at 55 this is my last week of it. For real. Basically, everything sucks more about building software nowadays more than I remember it sucking before, from the mere mechanics of navigating through an obscenely large pseudo-object-oriented codebase to the WRONG constructs/idioms people use to build distributed systems to the way software is packaged and dep…

It goes without saying that your feelings are personal ones, totally valid, and nobody can really question them. I'm 20 years behind you, and I don't know what effect that will have on my views. But I don't really recognise the picture you're painting. Compared to the first steps I took as a developer about 15 years ago, almost everything about software development seems better to me. I find developing software to be…

Thank you for sharing your perspective. It honestly warms my heart to see that some people believe the trajectory is still upward.

> Maybe I just enjoy software right now because I've now got the technical competence and confidence to avoid some of the frustrations that I experienced earlier

Just as some but not all of my (mostly negative) perception is surely personal, might I suggest that some but not all of your (mostly positive) perception is not? Perhaps the industry really has improved in some areas that you care about during that interval. Yay! OTOH, that doesn't necessarily put your perception and mine in opposition. There are other areas and other intervals, and other priorities as well. It's great that your experience has been positive. I hope it remains so.

Re: I no longer build software

#277

Post by alexmingoia »

httpne wrote: post #141

I personally think programming is a terrible job. In these threads, there are always people who say "it isn't programming, it is x", where x is "poor management", "the fact that it is a job", "the type of programming you are doing", etc, etc. It isn't, it is programming. Anyway, I want to go one step further and return to a more ancient living style. I don't want things like artificial light, computers, etc, to be a…

https://youtu.be/21j_OCNLuYg

Re: I no longer build software

#278

Post by jlangenauer »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #237
notacoward wrote: post #125

Totally on board with not building software any more. In fact, at 55 this is my last week of it. For real. Basically, everything sucks more about building software nowadays more than I remember it sucking before, from the mere mechanics of navigating through an obscenely large pseudo-object-oriented codebase to the WRONG constructs/idioms people use to build distributed systems to the way software is packaged and dep…

It goes without saying that your feelings are personal ones, totally valid, and nobody can really question them. I'm 20 years behind you, and I don't know what effect that will have on my views. But I don't really recognise the picture you're painting. Compared to the first steps I took as a developer about 15 years ago, almost everything about software development seems better to me. I find developing software to be…

I think you are right to say that the methods are vastly improved, but the ends to which those methods are applied have become ever more uninteresting (for a lot of people), and often morally suspect. We have built exquisite tools, but we use them to extract profit, to manipulate behaviour and often for no discernable purpose at all.

Programming has become joyless.

There are ever-shrinking spaces where a developer gets to build something novel - something that's state of the art, that's creative, that taxes their intellect and brings the pleasure of achievement forth. It seems that for every developer working on rocket guidance systems or self-driving cars there are a hundred toiling away on yet another CRUD app, or wrestling with a hydra of microservices. It pays well, but fun it is not.

Re: I no longer build software

#279

Post by giantDinosaur »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #164
axegon_ wrote: post #95

Strangely enough, to a degree I envy this guy. I've been at my current job for over 8 years and up until a few months ago I was pretty happy. However politics caught up and I decided to leave. At the moment I have a few offers on the table, one of which is from a company somewhere in the FAANG realm. Senior software engineer, awesome conditions, very generous paycheck, lots of benefits. So tempted by all this I said…

> pulling comments and likes on things which can be considered "inappropriate" and "offensive" > That alone is enough for me to turn down the offer > I take chopping off my finger in a heartbeat You would rather lose a finger that work in a company that has strict very rules around offensive behavior? ...

It's pretty clear that there's offensive behaviour as generally understood (antisocial stuff, mostly) and whatever reign of terror this company is, from the OP's perspective, prosecuting.

Re: I no longer build software

#280

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

I feel like there is kinda a lot of overanalyzing in this thread. I'll steal a line from Drew Carey: "There's a club for people who hate there jobs. It's called everyone, and our meetings are at the bar on 5PM on Fridays."

If anything, I think the tech world (and indeed most of the professional world) has been fed a load of bull that work is supposed to be personally spiritually fulfilling, instead of something that pays the bills so you can get personal fulfillment outside of your job.

Post reply on HN