I no longer build software • Hacker News Board

Re: I no longer build software

#281

Post by eloisant » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:36 PM UTC

jb1991 wrote: post #20

Amen. 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…

Some memories of pre-2000 that were not that enjoyable:

- Most of the teams were not using SCM, but connecting to the same network drive and daily copying the whole folder as a backup. For those who did it was CVS (ugh). Even during the 2000's the best you got was SVN.

- So many Visual Basic projects

- For web projects: deploy by copying the files with FTP, getting shouted by a colleague because you override the hotfix he did using SSH and VI on the production file

Now there were good projects back in the day, and there are good projects today. You just have to take control of your career and not just follow the flow of the first company who hired you in your area.

Also remember that you can pivot within software development, there are so many different kind of software, you just have to accept to get out of your comfort zone.

Re: I no longer build software

#282

Post by fendy3002 » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:37 PM UTC

Jenz wrote: post #182

mauvehaus wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a warning, you're eventually going to run out of places to put that furniture if you don't sell some of it! I'm the OP on that github issue, and while my partner and still have some IKEA furniture I'd like to replace, we also have a couple of pieces of mine that don't fit readily into our lives that we just have around the house. The chandelier on my website[0] was a spec piece built for a show at the Wharton Eshe…

The software developer turned woodworker keeps reading HN? :P

You can checkout anytime you like but you can never leave

Re: I no longer build software

#283

Post by notacoward » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:38 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #257

notacoward wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't most of the examples you list kind of orthogonal to the issue at hand? They seem more related to living in a world where software exists than to actually being the one who builds it.

I think you may have missed the point that someone had to build all that stuff, and the universe of software in the business world (where people are employed to write software) is large.

Did I miss the point, or did you? Someone has to clean out the sewers too. Somebody does, and maybe they make good money to make up for the unpleasantness - I certainly hope so - but that doesn't make it a fun job. If software development has become sewer cleaning, isn't that something worth talking about?

Re: I no longer build software

#284

Post by cpursley » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #232

fxtentacle wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the main thing that changed is that 10 years ago, "building software" meant you would work with (presumably reasonable) engineers. Nowadays, it means you do web busywork for some newly rich kid chasing a startup lifestyle, who may or may not have any idea about what's easy/difficult possible/impossible. Also, the whole industry has been strongly commercialized. Before, people would share source code on the…

Your overall tone is negative and elitist. Thee $300 supermarket bike (I have one and put over 40 miles on it weekly and it's help up fine for four years) provides access to folks who otherwise can't afford the fancy $1,500 aluminium/carbon machines. Fancy bikes are still getting made and even getting better. Newly rich kid or VC funded startups distributes money from wealthy people to an every growing software indus…

The downvotes are fun. I guess some people are just against inclusiveness?

I'm very grateful to be in this industry despite not having the "correct" background.

Re: I no longer build software

#285

Post by calamityjam » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

Spent the last few days building monkey bars for the kids to play in the backyard. It's really satisfying building something physical that others can use. It's similar to the feeling of building software that you see other people using and enjoying.

Re: I no longer build software

#286

Post by grandinj » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

I'd suggest finding a smaller company to work for, one that makes products, as opposed to doing integration or consulting.

The money is less, you typically have to work on older stacks, and you don't get to learn a new technology every year, but the upside is you get to work across more of the (vertical) tech stack, and you get to be deeply familiar with the technologies involved.

Re: I no longer build software

#287

Post by derefr » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

yoz-y wrote: post #253

qz2 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair we could do nearly all of that before without much of an issue. Now we inherit the overhead of the software, demand pricing, apps that are made of shit and string (uber eats I'm looking at you) and zero customer service...

Uhh. Before I didn’t even have Internet, much less a screen on which I could tap on a button.

I think the implication is that ride hailing, delivery ordering, and flight/hotel booking were possible to do by calling the company on the telephone. Which—if you already know precisely what you want—has almost as little friction as opening an app and tapping a button. (And to make that apply more often, these companies used to distribute fliers containing their “browsable UI.”)

“Live streams” of rocket launches were on TV :)

And driving, step-by-step directions, and translation were services provided by human beings. For the richer of us, they still mostly are services provided by humans, because the machine versions still aren’t quite as good.

There have been VR systems at arcades since the 80s. The main difference today is that they’re consumer electronics you can bring home. (Not that that’s necessarily better for everyone; not every home has the room.)

Cryptocurrency is fairly novel in the universality of the access it provides to such services. Before, you and your counterparty had to both have fancy Swiss bank accounts or Bahamian shell companies to exchange the funds through. Still possible, but you couldn’t just send the money to anybody, so it limited what you could do with dirty money. Now dirty money is almost as useful as clean money! :P

Re: I no longer build software

#288

Post by krosaen » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

mythz wrote: post #239

Seems to be a heavy "all modern software development sucks" vibe in this thread, when the issue is more "software I get paid to write sucks". What software would you write if you could write whatever you wanted using whatever language/technology you wanted? Unless all the joy gets sucked out beforehand, pretty sure I'm going to move to be developing Mobile Apps after I retire. It was the most fun I've had writing App…

Agree that the job matters a lot. I was working at a job where the domain was really fun but the tech work itself was getting repetitive for me (web and native apps, rdbs backed servers etc). It took a couple of years willing to make way less money but now I'm working in robotics and enjoy my day job technically very much, and the pay is back up to market rate (in a more lucrative field). And the journey during which I made zero (summer studying) and then 1/2 of previous pay (engineer in university lab) was both fun and rejuvenating.

I think it's important to save up some of your money as you go especially early on when you get that first software job where it feels like you are making a lot of money. Start saving for your future transition(s) as you may not be happy working in the same field for your entire career.

Re: I no longer build software

#289

Post by amyjess » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:41 PM UTC

bilbo0s wrote: post #40

secondcoming wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Serious question, didn't anyone else' school have shop class? I was a college prep, NHS, cross country, all AP core courses kind of guy, and I took it all four years of high school. Or was there some kind of restriction on taking it at your school? Or maybe your parents didn't let you? Genuinely curious as to why someone with a professed interest would not have taken shop?

I don't think mine did. Maybe. I remember hearing one classmate mention shop once, but maybe I misheard him or he was joking or something. If we did have a shop class, it wasn't advertised, I don't know who taught it or where the shop was.

Re: I no longer build software

#290

Post by axegon_ » Mon, Sep 21, 2020, 1:41 PM UTC

emerged wrote: post #188

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…

Yea there's absolutely no way I'd give a company or their goons permission to invade my privacy like that. Disturbing that companies are even allowed to get away with that without a class action law suit.

They get away with it because officially they don't do that. Some guy got a hold of his report and that's how he found out. Officially it's employment history, criminal record, and education history, nothing more. But the fact that such things ended up in their report(which, mind you, was almost 400 pages) raises many red flags.