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I no longer build software

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Re: I no longer build software

#371

Post by jjice »

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…

I'm sorry you don't enjoy it anymore, but this being your last week is pretty great. Enjoy your next endeavors!

Re: I no longer build software

#372

Post by someguydave »

mumblemumble wrote: post #330
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…

After having read the article Built to Last [1] from the latest issue of Logic Magazine over my morning coffee, and spending breakfast pondering my coming day of figuring out if we can disentangle some stuff I'm working on from the increasingly complex and inscrutable Big Data ecosystem, and if it's even going to be possible to get management to approve it when the requests to stick RSS feeds into DBMSes are forever…

Alternatively, one could take the view that low-abstraction languages are designed to turn programmers into replaceable parts. This benefits the “low-quality for low-price” software vendor culture at the expense of programmer’s pay and status and also at the expense of the customer’s ownership and quality experience.

Re: I no longer build software

#373

Post by retiredpoor »

After a decade of experience in the industry at 4 different companies, I quit my 6 figure devops job in 2013. I think back to all the meetings, emails, pagerduty alerts, and bruised 25 year old egos over the merits of Chef vs Puppet and have to laugh. I now run a landscaping business, make less money, have more time, and I can actually avoid working with toxic people/customers.

Re: I no longer build software

#374

Post by lmarcos »

blueterminal wrote: post #264
matthewmacleod wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 completely agree. Docker, amazing frameworks (Laravel, Django, ReactJS etc.), git, CI, amazing IDEs, etc. It's absolutely magical compared to what we had 15 years ago. Entry level is much higher though for sure, you definitely need to learn and know a lot. But once you do know certain things at a certain level, you become a very powerful individual.

And here it lays the paradox. All the tools you have mentioned have little to do with programming (one individual solving problems by writing code). The tools you mentioned have to do with software engineering (a bunch of individuals solving problems by writing code, plus a bunch of constraints).

The joy is in programming, not in software engineering. At least that's how I interprete the GitHub comment (and all these stories about developers that cannot take it any more and burn out).

Re: I no longer build software

#375

Post by jlangenauer »

plazmatic wrote: post #234
chpmrc wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

All this, yet the world is unquestionably getting worse. Crazy times.

I'm not entirely sure the world is getting worse, but I am certain that it's becoming more complex.

And when the finite cognitive capacity of every human being must manage that complexity just to survive (let along propser), it sure feels like it's getting worse.

Re: I no longer build software

#376

Post by XCSme »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #218
emerged wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm about 40 yrs old, started in software almost 25 years ago. I still really enjoy it. I stay away from web development because it's a big mess of sloppy languages and tools.

> I stay away from web development because it's a big mess of sloppy languages and tools. You can somewhat get around that if you work mostly on back-end stuff. For the front-end, things might change once wasm becomes more viable.

Or if you don't care about the tools and just used what you already know or like.

Re: I no longer build software

#377

Post by jjice »

nicbou wrote: post #75

Add me to the woodworking ex-developers. I built a website that pays the bills, and now I have a lot of time on my hands. I am finishing my first piece of furniture today. It's pretty scary to work without an undo button. The physical world isn't just instructions, but movements. A little twitch can ruin a cut. A clumsy movement can dent a piece of wood you spent an hour sanding. You truly experience the meaning of "…

As a current CS student on his last year, I've heard this a lot and it's taken some time to come to terms with. I've always seen people saying they can get work down by their work, which was really scary to me at first. How could I ever become tired of the think I've loved most since I was 8?

Yet, this happens to everyone, including me to a small extent during my last internship. I think everyone can grow tired of anything given enough of it, and I think coming to terms with that is easier for some than others.

I've mentally prepared myself to branch out into different pastimes, and for some reason, it seems we all land on wood working.

Re: I no longer build software

#378

Post by devy »

In a serious note, Woodworking is a great rewarding craft. It bears the same builder mentality, creating physical objects via reduction manufacturing and most importantly, you build for yourself and for the people that you care about.

Re: I no longer build software

#379

Post by ricksharp »

I’ve been building software for around 20 years. It’s more enjoyable to me than it has ever been. One of the reasons is I have my own playground repo + site where I put all my experiments and write whatever I want.

I can now make more in a day than I could have made in a year 15 years ago.

In the past few months, I have:

- built a serverless website/ code playground that enables me to host all my experiments and costs me essentially nothing - parsed the original zork code into typescript and then made a zork style game for my family - made about 5 educational mini games for my kids - learned how to do systematic math proofs with the lean language - created a serverless and database-free user data storage service on aws - created a serverless websocket service and a real time party game on aws.

This morning I started building a serverless mesh-like network on top of websockets and webrtc to further reduce infrastructure dependency.

Oh yeah, last year I was part of a corporate competition to build and program a self-driving RC car.

Now, of course, I do most of this on my own time by getting up at 4:30 so it doesn’t interfere with my family and my work - and at work I sometimes have to do boring tasks - but that’s life.

If you aren’t having fun, you simply are not playing with all the technology we have at our fingertips.

Re: I no longer build software

#380

Post by blueterminal »

lmarcos wrote: post #374
blueterminal wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. Docker, amazing frameworks (Laravel, Django, ReactJS etc.), git, CI, amazing IDEs, etc. It's absolutely magical compared to what we had 15 years ago. Entry level is much higher though for sure, you definitely need to learn and know a lot. But once you do know certain things at a certain level, you become a very powerful individual.

And here it lays the paradox. All the tools you have mentioned have little to do with programming (one individual solving problems by writing code). The tools you mentioned have to do with software engineering (a bunch of individuals solving problems by writing code, plus a bunch of constraints). The joy is in programming, not in software engineering. At least that's how I interprete the GitHub comment (and all these…

I don't need to worry about many many trivial things I had to worry about before these tools, and now I can actually work on the problem I'm trying to solve almost immediately.
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