His mention of Masters of Doom was interesting, because that book is really what got me into programming. The reality of corporate programming when compared to the freewheeling hang-out-with-your-friends-eating-pizza-listening-to-metal-inventing-cool-things programming described in the book has been a real bummer. Does that style of programming even exist any more?
Surviving Disillusionment
81–90 of 179 posts
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#82> I've met many engineers with extraordinary talent who decided to stop making software. They wanted to program computers all their lives. They were born for it. After spending six, eight, ten years in the industry, they quit for good. Now they're running breweries and hydroponic farms, with no desire to ever again touch a compiler, let alone get back into the fray. Are these people who also made a ton of money via R…
> Are these people who also made a ton of money via RSUs or Stock Options? If so, the answer is clear, right? They simply... don't have to work on things they don't care about. They have the money they need.
Eh, no, the answer is not clear. He is clearly writing about people for whom software was something more than just a means to make a lot money and retire. They used to care and now they don't. A large chunk of their soul is gone. And yes, they can now wipe their tears with $100 bills, but this isn't always a good deal to get.
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#83Much to the chagrin of many of my fellow career programmers, I’ve always tried to operate slightly against the grain to keep things interesting. I do so not gratuitously, but because I know I’m in this profession for the marathon, and so I need to compromise instantaneous velocity to maintain {energy, sanity, motivation, ...}. I get made fun of and occasionally lambasted for it, but I also frequently outpace my organ…
The main thing I see in your experience (and also from other comments here), is that having a community is important, and having something fun or exciting to do at work, with that community, goes a long way to keep ourselves motivated.
An analogy to this is most people have chores to do at home, and if that's all they did at home and always by themselves, they'd probably burn out pretty soon. But if they could play video games with a couple friends, or have some people over for lunch once or twice a week, then the chores would be a lot easier to bear.
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you really read a book every day? That strains belief. But I don't understand. What do you mean by "touchy feely" book, and why are you afraid you will be ostracised by your opinions?
1) I have for a long time. Now with Kindles, I don't have to load 10 paperbacks into my computer bag every time I go on a global jaunt. A lot of time in airplanes and hotels gives you a lot of time for this (on average - which is why I said "per week", not "per day"). But, most under 250 page non-fiction books can be polished off in less than two hours. A lot of people spend two-hours/day watching some Netflix movie…
I've spent a long time trying to speed read and I'm still much slower than where I'd like to be. How are you able to read through 2 pages per minute and still have context on what's going on? Do you have any advice for learning to do that?
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#85I'd like to chip in with a slightly different take ... as a minority engineer, one of my greatest sources of frustration and disillusionment is how an occupation that is ostensibly lends itself to much clearer and objective outcomes and approaches is anything but. There is an unfairness that is so hard to see if you're not a minority in tech, that leads to lots of minority men just saying 'fuck it, this isn't worth i…
Do you have any good links for anecdotes about the concrete ways in which this kind of discrimination occurs?
The USA Today article is helpful for seeing aggregate statistics, but I don't really get how these kind of biases played out in real life. Does it look like explicit, unapologetic racist comments? Or micro-aggressions that where the speaker may not realize what they are doing? Or that and everything in between?
I am not asking for your personal examples, as that would be prying. More along the lines of anonymous stories to better understand other people's experiences.
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#86His mention of Masters of Doom was interesting, because that book is really what got me into programming. The reality of corporate programming when compared to the freewheeling hang-out-with-your-friends-eating-pizza-listening-to-metal-inventing-cool-things programming described in the book has been a real bummer. Does that style of programming even exist any more?
[deleted]
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#87> the romance of technology close.
That's the thing, after 15 years of doing this as a job (and after a few illuminating books on the subject) I found out that there's not that much "romance" about this industry, and more than that, I often ask myself "are we the baddies?" (like in the famous YT video [1]). For my current peace of mind it helps that my present job is nothing big, nothing that wants "to change the world" through technology (presumably for the worst).
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#88Seems like discussing burnout and disillusionment with tech is a perennial HN favorite. I've bookmarked a lot of great threads and comments on this topic. Some of my favorites:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22862570
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21645117
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241
Going to bookmark this one too :)
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#89Disillusionment was a crucible for my career. I went through it and wouldn't have it any other way. On the other side of it you attain focus on what is valuable to you, which is singularly useful for evaluating subsequent jobs. However, the crucible for me consisted of: depression, burnout, tendonitis. It sucked. From that, I decided I'd never do webdev again, including so-called backend. The web as a medium is not w…
I’ve recently come to a similar conclusion around “Focus” being something in short supply in most workplaces and no matter how often I point out its power (with examples), people push to solve 3-5 large scale problems concurrently.
I’m not sure where I’ll find more focused environment but I’m sure I want little todo with the constant “hustle” mentality.
Re: Surviving Disillusionment
#90This is spot-on for some of us here. I told my friend last week that I'd like to come work construction with him and will be quitting my decently-paying programming job to go do so in 3 weeks. I'd started to interview at another tech company and realized that I couldn't bear the thought of programming for someone else again. I burned out so hard at my current job I can't conceive of working anywhere as a programmer a…
Resonate with this alot. I often found that when I was doing labor work at home or helping someone else, I easily find myself focused and in the zone of whatever I'm doing. I often find myself thinking as I drive by construction sites or watching tradesmen/contractors work, that I should have gone into that line of work.