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What’s the end goal for you programmers?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#11

Post by oxff »

DanUKs wrote: post #8
jstx1 wrote: post #5

No end goal - just want to work on things I enjoy working on and make as much money as possible while doing it. It's kind of a strange question - which careers have end goals anyway? > We make so much money very early in our careers I'm very far from making a lot of money so it's not a problem at all.

So what’s the point? You want to work forever? There’s no goal to retire early and just enjoy life or start your own company? > I’m very far from making a lot of money The software engineering career is a ridiculously “fast paced”. career. 5 years experience in programming is the equivalent to 20+ years in another industry. There’s very few industries where you can make a 200k+ salary in your 20s.

Regular people will not retire anymore is my guess.

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#12

Post by __s »

This might surprise you, but some us enjoy programming

I was programming for free for years. Then I was programming for practically minimum wage for a few years. Now I'm programming for a nice salary. I get paid to wake up & do what I want

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#13

Post by phantomathkg »

> We make so much money very early in our careers that it’s very easy to lose track of what the end goal is.

That's highly depending on your industry and country(s) you are in. In Singapore you can live a relatively OK living, but it is far from rich. In India unless you are working for FAANG your bring home will be good, but far from "so much".

---

To answer the question in general. I think programming definitely give you good enough money, and for most of the applications we build we definitely are going to make the world slightly better daily.

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#15

Post by rr888 »

Developers in their 20s are definitely overpaid. Whether this will continue will be interesting to see. Currently I see so many people trained in other fields becoming developers I'm almost worried about the future of the economy. Social Media, online retail, advertising - just how many people really can work in these fields?

So yeah I expect wages to crash in the next 10-20 years. I think most high earning young people now will likely find middle age much more expensive than they thought, esp if tech bubble never reflates, Bay Area housing falls in value and wages get cut.

The end goal for me is to find a nice niche and dont get greedy.

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#16

Post by DanUKs »

sebastianconcpt wrote: post #2

It took me way too much time to realize that, whatever is to be done, career should be absolutely sacred . Please note that I'm choosing the word sacred as a language figure but without any exaggeration.

How? It’ll be very difficult to make working with algorithms for fintech company, sacred.

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#17

Post by kojeovo »

toolz wrote: post #10

step 1. retire early (which to me just means becoming financially independent) step 2. get physically active, probably lots of backpacking and camping to serve two purposes: 1. better my body/mental/emotional health and 2. slow down and get bored enough to rejuvenate creative inspiration step 3. hopefully discover a way to help people that I'm passionate about and utilize all my free time and resources pursuing that…

You're gonna work on 2 only after 1?

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#18

Post by DanUKs »

oxff wrote: post #11
DanUKs wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what’s the point? You want to work forever? There’s no goal to retire early and just enjoy life or start your own company? > I’m very far from making a lot of money The software engineering career is a ridiculously “fast paced”. career. 5 years experience in programming is the equivalent to 20+ years in another industry. There’s very few industries where you can make a 200k+ salary in your 20s.

Regular people will not retire anymore is my guess.

The thought of writing JavaScript in my 60s is a painful thought.

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#19

Post by rootsudo »

This is a great question - it depends, for me it is FIRE.

But the path to FIRE is hard, can you put away a decade of your life to "work" to retire? When should you start? Are you too late?

I also enjoy this line of work because it is more liberating, if in a right environment. It's fun to learn, it's amazing to be paid to learn and even better. I'm not aware of any other career progression which leads to as much freedom and independence that IT/Tech/Software has done for all of us.

Re: What’s the end goal for you programmers?

#20

Post by toolz »

kojeovo wrote: post #17
toolz wrote: post #10

step 1. retire early (which to me just means becoming financially independent) step 2. get physically active, probably lots of backpacking and camping to serve two purposes: 1. better my body/mental/emotional health and 2. slow down and get bored enough to rejuvenate creative inspiration step 3. hopefully discover a way to help people that I'm passionate about and utilize all my free time and resources pursuing that…

You're gonna work on 2 only after 1?

for some parts of it, yes. I keep my body and emotional health in check and even do well for the most part, but I don't worry about my mental health all that much - I optimize for output with only modest regard for my mental health right now.
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