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Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#231

Post by Scubabear68 »

A lot of startups fit this bill, or otherwise small companies. But you do need to dig into the company to be sure, I have seen very heavy “agile” processes dripping with bureaucracy get installed in surprisingly small startups (with predictably bad results).

Ask around places (like here!) what their SDLC is like, and if they ask you what an SDLC is you may hit onto an ideal company )or the worst possible one :-) ).

Probably don’t bother with consulting or services firms. Look for industries that can benefit from software but maybe doesn’t have big “enterprise” players yet. Consider areas like embedded and IoT where you can pretend it’s the 80s and you are shoe horning features onto tiny CPU’s with little RAM.

Alternatively, code as a hobby on the side, if you have the time and will power for it.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#232

Post by v-erne »

jcbrand wrote: post #94
digitalsushi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three years ago I was stuck at a huge fortune 100 with all the ceremonies, business language, and paycheck collectors. I started to shop around. I found an amazing place, a company that was a software company not not a company that happened to write some software. The interviews went amazing, everything was Star Trek utopian future amazing, it was like the fantasy I had about where I wanted to work had manifested. I…

> so I hung out in the lobby for several hours waiting for anyone brave enough to get me to the badge people Did you consider asking someone going in or out to help you get a badge or to put you into contact with the right person? Sounds like you passively waited for someone to come and help you, which might be fine for a short while, but eventually it's better to take action. I've never heard of a "professional benc…

>> I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development.

I think this is real.

My friend who is serial Project Manager (he works for big corps here in Poland and changes job almost every year for last 15 years) actually uses the term "on bench" for programers that do not have projects assigned to them and he claims that he quite often hires people before project is confirmed, so from time to time some people are left hanging without free chairs when music stops.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#233

Post by maerF0x0 »

dismalpedigree wrote: post #180
barrenko wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agile is like socialism at times.

Agile is like capitalism at times.

> Yes. I would phrase it as: if agile is actually done.

Agile was the best of times, Agile was the worst of times, Agile was the age of wisdom, Agile was the age of foolishness, Agile was the epoch of belief, Agile was the epoch of incredulity, Agile was the season of light, Agile was the season of darkness, Agile was the spring of hope, Agile was the winter of despair. -- Paraphrasing Charles Dickens

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#235

Post by roundandround »

mpweiher wrote: post #213
peteradio wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you are joining an Agile shop what do you get on average?

Fauxgile.

And every time communism meets the real world we call the required modifications state capitalism.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#236

Post by gymbeaux »

Yeah. I love writing code, but working with others while doing it has usually been unpleasant. The recurring theme is that management doesn’t understand how software is written, ignores tech debt, sets unrealistic and arbitrary deadlines, etc.

I have worked places where it was pleasant working with others though, and those have been small companies. There always seems to be a lot of bullshit once a company reaches a certain size.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#237

Post by highwaylights »

kraig911 wrote: post #19
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #6

> I have come to a realization that I don't really enjoy Software Engineering(& the processes that it comes with) but I do love programming & solving problems. I can almost guarantee that you’re just at the wrong company. Some software companies can turn even the simplest tasks into a grueling series of processes, endless meetings, and joint work across a big number of “stakeholders”. These companies will take the jo…

1000x times this. It's a weird thing our profession. There's a horrible but apt (misogynistic even) saying. Happily married men are happy husbands - Unhappily married men are great philosophers. I really feel agile has killed the happiness of our industry because it's met with a lot of back and forth, meetings, rituals, and meta-work and not actual productivity (If agile is done well though it can be amazing but that…

I’m with you right up to “if agile is done well”.

It’s just a buzzword for practices that people would be doing better otherwise without all the bureaucracy. Pretty sure one of the original authors of the manifesto declared it dead too, but I’m not going to google it because honestly the agile manifesto is not a religious text to me and I think the whole industry grew out of a single fairly common sense idea that got utterly co-opted by snake oil salesmen.

Like DevOps.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#239

Post by LAC-Tech »

daveguy wrote: post #140
xwdv wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Not being a dipshit is not the same thing as "bending to people's demands."

I wish I had the confidence in life to genuinely think anyone who thought or spoke differently to me was just a dipshit.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#240

Post by gymbeaux »

kraig911 wrote: post #19
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #6

> I have come to a realization that I don't really enjoy Software Engineering(& the processes that it comes with) but I do love programming & solving problems. I can almost guarantee that you’re just at the wrong company. Some software companies can turn even the simplest tasks into a grueling series of processes, endless meetings, and joint work across a big number of “stakeholders”. These companies will take the jo…

1000x times this. It's a weird thing our profession. There's a horrible but apt (misogynistic even) saying. Happily married men are happy husbands - Unhappily married men are great philosophers. I really feel agile has killed the happiness of our industry because it's met with a lot of back and forth, meetings, rituals, and meta-work and not actual productivity (If agile is done well though it can be amazing but that…

I like Agile, but I hate “Agile” (that is, how Agile is interpreted and implemented by the management of the companies I’ve worked at). I worked at Allstate years ago, and was on the team that piloted Agile (Scrum). It was done by the book, and I thought it was awesome. We had a quick scrum meeting each day, and the retros and plannings were only on Wednesdays. Sprints ended on Wednesdays. Most companies have their sprints start or end on Monday or Friday, but those are COMMON days for people to take PTO, nevermind national holidays are usually on those days. That was the first company i worked at which was Agile, and I haven’t been to a company since that did it as effectively. Ironic that it was Allstate. Just about everything else about the company absolutely sucked.
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