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Life's too short to write shitty software

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Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#31

Post by kirinan »

ilcavero wrote: post #23
kirinan wrote: post #5

Im sitting my in my cubical hating my job right this moment. I applied to ycombinator and I will escape cubical hell. If you've never held a corporate job, you are lucky. It sucks your soul and crushes your dream. The anti-ambition of people around me is discouraging and depressing. I work on software that is meaningless, and that just kills you inside. Its the feeling that you are spending days/months/years of your…

your post describes so well how I was feeling about a year ago before I switched jobs, and I regret so much that I just didn't leave sooner even if it meant being unemployed for a few months, because life doesn't come back and I didn't really need the money. That was my case, not saying you should do this or that, I'm just saying to never leave happiness for tomorrow, that only worked for Cinderella.

Who says I'm not Cinderella. I agree with you, I have a plan that will get me out of here as soon as possible. I am working on a product that I will launch (with or without Ycombinator's help) by the end of Summer (sooner if I can wrangle it) and that will be my out. I still need the money however (material things owning me and all that jazz), but the moment money isn't going to hold me back I'm out.

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#32

Post by fleitz »

edw519 wrote: post #12

For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…

Agreed, I got paid to hack a VMS mainframe, buffer overflows, etc at 22, trust me it wasn't in the official job description but I found the company $3 million in lost rev.

Honestly, unless you enjoy reading about the company you work for in Techcrunch I don't get the whole startup hype for employees. Founders are somewhat likely to get a decent cheque but employees are not. For employees the EV doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#33

Post by [deleted] »

edw519 wrote: post #12

For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…

[deleted]

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#34

Post by jeffesp »

gaius wrote: post #15
edw519 wrote: post #12

For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…

"It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission".

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#35

Post by kirinan »

Delmania wrote: post #29
kirinan wrote: post #5

Im sitting my in my cubical hating my job right this moment. I applied to ycombinator and I will escape cubical hell. If you've never held a corporate job, you are lucky. It sucks your soul and crushes your dream. The anti-ambition of people around me is discouraging and depressing. I work on software that is meaningless, and that just kills you inside. Its the feeling that you are spending days/months/years of your…

I'll have to express the opposite sentiment, I am sitting in my cubicle overlooking a river. I've got VS2010 and Eclipse open, and I've got 5 different browsers installed in my machine. I was previously working at a smaller company (closer to a startup), and while I enjoyed it, there was no career growth potential, at all. When I moved to Mega Corp, I found a place that actively encouraged career development. Also, o…

I don't have a window near me, although that may give me a bit more Zen than I Have now. I get loud support people near me instead. We are stuck in the 90's with our technology and are a Microsoft shop. We do have "career growth" opportunities, but they are the standard tuition reimbursement kind (which are fine). There are great corporations to work for (Google, SAS, Facebook), but the majority of them are soul crushing boring with no care or love for the developers.

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#36

Post by jroll »

edw519 wrote: post #12

For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…

And if you don't have the people to complete or maintain these projects? Or how about when you build out a prototype and then corporate IT policies end up having you generate hundreds of pages of documentation and a massive Java application, when your self-hosted 2k LOC Python project met all business requirements and specs?

I'd rather be in a position that encouraged rapid, pragmatic development.

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#37

Post by Khao »

I lived mostly the same story as this guy, except I was working in a startup when this happened. I was working on great software, but I hated my job and hated everyone around me. And yet I joined this startup because I felt it would be the best job ever. I was so wrong.

I finally left for BigCo afer 6 months and I plan on staying there for years and years because this job is incredible. We write the most beautiful software and the team is simply amazing.

And it seems every week I see my old colleagues post status on Facebook along the lines of "Look at us, working hard into the night!" at 9 or 10pm. They seem to take pride of this sort of thing. Now that I'm at BigCo, I get to leave every day at exactly the same time and 3 days / week I have activities planned on my evenings that I will never miss again because of overtime.

Just remember that these horror stories of "I hate my job at BigCo, let's join Startup and everything will be better" can go both ways.

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#39

Post by bitwize »

jeffesp wrote: post #34
gaius wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission".

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

"Don't make lemonade! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons!"

Re: Life's too short to write shitty software

#40

Post by jroll »

jroll wrote: post #36
edw519 wrote: post #12

For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…

And if you don't have the people to complete or maintain these projects? Or how about when you build out a prototype and then corporate IT policies end up having you generate hundreds of pages of documentation and a massive Java application, when your self-hosted 2k LOC Python project met all business requirements and specs? I'd rather be in a position that encouraged rapid, pragmatic development.

Out of curiosity, why the downvotes? When I worked at a corporation, I tried to do what Ed recommended here, and these are the problems that I encountered.
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