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Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

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Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#81

Post by 3form »

__rito__ wrote: post #64
karel-3d wrote: post #33

His parents still want to send him to medical school, because he's Asian, so he needs to be a doctor. (I'm directly quoting him!) That's ... something.

I have pondered much on such things. Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code. For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these. Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you ca…

Not every MD gets to work on interesting cases, furthering the field, and all while it being low stakes and purely theoretical.

For the vast majority, it is facing the medical colleagues who don't care, and will bury you from envy if you do, and get any better than them for it. It's facing patients who don't take care of themselves, or who just take your time, want favors from you outside of your working hours, but most importantly, the burden of having many people die despite you trying your very best.

Do you choose these, or getting chill treatment in society with freedom, where after 10 YoE you can say fu to any boss and open your own consultancy, and economically be forever in the 0.1%?

And honestly, outside the US, many of the positive sides of being an MD disappear completely (like crazy compensations, having too many options, ease of opening your own business)

I understand the point that you're trying to make, but being an MD is hell of a job, and honestly, as a unit, I don't wish it on anyone who does not specifically want to be there. And even then, your good motivation to do it might be your undoing.

It's really not all that it's cracked up to be, and the only reason I wouldn't recommend to be a software engineer is that the future of it is fairly uncertain.

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#82

Post by lostlogin »

__rito__ wrote: post #64
karel-3d wrote: post #33

His parents still want to send him to medical school, because he's Asian, so he needs to be a doctor. (I'm directly quoting him!) That's ... something.

I have pondered much on such things. Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code. For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these. Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you ca…

> Programming is crazy cool, but the profession of Software Engineering is not always that cool.

The hours, work expectations and imposition on daily life can be pretty grim for a medical doctor, presumably with a strong correlation on speciality and role. I’m very much not-a-doctor.

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#83

Post by masijo »

smatija wrote: post #77
__rito__ wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have pondered much on such things. Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code. For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these. Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you ca…

I think this experience is true if you work in software companies. I work for a factory maintaining it's existing custom ERP and building new software for it (basically imagine a programmer consultant for 1 costumer just with regular contract). Mix of maintaining legacy code, writing new one and servicing hardware is dynamic enough not to be bored and I have a lot of independence in the job. It's comfy af.

How did you get a job like that? Sounds pretty good

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#84

Post by latexr »

__rito__ wrote: post #64
karel-3d wrote: post #33

His parents still want to send him to medical school, because he's Asian, so he needs to be a doctor. (I'm directly quoting him!) That's ... something.

I have pondered much on such things. Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code. For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these. Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you ca…

> Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code.

Not every developer wants to work on those. Many developers even find at least one of those to be unethical. It is possible to find rewarding challenging jobs as a developer without having to go work for the big names.

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#85

Post by smatija »

masijo wrote: post #83
smatija wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this experience is true if you work in software companies. I work for a factory maintaining it's existing custom ERP and building new software for it (basically imagine a programmer consultant for 1 costumer just with regular contract). Mix of maintaining legacy code, writing new one and servicing hardware is dynamic enough not to be bored and I have a lot of independence in the job. It's comfy af.

How did you get a job like that? Sounds pretty good

Word of mouth.

The point is to realize that almost every non-IT company of certain size (lets say 50-100 employees+) that started before SAP&similiar became popular in your country has large body of custom software and that the guy who built it is probably thinking about retiring.

Minus is of course that most custom software is pretty horrible from code quality standpoint, so you need to have a high tolerance for debuging and that you need to have a little knowledge of everything (specialisation is not possible).

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#86

Post by nanna »

barosl wrote: post #55

I also write code using my phone when I'm on a bus or the subway. It requires some patience but after getting used to it, the experience is surprisingly pleasant especially if you're familiar with terminal-based tools. My environment consists of: - Galaxy S24 Ultra - Termius: I think it is the best terminal emulator and SSH client on Android. The sad thing is that the paid version is a bit too expensive. ($10 per mon…

But how you type?

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#87

Post by MezzoDelCammin »

masijo wrote: post #83
smatija wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this experience is true if you work in software companies. I work for a factory maintaining it's existing custom ERP and building new software for it (basically imagine a programmer consultant for 1 costumer just with regular contract). Mix of maintaining legacy code, writing new one and servicing hardware is dynamic enough not to be bored and I have a lot of independence in the job. It's comfy af.

How did you get a job like that? Sounds pretty good

You'd be surprised how many such jobs are there. Mostly not listed though. If my experience is any guide, one generally starts as a temp / consultant and you slowly expand the role from there. There's generally a point some years later where you're almost "too big to fail". Too many small odd jobs that are needed maybe once a year, but when they happen, they are pretty important.

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#89

Post by jazz9k »

__rito__ wrote: post #64
karel-3d wrote: post #33

His parents still want to send him to medical school, because he's Asian, so he needs to be a doctor. (I'm directly quoting him!) That's ... something.

I have pondered much on such things. Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code. For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these. Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you ca…

Many doctors I know don't have their own clinic (it's too expensive) and still contend with terrible management decisions, and have no work/life balance.

On top of this, school is long and expensive.

Getting a good dev job is better in comparison.

Re: Developer wrote 25k lines of Neovim plugin code using phone and touchscreen

#90

Post by erbdex »

In developing countries like India - a surprisingly high number of students do not have access to a computer. I have a lot of friends who had to learn enough on phone to bootstrap into buying their first laptop.

One of my best friend - in his village in the hills they did not have electricity but the government had sent a PC. No one was allowed to go close to it but that was the very thing that inspired him to learn computers. Today he's one of the sharpest linux/infosec folks in my small circle.

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