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Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

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Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#281

Post by eru »

lutusp wrote: post #215
eru wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the contrary -- the health risk arises primarily because of the sedentary lifestyle. It's hard to imagine anything so hard on one's health and longevity prospects as sitting and typing all day. Who says you have to do that? At the very least you can demand a standing desk.

I don't know about you, but when I solve programming problems, I'm not exercising. And when I'm exercising, I'm not thinking abut programming except perhaps in the most general sense. I'm just saying that it's pretty much accepted that sitting around a lot is bad for you.

I agree. And getting a standing desk is a way to avoid sitting around.

There were some studies floating around a while ago, about how even if you control for amount of exercise people get, sitting around more still leads to worse health and higher death rates.

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#282

Post by eru »

tinco wrote: post #267
rayiner wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really buy who "kids who grew up with touch devices" might make better programmers than the generation of people who built Windows, NeXTStep, etc, who are in their 50's and 60's right now. Hell, Knuth is 74. The fundamentals of programming, as an engineering field, haven't really changed since the 1980's.

Would you argue knuth is a good modern software developer? Have you ever used latex? It's an outdated unmaintainable piece of crap.. Did he develop anything we would call good software in the past ten years?

Knuth didn't develop LaTeX.

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#283

Post by eru »

kfcm wrote: post #274
rhizome wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course "there are locations," there are always locations. It's hard to be an oil derrick worker in the middle of Manhattan, and that's not because the cost of living there is so high.

That's been my point all along. There are always going to be locations where the beer flows like wine. But that isn't everywhere. New York state or New Jersey versus North Dakota right now might be a better analogy than Manhattan for a wildcatter. Sure, there are probably wells in NY and NJ, but the big money is in ND.

So the advice is: Move!

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#284

Post by eru »

colinb wrote: post #202
skrebbel wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A multi-billion dollar project. I can't really imagine that. Are those ever executed by a single company all on its own? Are they software-only? Do they exist outside NASA?

The first project; the one that finished nearly on time, ran for three or four years. I joined half way through as a crispy graduate. It came in within a couple of weeks of schedule. It seemed very well managed for the whole of time on it. The project manager left that company, and went to work for Apple. When I googled him just now, all the top hits where at Microsoft. Perhaps he knows how to do software engineering…

Thanks for the write up! Makes me want to invite you for a beer, just to hear more about it.

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#285

Post by eru »

zurn wrote: post #252
dmethvin wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case I think "little or no certification" would be more appropriate. It does seem kind of strange that doctors, lawyers, electricians, plumbers, and barbers all have to take tests to get into (and sometimes remain in) their professions, but a programmer can write the software for a missle system, voting machine, or power plant with no certification whatsoever.

Possibly US-biased view? From my experience developer certificates are more common among developers than professional certificates among doctors.

Where do you live?

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#286

Post by eru »

krapp wrote: post #134
dmethvin wrote: post #29

I'm one of those guys programming in my 50s. Technically my jobs involve project management and consulting as well but I still love programming the most. Saying that programming "requires little or no education" is from the perspective of either a naturally smart person or the Dunning–Kruger effect. Like any profession, there are some self-motivated people who can do the job effectively without formal education. Yet…

I'm 35 and I just recently started trying to turn what had been a hobby into something that pays. I harbor no illusions about ever making decent money at it though.

Just concentrate on doing hard stuff.

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#287

Post by krapp »

eru wrote: post #286
krapp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 35 and I just recently started trying to turn what had been a hobby into something that pays. I harbor no illusions about ever making decent money at it though.

Just concentrate on doing hard stuff.

I want to. I do have a ton of for-the-love projects which seemed impossible when I started, that i've learned a lot from, failure by failure. I've even got an app I'm building in Laravel (and this is the last you'll likely hear about it.) Unfortunately with where I'm at right now it's just been scutwork that puts gas in the car.

I might even take a cs course this year assuming it's possible to get the loans. I'm still paying off an art degree though.

By the way never get an art degree.

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#288

Post by eru »

krapp wrote: post #287
eru wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just concentrate on doing hard stuff.

I want to. I do have a ton of for-the-love projects which seemed impossible when I started, that i've learned a lot from, failure by failure. I've even got an app I'm building in Laravel (and this is the last you'll likely hear about it.) Unfortunately with where I'm at right now it's just been scutwork that puts gas in the car. I might even take a cs course this year assuming it's possible to get the loans. I'm stil…

You can take lots of courses from top universities online for free. That won't give you the piece of paper, you'd get when you paid for them, but all the knowledge is still there.

Re: Do you really want to be making this much money when you're 50?

#289

Post by calinet6 »

Karunamon wrote: post #96
dpark wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people spend years or decades moving from job to job and from career to career looking for happiness. Most of them don't find it until they learn that your job just isn't what makes you happy. "Do something you love" is a myth. Jobs are jobs because they involve a lot of crap people don't want to do. No one's going to find personal meaning by writing specs, or by cutting a beautiful design down to an ugly minimu…

>"Do something you love" is a myth. As someone who is currently working his dream job, this statement couldn't be further from the truth.

Agreed, it's BS.
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