Programming is a Terrible Job
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Programming is a Terrible Job
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Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#2It is terrible because we let "the real world" dictate how we develop our software. That is a mistake. What we can create is basically only bound by our imagination and the ability to articulate this imagination in a precise and consistent form. Eventually "the real world" will have to bend to that.
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#3I felt the same way. I quit. I'm still unemployed.
I will admit the job I had wasn't nearly as dreary, but I was still plagued by the fact that what I was doing was utterly pointless and had zero value.
In retrospect, I wish I had just grown the fuck up and accepted the simple fact that the chances of any person on this earth making his or her life meaningful outside of his or her own family are astronomically slim. The machine we contribute to is one that takes in money, spits out more money, and creates very little value in the process.
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#4OP has no idea how lucky he/she is. I've had some really shitty jobs before I started my programming career and being able to write code for a living is like winning the lottery in comparison. You need some perspective in order to appreciate things.
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#5> Like algorithms? You can be a computer scientist. You can become a systems programmer and develop OS internals. Try digging through Linux source code. If you're into programming languages, you can get into writing compilers. I hear LLVM is amazing. If you like graphics, dust off those math books and get good OpenGL tutorial.
What makes you think those you can't be those specialist you mentioned? All those roles are still very high in demand, and if you really find generic software engineering lowering your IQ, nothing is stopping you to do those things in your own time. Remember Linux?
Even in mainstream game development, people tackle complex algorithmic problems everyday. From game graphics to enemy AI, there are countless "hard problems" to solve.
My point is, just because your boss wants you to churn out generic CRUD apps everyday, doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to that. Just by spending half an hour everyday on something you really loves can make a difference.
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#6I felt the same way. I quit. I'm still unemployed. I will admit the job I had wasn't nearly as dreary, but I was still plagued by the fact that what I was doing was utterly pointless and had zero value. In retrospect, I wish I had just grown the fuck up and accepted the simple fact that the chances of any person on this earth making his or her life meaningful outside of his or her own family are astronomically slim.…
I'm not quite as cynical as your last line, but I fully agree with the outlook growing up.
And honestly, does any of this sound unique to programming? Do you think carpenters are all happy just making what people will buy from them? Do you think musicians all just want to make music people will buy? Mathematicians of old just being glad they could reliably hit ships with a cannon? Electricians constantly just plugging in similar wirings into similarly bad houses? ...
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#7Solving problems is interesting. Repetition is terrible.
As programmers many of the things we build are to automate processing that other people would find repetitive and make errors doing. As a result, our work becomes repetitive and we make errors doing it. As some level we've succeeded – we've added a layer of abstraction and made a lot of people's lives easier – but we've also moved our expectations ahead of us and now we're playing catch up.
The author says
> Sometimes I also think if it would be different if I was born several decades earlier
but I don't think it would. The problems would have been more fundamental and the solutions would be more "pure" computer science, but I imagine you'd still have the same level of tedium with regards to debugging and loose user requirements.
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#8OP has no idea how lucky he/she is. I've had some really shitty jobs before I started my programming career and being able to write code for a living is like winning the lottery in comparison. You need some perspective in order to appreciate things.
There is also the odd view that "years ago" the OP would have been involved with computers. Don't get me wrong, there is a chance, but statistically speaking very very few people were involved with this sort of stuff years ago. Even if I had had the opportunity, I have very little aspirations that I would have actually been as good as the forerunners were. I mean, I can hope, but since I'm not even the best at learning from their teachings, not sure I would have been among the best to discover these things. :)
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#9I felt the same way. I quit. I'm still unemployed. I will admit the job I had wasn't nearly as dreary, but I was still plagued by the fact that what I was doing was utterly pointless and had zero value. In retrospect, I wish I had just grown the fuck up and accepted the simple fact that the chances of any person on this earth making his or her life meaningful outside of his or her own family are astronomically slim.…
As a matter of fact, giving one's own family its proper value (the most) is one of the problems of our society. And one of the problems with our 'leader-based' culture is that 'ordinary' people (those who are not leaders, who, by mere statistics must be the vast majority) find little support in it.
So, I guess we all need to develop a 'family-centered' philosophy or life more than a 'work-centered'. I find this rather compelling, albeit difficult to tackle (because it is likely you spend more 'conscious' time at job than with your family).
So, as you say, it is a problem of a fine-tuning of one's own values.
Not that I am suggesting 'crap jobs' are good for anyone. But that one has to value 'family success' much more than 'job success'.
Re: Programming is a Terrible Job
#10[deleted]