Programming is a Terrible Job

Post by pnathan » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 2:34 PM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #41

garethadams wrote: post #7

Solving 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 a…

"Solving problems is interesting. Repetition is terrible." Most "programming" is just "digital plumbing". No matter how flashy or utilitarian the taps or basin are, underneath the job is pretty much always the same - you hook up hot water to one tap, cold water to the other, and the sink drain to the drainpipe. You can do a great job or a shoddy job - so long as nothing leaks _too_ much, it doesn't make any differenc…

Post by AznHisoka » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 2:39 PM UTC

nicpottier wrote: post #87

AznHisoka wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. It's not our job to create value.. Well it is but in a perverse way. It's our job to follow a boss' order and do what he thinks has value to his life, his salary, and him not getting in trouble with higher management

You guys need to take responsibility for your unhappiness and go find a job where you aren't treated as a cog. I say that with complete sincerity. Find a better job.

Post by gdulli » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 2:41 PM UTC

Post by acuozzo » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 2:48 PM UTC

nicpottier wrote: post #87

AznHisoka wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. It's not our job to create value.. Well it is but in a perverse way. It's our job to follow a boss' order and do what he thinks has value to his life, his salary, and him not getting in trouble with higher management

You guys need to take responsibility for your unhappiness and go find a job where you aren't treated as a cog. I say that with complete sincerity. Find a better job.

Post by methodin » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 3:01 PM UTC

loup-vaillant wrote: post #80

informatimago wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it's easy or hard. I'd bet it's rather on the easy side. What I know is that it's not with having dealines to produce the next product that anybody will have the time to take some step back and come with a better (more automatic) way of doing things. What's painful, it's not doing something repeatitive. It's being presured to repeat it, without being let automatizing it, which is what we should do as…

I had a colleague once that wanted to invest 4-8 hours writing a script that would save her about 1 hour each time it is run. The script was expected to be ran about once a week. She did the wrong thing and asked her boss. "Not enough time, there's more urgent things to do." She then lost an hour per week, contributing to the general sense of urgency that she lived under. Of course, this wasn't the only such script s…