Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hello, World

hello-world.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 174 posts

Re: Hello, World

#61

Post by mariodiana »

probably_wrong wrote: post #48

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I feel this article plugs very well into another article I read this month: "What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living"[1]. [1] http://www.salon.com/2015/02/10/what_nobody_told_me_about_sm...

President Calvin Coolidge, on the subject of farm subsidies, from Wikipedia: "Farmers never have made much money," said Coolidge, the Vermont farmer's son, "I do not believe we can do much about it."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge#Farm_subsidies

Re: Hello, World

#62

Post by untog »

jakejake wrote: post #47
leothekim wrote: post #42

So this guy: - Changed his major overnight from whatever it was to computer science after writing a Hello, World program - Left "so-called higher education" to work at a real-life job "without even thinking about it twice" - Quit real-life job to be a bartender and chef - Quit doing that after getting girlfriend pregnant to 'go back to the "real world" to get a job' - Quit that to build a house and work on a farm Eve…

I think this is the result of the relative ease of getting programming work and good salaries. It attracts a lot of people who are not really in it for the love. Some of those people are going to feel like their soul is being sucked out. This guy is one of them which explains his extreme reactions. I personally would rather work at the shittiest programming job than go out and work on a farm. But that's just me.

Man, I love programming but there are times after sitting at a desk for seven hours then spending another hour at the gym to get exercise that I feel like modern life makes no damn sense. It's moments like these that the idea of working on a farm, doing something real with my hands, sounds really great.

But who am I kidding.

Re: Hello, World

#63

Post by Demiurge »

dougk16 wrote: post #40
Demiurge wrote: post #19

This article is very uplifting and easy to empathize with. However, I can only hope he ends up as happy as he might think he will. I've done farming when I was young as well as some manual labor jobs. It's not fun, you sweat a lot, your back hurts, the sunlight burns, at the end of the day you are physically burnt out so much that you can't actually think. I am much more happy to be closing tickets that are undoing p…

I had sort of the opposite experience. I moved furniture for a number of years...manual labor at its finest. I put on 10 pounds of muscle, melted any extra fat from my body, slept like a baby every night, and had no back problems compared to slumping in a chair all day. It was certainly hard work, but I look back on it with a simple fondness that I can't conjure for all my past office jobs. All I see is this weird fl…

Since I've done cleaning, not moving, I think I can still suppose that it is quite different than farm work. I can see how it's physically hard, but I think I would actually prefer moving. When I move heavy stuff, and I moved probably 10 times, I have a whole routine for picking stuff up correctly, and it's kind of like squats. Anyway, I think farming might have actually given you a more visceral experience than moving. In general, I think the hardest things we used to do when growing up are our brightest memories. For many people I know from Russia, it is the army.

The point I'm trying to make is that our experiences are complicated and are a combination of many circumstances. Programming is certainly more abstract and hard to remember as an overcoming experience, but it is what you make of it, and what you want to make of it in the future. If you ended up in software, there must be a reason for it, and hopefully it's more than just pay. I'm an introvert, I've always loved reading, programming, and abstract tasks, so I am happy. Maybe for you, programming is not as interesting as being social, physical, traveling.

Maybe the author is more like you than me, in which case, great. To each their own!

Re: Hello, World

#64

Post by mariodiana »

shepardrtc wrote: post #33

I love technology and computers, but I found a job that doesn't require me to be thinking about things non-stop. I work less than 40 hours a week (even though I'm salaried), but I still work in my field of choice. It doesn't stress me out. Do I make less than the average computer guy? Maybe a little bit. But hey, its one less massive thing to worry about. I can go home and not think about it. Instead, I can think abo…

> I found a job that doesn't require me to be thinking about things non-stop.

Where?

Re: Hello, World

#65

Post by tootie »

lawl wrote: post #10

> I am burnt out on having a “40 hour” work week that actually occupies the majority of my mental time. This really resonated with me. I can't just stop thinking about this stuff just because I'm at lunch or at home if I'm working on a hard problem. But I don't get paid for that time.

If you enjoy it, then it's a benefit. I find that having bigger problems really helps me switch context. I have young children at home who demand a lot of attention. It's impossible to focus on work when they're around, so I don't.

Re: Hello, World

#66

Post by nlh »

otakucode wrote: post #49

Weirdo. I'm just going to quit my job and give freelancing/consulting a shot. In the middle of West Virginia. I don't think I could ever leave programming. I started around 9 years old, I've already been through my slump and come out the other side more interested than ever. In programming, that is. The way most companies handle software development, though? That is certainly downright terrible. My knowledge of histo…

Name-calling doesn't really add to the conversation.

Re: Hello, World

#67

Post by jofer »

jakejake wrote: post #47
leothekim wrote: post #42

So this guy: - Changed his major overnight from whatever it was to computer science after writing a Hello, World program - Left "so-called higher education" to work at a real-life job "without even thinking about it twice" - Quit real-life job to be a bartender and chef - Quit doing that after getting girlfriend pregnant to 'go back to the "real world" to get a job' - Quit that to build a house and work on a farm Eve…

I think this is the result of the relative ease of getting programming work and good salaries. It attracts a lot of people who are not really in it for the love. Some of those people are going to feel like their soul is being sucked out. This guy is one of them which explains his extreme reactions. I personally would rather work at the shittiest programming job than go out and work on a farm. But that's just me.

While I agree that programming attracts a lot of people that aren't in it for the love of the craft, I disagree with most of your sentiment. I see a creative person who struggles with having to focus on someone else's agenda.

Most non-developers see programming as tedious, mind-numbing work that involves zero creativity.

Most people who have never worked on a small farm or built a table/shed/house/whatever think of the manual labor as tedious, mind-numbing work that involves zero creativity.

Both working on a farm and programming are surprisingly creative professions. I grew up on a farm, and farming requires a love of creating and building and an incredible amount of creativity. ("Big agriculture" is a bit different. I'm referring mostly to single-family operations, though many of those are quite large.)

In both, you have to love building things from the ground up. You have to be willing to get your hands dirty and put up with occasional tedium, be it fixing a particularly annoying corner-case or riding a tractor for 12 hours.

In both, you have to solve complex problems with limited resources under time pressure. (The things I've seen my grandfather fabricate or fix with random broken junk and an arc welder are simply mind-blowing.)

Most farmers I know embody the "hacker culture" more than most self-proclaimed "hackers" I know.

I'd argue that going back and forth is less of an extreme than you'd think.

Re: Hello, World

#68

Post by leothekim »

maratd wrote: post #56
leothekim wrote: post #42

So this guy: - Changed his major overnight from whatever it was to computer science after writing a Hello, World program - Left "so-called higher education" to work at a real-life job "without even thinking about it twice" - Quit real-life job to be a bartender and chef - Quit doing that after getting girlfriend pregnant to 'go back to the "real world" to get a job' - Quit that to build a house and work on a farm Eve…

> if anything, this is an example of how peace of mind can't be found on either ends of a see-saw Well, there are different personality types out there. This may be "peace of mind" for him. Personally, I split my time between the "real world" and getting my "hands dirty". I think it's important to have both at the same time, so you don't end up see-sawing between the two.

> Well, there are different personality types out there. This may be "peace of mind" for him.

I'd agree with this if he didn't sound so reactionary. Leaving a software job to work on a farm is great if you're making a deliberate choice from a solid mental state. He makes it sound like he's doing this (and every other choice he described) because he'd otherwise be going out of his mind. It's disturbing to read in a way because he doesn't sound like he has full agency over his current decision.

Re: Hello, World

#69

Post by thinkt4nk »

lawl wrote: post #10

> I am burnt out on having a “40 hour” work week that actually occupies the majority of my mental time. This really resonated with me. I can't just stop thinking about this stuff just because I'm at lunch or at home if I'm working on a hard problem. But I don't get paid for that time.

Yeah, I'm sure farming feels like a part-time job.

Re: Hello, World

#70

Post by jwmoz »

This rings true. I'm 30, have a well paid programming job, but I just don't care that much about it anymore. I used to be so passionate and enthusiastic. But now I feel like there's more to life than banging out code.

Unfortunately there's not much else I know other than the internet and the fact it's currently making me a lot more money than 95% of my friends. So that leaves me ultimately disenchanted with nowhere to go.

Post reply on HN