151–160 of 174 posts
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it is also interesting how often the pursuit of happiness involves some degree of isolation.
That's very true, I wonder why that is? I feel the same way very often. I'm not a particularly anti-sociable person either.
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Programming is the next manual labor and like all the other manual labor that preceded it most people don't need to be deeply passionate about their role in the assembly line. Like current manual labor it will generally not be considered skilled work, even though it is now.
This is a bold if not entirely surprising prediction. Would love to see some citations both supporting and countering.
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 t…
Programming is a tool. It's a versatile tool, but it's a tool nonetheless. Part of what can happen in a technology-focused culture like ours is that we can become more absorbed thinking about the tools we use than what we use them for. Imagine we were builders, spending our time focused on perfecting the mixing of cement rather than constructing the Taj Mahal.
The point is, improving the tools is interesting to some but isn't exciting for everybody, think instead about what you want to do with your tools that you'd find more stimulating/worthwhile.
Also, "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail". Programming isn't always going to be the best tool, so look for what you want to do, then look at whether your existing skillset can be complimentary.
Hope that helps.
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This is a bold if not entirely surprising prediction. Would love to see some citations both supporting and countering.
When we talk about driverless cars replacing taxis we really mean programmers replacing taxi drivers in aggregate. The cars are a constant, if you're responsible for a fleet of them you are just a better taxi driver.
Besides, I fail to see how this can be considered manual labor or even the possibility of allowing average programmers to fill such positions.
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When we talk about driverless cars replacing taxis we really mean programmers replacing taxi drivers in aggregate. The cars are a constant, if you're responsible for a fleet of them you are just a better taxi driver.
Such programmers will rely heavily on automated tools and will have to follow a clearly defined process because driverless cars will always involve human life. The cost of a simple misconfiguration is extremely high. Besides, I fail to see how this can be considered manual labor or even the possibility of allowing average programmers to fill such positions.
And maybe we have a little while longer to be the elite, but already children can build websites and applications so our days are numbered, soon everybody can know what we know and do what we do and as you mention, tools will be better as well and that empowers them to be closer to us too.
It takes a bunch of programmers to keep a fleet of servers running, vehicles will be maintained by programmers too, but it takes less programmers and less good programmers with every advance we make.
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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.
Programming is the next manual labor and like all the other manual labor that preceded it most people don't need to be deeply passionate about their role in the assembly line. Like current manual labor it will generally not be considered skilled work, even though it is now.
There's almost nothing manual about it: you just dictate actions to others (people or machines.)
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It is when it interferes with stuff you actually care about. Like when I'm supposed be having family dinner or playing with my daughter and I realize instead I've just spent the past several minutes staring into the distance thinking about a work problem. Sometimes I really envy people who never get the urge to work (either actually or mentally) on work after leaving the office at 5 pm.
I've learned to accept that work should only be a certain percentage of your life. Occasionally it can bleed over, sure, but unless you want it to be 100% then you need to drop it and think about other things. Maybe I'm just lazy, but when I'm with other things I care about - especially people - then work can kiss my ass :)
I've gotten very good at sticking to a 40 hour work week and haven't worked a weekend in over a year. I manage to leave the office before 6 pm at least 9 days out of 10. The 'problem' is that once someone dumps an interesting math or programming problem in my brain then it takes over everything and I can't let go of it.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Programming is the next manual labor and like all the other manual labor that preceded it most people don't need to be deeply passionate about their role in the assembly line. Like current manual labor it will generally not be considered skilled work, even though it is now.
The concept of manual labor is not a proxy for "a person does it." The contrast to manual labor is social labor. Programming is almost entirely concerned with the mastery of language and communication. There's almost nothing manual about it: you just dictate actions to others (people or machines.)