Hello, World • Hacker News Board

Re: Hello, World

#171

Post by mercer » Sun, Mar 01, 2015, 12:53 PM UTC

benologist wrote: post #156

sah2ed wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We are the elite right now, our skillset is hard and the work we do is hard and we don't want to believe everyone can do it. Definitely not "average programmers" as you mention! 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 wel…

I think one of the nice things about programming, and one of the things that will ensure that programmers will always be in high demand, is that as tools improve, our desires and needs and aims adjust accordingly.

Just consider web development. There was a time you could make decent money with 'simple' HTML/CSS work. Clients were happy with that. Then you had to move to CMS-based sites, because people demanded the ability to add and edit content easily. Then you had to start offering plugins and more complex tools because everyone needed more than just a contact form to interact with their site visitors. And now everyone wants web apps, which are significantly more complex than simple websites.

I suspect that people who love programming and are good at it will keep moving up along the ladder of abstraction, and if anything there will be more and more need for experts at every rung of this ladder as companies get stuck with 'old' technology (for example, I could make a killing as a Drupal consultant).

Re: Hello, World

#172

Post by jwmoz » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 11:21 AM UTC

chucksmash wrote: post #95

jwmoz wrote: post #70

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…

With money comes options. I think by default, the option most 30 years choose is to continue living paycheck to paycheck, but to do so in a more extravagant manner. If you aren't already, consider downsizing, paying off your debts and saving an aggressive percentage of your income. It won't make much of a difference in the short term but you are buying yourself more options down the road. If you can put $3,000 a mont…

That's certainly something to think about, thank you for the advice.

Re: Hello, World

#173

Post by jwmoz » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 11:24 AM UTC

personlurking wrote: post #100

saganus wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe save some money and go travel for a few months? After I finished college I used all my savings to travel to Japan for a month and a half (I wish it'd been longer) and after returning home, I felt like a I just had a very nice reset. Like cleaning the slate allowing me to start fresh. Maybe you could use a hiatus as well. It's not necessary to go live in a farm for that. Go explore some place you have always wan…

I second this. If a jwmoz can go remote, I'd look towards viewing travel as something that can be done for a 2-3 month span (not just a week-long vacation), then go live on the other side of the world for that amount of time. It's so easy to do if one's work is remote, and now that there's Airbnb, it's even easier. The OP may surprise himself. I'm on year 6 abroad and very likely make a small fraction of what jwmoz m…

Funnily enough that's actually what I usually do but forgot to mention - I took a year off work and went around SE Asia, and regularly take months off at a time. Writing it down now, maybe I don't have that much to moan about :)

It's just the programming I've become disenchanted with.

Re: Hello, World

#174

Post by AnonJ » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 6:12 AM UTC

Kurtz79 wrote: post #73

jofer wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

"I see a creative person who struggles with having to focus on someone else's agenda." But if he loved/liked programming and the problem is just not working on something of his liking, nothing prevents him from either finding another more endearing programming job or working on his own thing. I believe the parent spot-on: not everyone is into programming because it is his/her own calling in life, for many people it's…

Yeah exactly. The post was quite crude and I can't see a passionate, career-savvy programmer in it. I guess the most important value of the post is to open up our eyes to those colleagues who aren't into the trade with a true love for programming. Their mindset would be something quite hard to comprehend were we using only our own perspectives.