Yep, going to be a police officer. But I would get a lot less money and very bad work schedule / vacation policies. So I stay with developing awesome software.
Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
131–140 of 570 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Programming involves very little creativity compared to actual art, so to call it a "creative art" is a gross exaggeration. A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical. This doesn't even compare to the creativity involved in a real artistic endeavor like designing your own videogame, writing your own screenplay, or composi…
CRUD apps are probably not the most creative things, indeed. But I've had a fair bit of problems where I'd say solving them was a creative endeavour. Especially on the UX end there are lots of such problems in my experience.
I guess to more simply articulate it, there are levels of creativity. Being tasked with making something function correctly or making a UI look like a psd is more of a technical problem and involves way less creativity than creating something more open-ended like an original work of art. It's like designing a board game vs. being handed the designs and building it.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#133Left to work in equities after 5 years of software dev. I find the work much more stimulating mentally, as you learn about the world and how business works, not just abstractions. Luckily there is still a lot of use from my old skill set, and I suspect there will be more as time goes on.
Interesting. I actually had the opposite experience. I majored in Economics and worked in commercial banking for a number of years, then moved to Chicago and took a job at a proprietary trading firm, mostly trading Grain contracts intra-exchange. It was incredibly fun, extremely lucrative, but also pretty stressful. That being said, it was great trading from 9:30 am to 1:15 PM, then calling it a day, heading to a bal…
Are you still contracting or working full-time?
I work full-time right now, but my dream is to have total geographic flexibility like you.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#134Left to work in equities after 5 years of software dev. I find the work much more stimulating mentally, as you learn about the world and how business works, not just abstractions. Luckily there is still a lot of use from my old skill set, and I suspect there will be more as time goes on.
Interesting. I actually had the opposite experience. I majored in Economics and worked in commercial banking for a number of years, then moved to Chicago and took a job at a proprietary trading firm, mostly trading Grain contracts intra-exchange. It was incredibly fun, extremely lucrative, but also pretty stressful. That being said, it was great trading from 9:30 am to 1:15 PM, then calling it a day, heading to a bal…
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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#135I did consider a career as a lion tamer, but the vocational guidance counselor said I was an appallingly dull fellow, unimaginative, timid, lacking in initiative, spineless, easily dominated, no sense of humour, tedious company and irrepressibly drab and awful. So I decided to stick with programming.
Have you considered chartered accountancy?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh ? Care to explain what you mean ?
I was referring to the capital intensive nature of the business. My fairly lucrative programming career is what keeps my farm operating. Being able to leave programming to farm is a long way off for me yet. If you have family willing to hand down the business or already independently wealthy, then maybe leaving programming to farm is more realistic.
Good point; farming definitely is not profitable these days (without the large holdings/mechanization ...).
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#137Programming is a creative art, and when I say that to my non-programmer friends, they laugh it off, but if you think about it, it is true. Just like artists, the programmers, coders, developers all design and create new things that didn't exist before, and no 2 programs or applications or completely functioning code will be identical for anything other than a fizzbuzz type test. So it is natural for the creatives to…
Programming involves very little creativity compared to actual art, so to call it a "creative art" is a gross exaggeration. A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical. This doesn't even compare to the creativity involved in a real artistic endeavor like designing your own videogame, writing your own screenplay, or composi…
>Lack of creativity is actually one of my biggest complaints with this field.
That says more about the artist than the medium. :)
Constraints breed creativity!
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is the same for the engineering profession. In some countries it is that way. I know Canada is very strict about who can be called an engineer. In the US, it is not that way. AFAIK, there's no legal definition of an engineer, and anybody can call themselves an engineer.
Well there are certifications and licenses for civil engineers. But not other forms of engineering, and 'engineer', unqualified, is not a protected word. In fact for the most part we don't really have protected words (1st amendment and all that).
"Doctor", "Professor", "Judge", etc.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#139Programming is a creative art, and when I say that to my non-programmer friends, they laugh it off, but if you think about it, it is true. Just like artists, the programmers, coders, developers all design and create new things that didn't exist before, and no 2 programs or applications or completely functioning code will be identical for anything other than a fizzbuzz type test. So it is natural for the creatives to…
Programming involves very little creativity compared to actual art, so to call it a "creative art" is a gross exaggeration. A programmer is given a very specific set of tasks (eg. send data from A to B, fix bug, implement X), and his problems are mostly technical. This doesn't even compare to the creativity involved in a real artistic endeavor like designing your own videogame, writing your own screenplay, or composi…
Just like how some photographers focus solely on wedding shoots, or some treat photography as art. Or how some architects specialize in copy-and-paste homes, whilst others spend time engaging with and designing something specific to the client - I think there's a huge spectrum in terms of 'creativity' for all specializations that 'make' things, and it's hard to say that one is more creative than the other.
Perhaps whether or not you're exposed to creativity depends on where you, or the industry places you in the field.. perhaps the more experienced you are in an industry, the more opportunities you have for creativity?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?
#140Call me crazy but I have always had this exit plan. If my business completely fails, I'd give away my stuff and live in buddhist temples, would visit Tibet, travel around and spend my days meditating and helping people.
Sounds like an insane idea, but as a Buddhist that would be a fulfilled life for me.