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Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#181

Post by dschiptsov »

Already did.

I have switched to be a guide for Tibet tours (Lhasa, Kailash-Manasarovar) and high altitude trekking and motorcycle tours in Nepal, Sikkim and Ladakh. Customers enjoyed my guided tours in Jokhang and Potala.

Better demand and much more tolerable life than in a coding sweatshop. For everything else there is literally no demand for anything except Joomla websites and Android apps outside the valley, which is already saturated.

And, of course, I have zero interest in things like React or Node.

The sad truth is that indie and small shop IT is already dead. Unless you are a young CS major in US there is no demand for programming jobs. Otherwise there will be a market, not just a few brokers like Toptal.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#182

Post by Kliment »

JDiculous wrote: post #154
nostrademons wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I've just been lucky with jobs, but my daily work hasn't been "send data from A to B, fix bug" since my first job before college (except for ramp-up time when I was just starting at Google, and even then my manager was like "Do you really want to just be fixing unit tests?". It was "Give quants a development environment where they can quickly write algorithms that will run on our parallel-processing cluster",…

I want to hear more about this "fix unemployment" thing

I'd be more interested in ideas on how to fix employment - job dependency is a huge problem.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#183

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

cyberferret wrote: post #146
david927 wrote: post #114

I currently work in a good environment where I'm appreciated and paid well. Not many people in the world can say that, so I have a lot to be thankful for. Programming has done good by me. But I don't love it. Alan Kay is right, it's like building "an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves". There's no eleg…

> It's an Asperger profession; smart but artless. Sorry, but I would have to disagree with you on this. I've been programming now for over 35 years, and really cannot see myself doing anything else. I find I can channel my creativity into programming in many ways, and writing a good piece of code gives me the same satisfaction as writing or recording apiece of music. Yes, I am a musician too, and while they are very…

> physio ... rubbing shoulders

I see what you did there :)

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#184

Post by clusmore »

JDiculous wrote: post #109
sean_patel wrote: post #83

Programming 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…

>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.

I don't think this is a fair comparison. This is actually one of those cases where I like the distinction between "programmer" and "coder". What you're describing sounds like a "coder" or a "code monkey," not at all like what I do in my job. If you were to translate this job over to art, it would be something like tracing over lines, making very minor touchups to pre-specified areas, or perhaps mixing paint.

An artist who has complete freedom over their tools and their subjects would best translate to a programmer who also has complete control over their tools and their subject. They are not beholden to a company for specifics, except perhaps that something actually gets built. More likely this is one person who has an idea for a project and designs and implements everything themselves - and spends more time considering what features to add, the best way to add them, or otherwise experimenting with techniques, than actually writing production code.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#185

Post by nathan_f77 »

david927 wrote: post #114

I currently work in a good environment where I'm appreciated and paid well. Not many people in the world can say that, so I have a lot to be thankful for. Programming has done good by me. But I don't love it. Alan Kay is right, it's like building "an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves". There's no eleg…

I would also like to make short films and plays, as well as improv and acting in local theater. I think it's something you can do in your evenings and weekends. I started doing it recently and realized that I'm not good at it, and it's going to take a lot of practice before I get better. It's important to stay active and keep practicing your hobbies, even while you're working. Because if you wait until you're retired, you might have forgotten how to do things. Or even worse, you might have lost your interest.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#186

Post by [deleted] »

themodelplumber wrote: post #30

Thought about it, and then tried it. I followed my dream and started a creative project that had been dogging me for a long time. EVERYBODY wanted me to do it. Family, friends, people on the street with whom I discussed it. I expected it to be a big moneymaker. And it didn't work out. Not only that, but it became very clear that it was a really poor fit for me on a fundamental level. I'm glad for the experience, thou…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#187

Post by nathan_f77 »

jamez1 wrote: post #115
aridiculous wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really cool. Could you describe what work in equities is? What's a day-to-day like?

Buying and selling shares of companies, I work in a team of 10 and we manage roughly $10b (equivalent in USD). Every day we will discuss new developments and how they affect our valuations for these businesses. These decisions are then factored into a portfolio model, which is then implemented by the dealer. All in all, you have a lot of freedom, you aren't accountable for your time. I could be gone for the week and…

Did you have to get a degree to do this?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#188

Post by [deleted] »

JDiculous wrote: post #109
sean_patel wrote: post #83

Programming 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…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#190

Post by Archenoth »

I love programming, though I have thought that if it didn't exist--I would probably go into archaeology.

I have always enjoyed discovering things in subtleties, and learning the reasons behind strange things with research. There are still plenty of things that we have yet to figure out.

However, regardless of whether I did archaeology or programming, I'm sure I would get burnt out every once in a while. That just happens, and it isn't necessarily a bad thing. (Even if it is annoying...) It helps me to remember that this sort of thing passes as my inspiration swings back and forth, and that I don't actually dislike my profession. And until I am back into it, I just do things to force myself to be productive.

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