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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or this: “Find creative ways around standards, limits, laws, processes, morals, etc. so I can make a quick buck and pass you some table scraps”
Or worse than table scraps: pieces of paper that may be worth something someday if you keep working hard enough.
It's an interesting question: which are the lines of code most frequently executed in the world today?
It makes for an interesting "how many manholes in Manhattan" interview question, and how you could possibly quantify your guesses...
Imagine being the author of those lines of code, if it was possible to figure out :-)
But answering the question literally, I am not representative of everyone in the industry, and that's a good thing. It's easy to feel romantic about your vocation when you have a number of reasonable options for achieving modest financial security, and you thus had the privilege of choosing the one that most closely matched your idea of self-actualization and self-identification.
Not everyone in this economy has the same set of choices. For many, programming is the lowest-risk way to put a roof over their head and feed their family. We can make up little myths about how we romantics are obviously more passionate, work harder because it's our dream, are more deeply engaged, and so on.
But in the end, I think we'll find as we look around that those of us who feel romantic about something that is also an excellent way to make money at this particular place in time and space have won a lottery of sorts, and are definitely in the minority.
That's not a bad thing.
If I had to sum up my feelings regarding programming, I would say it is: - a lot of uninteresting busy work; - intellectually mostly unchallenging. The few parts that are actually interesting are maths and if I wanted to maths I personally find that there are more interesting problems to solve in parts of maths not related to programming. I don't remember ever feeling any joy after completing a piece of software; - extremely isolating; - both boring and infuriating to debug when it's needed.
The only positive part was shipping something useful when it was finished.
"After a while, more and more, you’ll find yourself in moments of awe, stunned by the size and fragility of it all; the mountains of work and talent and creativity and foresight and intelligence and luck that went into it. And you’ll reach for the word “magic” because you won’t know how else to describe it and then you lean back and smile, wondering how someone could not." I guess I wish I felt like that about progra…
Awe and contempt are basically the same feeling, but with the charge flipped. The author is amazed that it works to the degree that it does, you're amazed a how things don't work the way you want them to. Such is the power of framing, I guess.
Strange. For me, programming is an emotionless endeavor and one of the hardest aspects about doing it day in and day out. Sometimes it feels like a higher level form of data entry.
This interests me. What kind of programming do you do? Emotion is very important to me as a programmer. Often my emotions know when something isn't right before my "rational" mind does, hinting that it's time to slow down and dig deeper. I've found a number of bugs this way over the years. In fact, my team has long recorded our emotional state with every commit, with a numerical score: "h:1" through "h:5" at the end…
Strange. For me, programming is an emotionless endeavor and one of the hardest aspects about doing it day in and day out. Sometimes it feels like a higher level form of data entry.
This interests me. What kind of programming do you do? Emotion is very important to me as a programmer. Often my emotions know when something isn't right before my "rational" mind does, hinting that it's time to slow down and dig deeper. I've found a number of bugs this way over the years. In fact, my team has long recorded our emotional state with every commit, with a numerical score: "h:1" through "h:5" at the end…
Sounds like intuition rather than emotions.
It's an interesting question: which are the lines of code most frequently executed in the world today?
I dont really understand the point of this article. Literally any system can be made romantic for the sheer fact that everything has spent hundreds of man-hours building up to it. The cheapest possible ballpoint pen is made up of years of research into the plastics, the machinery required to create bearings with the tolerances necessary, the exact chemical makeup of the ink etc etc. It just seems to be a waste of bra…
Yes, the construction of a ballpoint pen could be made romantic. But I mean...it's pretty incredible how many humans collaborate to produce the ballpoint pen, millions of individuals cooperating in countless ways, producing an essential implement which is greater than the sum of its parts. No one involved could tell you exactly how the pen is made, and yet it's sold at a price so low we never think about it. There is…
I wonder if a home-created ballpoint pen, that worked well, wouldn't feel a bit more magical or romantic than the one you get for free at the hotel or bank. Having made, for example, my own paint, prior to use, I can attest that doing so feels "magical" in a similar way that programming does.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This interests me. What kind of programming do you do? Emotion is very important to me as a programmer. Often my emotions know when something isn't right before my "rational" mind does, hinting that it's time to slow down and dig deeper. I've found a number of bugs this way over the years. In fact, my team has long recorded our emotional state with every commit, with a numerical score: "h:1" through "h:5" at the end…
> Emotion is very important to me as a programmer. Often my emotions know when something isn't right before my "rational" mind does, hinting that it's time to slow down and dig deeper. I've found a number of bugs this way over the years. Sounds like intuition rather than emotions.