Might be interested to know that Kent Beck of XP fame is also a goat farmer.
Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
331–340 of 351 posts
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just saw a tweet of Notch > Turns out unrolling tight inner loops really speeds them up! 38% speedup from that alone. Makes sense, it's doing one eight of the branching https://twitter.com/notch/status/595509436040491008 Even billionaires may want to micro-optimize! Bonus point: he is developing for a "20 years old platform"
There's always outliers, which is what I think Notch is... Without quantitative data I may be totally wrong though. I still think most people would stop coding once they had the resources to command other people to do it for them. Take for instance, Elon Musk, I'm pretty sure he's no longer in the trenches. That guy started coding at 12.
Most of those people though simply can't go back to the trenches coding because their time become too valuable.
Some of them actually miss it. In most Bill Gates interviews he alaways remember his days hard at coding as the most fun.
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#333Not to question this guy's remarkable decision or the article itself, just one expression I see quit often and makes me cringe each time, that is : the real world (referred here as a little haven of nature). Is the 19th century Industrial revolution just an illusion, the factories, the cars, the towns, the wars just a view of the spirit, and the little birds singing in the trees the real world ? Is the current (elect…
I believe the distinction suggested is not real vs imaginary, but real vs constructed. I think it's a reasonable point. One of the useful tests for "realness" is what lasts, what is sustained without human effort. Artificial environments are in some sense a fantasy made real. Sufficiently advanced technologies are indistinguishable from magic because we are always trying to construct our dreams. Our civilization is i…
Absolutely my point, and the notion of collective fiction and how it structures communities through faith, money, democracy and what not, is very dear to me. If you look at how we speak of "the markets" today (the markets are confident, the markets are happy, the markets are scared, the market is always right) it is very close to how ancient greeks would mention their gods... speaking of greeks the gods aren't happy with them... time to kill some goats...
But my main point was the widening divide between our artificial environment and our biological one, the raising concerns that the first is destroying the latter and what we can do about it! I think turning your back to civilization with the notion that it's all an illusion is a dangerous misconception.
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#334Sounds like the OP was never a "programmer", but rather a farmer trapped inside a programmer's job. I think it takes courage (and a bit of risk) to completely shift the course of your career, especially while you have a family to support. I will be curious to hear if he sticks with it long term, but to me, it sounds like he never was designed to be a programmer. To be a programmer, it takes someone that doesn't mind…
> Sounds like the OP was never a "programmer", but rather a farmer trapped inside a programmer's job.
I don't think that's really how it works. People are too complex, too dynamic to say someone is definitely X or Y.
I've been programming since I was a kid and loved the work, until at one point I didn't anyore and wanted out. I was done with tech. Does that mean I was never a real "programmer"? Was I soldier trapped inside a programmer's job? If I were to become say, a baker after this, will I have been a baker trapped inside a soldier trapped inside a programmer's job? Of course not.
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of us aren't just "saying" we love programming; we do. If I were a billionaire, I would no more pay someone to do my programming than pay them to take my vacations. I think your talk of "the trenches" is telling, though. The more money I have, the less I have to work on other people's projects and the more I can work on my own. Just as travel-lovers with more money can do less business travel to unpleasant desti…
Don't get me wrong. I love programming too, and I certainly have my own projects on the side. But work is work, which this person is doing. People who say that working as a coder is like going to disneyland everyday because their totally enamored by programming... I find it hard to believe that many people are like that. Burn out is a real thing.
I agree with you here, that even for someone who loves programming, working as a hired coder to implement other people's plans can become very tedious if you don't care about the project personally, and few programming lovers would liken it to a trip to Disneyland. Also, that burnout is a real thing.
So, it sounds as though we agree that many people really DO love programming, they're not just saying they do, and would go on doing it even if they made billions, but loving programming doesn't mean loving all programming work. There are programming jobs that people who genuinely love programming don't love at all and wouldn't do if they didn't need the paycheck.
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happ…
>I have bad allergies to pollen, dust Interestingly enough, if you had grown up on a farm, you many not have developed allergies... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497148 https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=allergies+and+growing+u...
To all the replies to this (at this time), he said "you MAY not have developed allergies", so please do not refute what he is saying by using yourself as an example (as it is just one sample in the overall population).
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#337Has anyone ever implemented a farming haven for programmers recovering from burnout? Stories of downshifting are so popular it must have been done somewhere.
This is just my opinion, but I think programmers aren't really special or unique for going from programming to farming or other types of physical jobs. I think that we just talk about it more online (and here in particular) because we're digital natives. There are plenty of people that have done 180 degree turns out there, and they don't necessarily have forums where they can share this need for change.
An old friend of mine was a car rental manager for ERAC. It's a stressful but stable job with room for growth. He rose to a damage control supervisor position at the Sacramento headquarters, then spent a couple of years feeling depressed, thinking something is missing in his life. Fast forward to 5 years later, and I find out he's now an offshore diver based out of Houston. From office ties to diving suits, helmet, breathing hose, belt and breast weights, and leaded feet. He couldn't be happier.
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#338This is probably too extreme of a life change for most people to implement, but there are ways to gain some of the benefits without an entire lifestyle upheaval. Recently I've begun camping on business trips instead of using my hotel budget. I'll fly in with a tent, sleeping bag, laptop, and cooler bag, rent a car, and set up camp in whichever campground is closest to the city. Most of these places are meant for loca…
Thanks for sharing this. Cool story!
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happ…
As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working towar…
I am a hobbyist programmer. I've never had a job where my primary role was programming. Nearly all of my programming in the past 5 years has been for open source projects.
Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer
#340It's funny to see this stuff go full-circle. My parents left the city in the early 90's to move to a small WI farm in the middle of nowhere (15min to get to a town of 5000 people). I can see the appeal of a simpler life. But the funny thing is, as a kid, I hated it. My parents got tired of the suburbs, I longed for it. They longed for simplicity, I longed for convenience. I hated the idea of having to drive long dist…
I grew up in the suburbs and hated it. I hated the idea of having to go long distances to get milk and eggs. I'm happy now in a city centre.
I grew up in the suburbs and walked to the store to get milk and eggs. I had to bike to get to the library in a reasonable time though.