Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

alinpanaitiu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 545 posts

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#501

Post by uh_uh »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #456
chasd00 wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to pile on but i feel the same when software devs here talk about how becoming a farmer is their salvation from their workplace suffering. As a kid I remember watching my cousin lie on his back with a stick welder underneath a horse trailer in 105F Texas summer heat. No thanks, i'll stick with my coffee, desk, and computer. edit: different strokes for different folks, i don't want to sound too presumptuo…

A lot of the folks working in these bigger tech companies didn't grow up this way. A lot of them grew up in wealthy families, lived in wealthy neighborhoods, were pushed into an elite tech career by their parents, went to elite pre-university schooling, elite universities, etc and have never had to feel monetary scarcity. Just look at HN comments and see how many 3rd generation programmers there are. As an adult with…

As a counterpoint to that, I grew up in a blue-collar family under modest circumstances and I still feel like bigcorp software development is soul-crushing. Surely, you appreciate it for a while. But eventually the reality of it sets in, and can't ignore the BS anymore.

I know I'm luckier than most humans on Earth, but still hedonistic adaptation is a thing, even if you grew up in a poor family.

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#504

Post by wly_cdgr »

This is Tylenol, not an antibiotic. There are two solutions: * develop confidence, competence, courage, and communication/political skills so that you enjoy collaborating with others more (by virtue of being better at it) * find a way to steer your actual career towards something where you have greater/total creative control

Actually, these solutions are just two different ways of working toward the same goal: absolute power

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#505

Post by tayo42 »

patrick451 wrote: post #473
ravenstine wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a level or two down from the abstraction of company size, crafting hobbies are also a reprieve from the tyranny of linters. So many programmers today believe that code is always better when it all looks identical. Consistency is a good thing, but not when it's expected to be absolute. Programming should actually allow for creativity, and where you decide to add spaces and newlines can actually add subtle but impor…

> a reprieve from the tyranny of linters Consistency is dramatically overrated. We all read through comment threads on HN where each is written in it's own style and nobody has a problem understanding it. I read through open source repos all the time, which all have their own styles and which are often not self-consistent; my comprehension is not impaired. I have worked with teams that enforce linting with a religiou…

>We all read through comment threads on HN where each is written in it's own style and nobody has a problem understanding it.

That's not true. Walls of texts get ignored or complained about. Grammar nazis show up if you use the wrong to/too.

If your typing on a phone autocomplete more or less enforces grammar and punctuation.

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#506

Post by pavel_lishin »

all2 wrote: post #193
pavel_lishin wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't hit that stage yet. I mean, yes - work isn't fun. But I have coding side projects I work on, and it is fun for me, still!

I am very much this way. Greenfield dev on a project that's interesting is very engaging. Munging through thousands of lines of code trying to find the conditional or field that isn't being set properly, or that is being incorrectly accessed is draining.

Or finding that `savePaypalTransactionToDatabase` doesn't return the row ID, but instead returns true/false to indicate success, and not being able to easily refactor it because god knows where that function is being used, and what sorts of knock-on effects it can have, even with a decent IDE, and deciding "fuck it, I'll just write a wrapper around it that then queries for the

You know what, nevermind, it's Saturday, why am I thinking about work.

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#507

Post by throwaway984393 »

sukruh wrote: post #35

Most of the people I know who pursue creative/crafting hobbies alongside a software development job have chosen to work for well-known big companies, for prestige and safety, and ended up unfulfilled in their jobs. Most big companies are not good if you want to solve problems and build stuff. Especially "the enterprise", where software is seen as a cost center so the less of it the better. The effort of managing up e…

[dead]

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#508

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

Aurornis wrote: post #458
freedomben wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is a shame that he ended up getting violent, because "Industrial Society and Its Future" is one of the most interesting, insightful, and fascinating things I've read. I recommend it to everyone. IMHO it's a classic example where "the author is excellent at identifying problems, not good at identifying solutions." Unfortunately almost nobody reads the first (identification) part because the solution part is…

> It really is a shame that he ended up getting violent, because "Industrial Society and Its Future" is one of the most interesting, insightful, and fascinating things I've read. I recommend it to everyone. It's pseudo-profound, but not really insightful at all. It's the kind of writing that seems brilliant to people going through difficult times in life or edgy teenagers who are angry at the world, but to be blunt i…

>brilliant to people going through difficult times in life or edgy teenagers who are angry at the world, but to be blunt it falls flat for people who are well-adjusted and thriving.

Quote: It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Re: Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software

#509

Post by [deleted] »

netbioserror wrote: post #490
sukruh wrote: post #35

Most of the people I know who pursue creative/crafting hobbies alongside a software development job have chosen to work for well-known big companies, for prestige and safety, and ended up unfulfilled in their jobs. Most big companies are not good if you want to solve problems and build stuff. Especially "the enterprise", where software is seen as a cost center so the less of it the better. The effort of managing up e…

I’m very lucky. I work on a very small software team, with a very flat structure, where my boss, with a very high level of trust, tasked me with replacing several very old parts of the product stack using my best judgment and choice of languages/tools. He also appreciated that during the interview, I mentioned that my work must be oriented towards customer value; that is the ultimate goal of any of our work. I am oft…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN