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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?

#521

Post by i336_ »

_k5mx wrote: post #508
i336_ wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, so the credits are really that thorough? That's awesome to hear. I also now have new respect for movies with really short credits - I'd wondered if there were any positions deemed "too irrelevant" and not included. I'm also particularly curious about the "no formal education in CS" bit - for various complicated reasons I haven't (yet?) completed basic HSC, and am wondering how to break into the industry in gener…

At times the team isn't included in full.

Ah, so sometimes people do get dropped out. I'm not surprised.

Very interesting, working for free is (for hilarious reasons) something I could probably pull off right now. I'm curious what kind of work this was - was it more generic coding or industry-specific? I've wanted to play around with graphics for some time, but "get a GPU and mess around with it" has repeatedly not worked out for me, so I've no industry experience.

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

#522

Post by digler999 »

m0nty wrote: post #338
clentaminator wrote: post #256

I think about leaving programming every day. I love programming, but I'm not sure I enjoy software development as a career. I enjoy coding and understanding how computer systems work, but I don't care for the constant changes in tools and techniques in certain domains of development. I'd rather practise with and improve my existing knowledge of a subject, instead of constantly playing catch-up with someone else's too…

> without having to play the development workflow game with the daily standups and so on? It never used to be like this. I think management has reacted to the traits they perceive in programmers - get distracted too easily, work on things that don't need doing, take too long, cannot provide work-time estimates, etc - by putting in place this micro-managing approach: "only do it if it's on the kanban and tell us each…

I think it's just that the business wants to know where their money is actually going (and they have every right to, it's effectively their money, or managed under their auspices). and unfortunately agile is one way they can accomplish that. It's unfortunate because it costs a lot of developer time to go through the motions, and we are the closest witnesses to this overhead/waste.

I think using/not using agile is like doing business with a contract vs a handshake. When there are few enough people who trust each other, you can get by on a handshake. When you get into larger dollar amounts (like paying an office full of developers), sometimes its better to use a contract so you have some perception and promises about where your money is going.

Now, agile is of course not a contract, but if teams meet their deliverables, the business can at least see where their money went, which they are entitled to do.

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

#523

Post by toddan »

meddlepal wrote: post #362
Clubber wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Agile (at least as thought of by management) is designed to make programmers interchangeable. If programmers are interchangeable, they are easily replaceable. We just started doing "by the book" Agile with daily stand ups. Now that you mention it, it does feel like I'm being micro managed. Put in your time every day so we can email everyone the burn down chart. Lets add some more pressure to the job if you…

Push back and you'll just be replaced by someone younger or more naive or willing. At the end of the day programmers are mostly just factory workers of the 21st century. The best ones are perhaps closer to the mechanics of the industrial revolution.

So much this. And the biggest fools are the programmers that believe that they are unique wizards working magic and being special. They are simply factory workers working under an illusion.

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

#524

Post by biztos »

biztos wrote: post #211

So nobody's interested in sales? It's a job that solves a lot of the problems people complain about in programming, like spending all day staring at the screen or not interacting with people or doing things that might be pointless. The downside of course is that you eat what you kill.

As I understand it -- and I could be way off here -- the path from Software Engineer to Sales in the corporate world goes through Sales Engineering.

So if you really want to get into that, I would recommend finding some sales engineers in your company or another friendly company and ask them for advice.

Another closely related thing AFAIK is "Solution Architect" jobs -- in abundance at places like IBM and SAP. There you'd normally be in contact with the folks in Sales as they would want to make sure you're doing the required nerdy stuff to keep the customer happy and open-checkbooked.

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

#525

Post by dcw303 »

romanovcode wrote: post #236
dcw303 wrote: post #61

About ten years ago I took a year off to teach English in Japan. Within a couple of months I was dying to go back to development. Trust me, even compared to other white collar jobs, you would not believe how cushy we have it.

Well to be honest teaching English in Japan is one of the worst careers you can choose. Competition is super stiff and pay is super low. I don't know what you was expecting.

I never said career. But it pays better than other common working holiday jobs, like bartending.

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

#526

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

mrfusion wrote: post #339
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wish I could remember where I saw it (reddit?) but just last week I read a comment from a backhoe operator that said basically, "it's fun for the first four or five hours then it's hours of tedium making sure you don't kill someone who's stupid enough to stand in the wrong spot."

I'd love to create some kind of career swap service someday. Can you imagine signing up and trying all sorts of different jobs.

Gotta say that would be cool!

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

#527

Post by terminalcommand »

amelius wrote: post #501
terminalcommand wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, you're right I don't have to be a lawyer. I try to work on side projects and continue to develop my skills. But those are dreams and I need to be prepared for reality. If I had the guts, I would risk everything and drop out of law school.

Perhaps you can one day automate all lawyers out of existence :)

Especially in criminal law this can be done. For the other areas of law software could really help. There are decent platforms for searching cases/articles, but they're all mostly keyword based. On the other hand most lawyer work is monotonous. Research, believe, make believe :). It doesn't matter which side you're on.

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

#528

Post by baybreeze »

jdgiese wrote: post #62
baybreeze wrote: post #46

For 10 years programming has been my thing, but for a while now I have been getting the feeling that programming won't be big in 30 years. If all my eggs are in the programming basket and I can't keep a programming job in the future, I would be out of luck. (presumably because it's a blue collar profession by that point). With that fear in mind, becoming a M.D. actually seems like it would be a good decision. Even th…

I am curious as to why you don't think programming will be big in 30 years? One of my partners (we studied Biomedical Engineering together in undergrad) completed medical school, and then he decided it wasn't for him, and that he wanted to go back to technical work and in particular programming. A big part of his reasoning behind the transition was that he felt a large fraction of what doctors do is very repetitive a…

It will be big, but there will be so many other programmers that our worth will go down. It seems that our Silicon Valley salaries are extremely high compared to other professions, and only recently went up (what was a 90s programmer paid?). It seems like a flash in the pan, but on the order of decades.

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

#529

Post by Fifer82 »

asveikau wrote: post #500
pc86 wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His comment was aimed at @iand, not at Asperger's.

His comment was aimed at someone defending those with a disorder they cannot help. I call that bullying.

Oh please. Grow a set of balls.

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

#530

Post by dadro »

bebop wrote: post #456
dadro wrote: post #395

I bought a small commercial fishing boat and occasionally do that on the side. I make no money but love every minute of it. I'm working on getting my charter license so I can take folks out fishing and hope to do that p/t when I retire in 20 years.

Sounds like a blast! What are you fishing for?

I have commercial licenses for Striped Bass and Blue Fin Tuna.
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