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My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

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Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#561

Post by nkurz »

flubert wrote: post #514
tcfunk wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like $80k must be an outdated number. My wife and I pull in just under $100k together, and we can't even (comfortably) afford a home. Between rent, student loan payments, health insurance, bills, and car loans, and food, I think we maybe have $500 left to throw around each month. If we were paying against a mortgage, that would basically be zero.

>My wife and I pull in just under $100k together, and we can't even (comfortably) afford a home. You may not be able to afford a house in the area you want, but you can certainly afford a home. Here's one with a mortgage for $89/mo. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/207-1st-Ave-W-Gackle-ND-58...

Did you choose this example randomly, or in homage to our HN moderator?

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#562

Post by didibus »

ImTalking wrote: post #544

For me, software has been nothing more than a tool to get myself the lifestyle I want. I enjoy the creativity associated with writing solid software of course but it's not a hobby, it's certainly not a religion for me, it's a tool, nothing more. I enjoy the creativity associated with developing a solution that people use and pay me for, but at the end of the day, I am a business-guy who uses software to get what I wa…

I agree with you whole heartedly. A lot of programmers are artists. Like artists, they work not for profit, but expression and self fulfilment through their craft.

Some people are not artists, they are utilitarians. They create not for admiring the work, but for fullfilling menial needs, for addressing life's struggles, and for profiting.

Utilitarians would have created a business even if programming did not exist. A hundred years ago, they'd be running a milling company, or figuring the best way to get rails installed, etc.

Some utilitarians are programmers, and simply leverage it as a tool to a mean.

It sounds like the OP was an artist. The problem today, and almost always has been that artist often don't get socially recognised, paid, etc. So at your retirement, it's easy to feel like all that beauty you poured your soul in went unoticed, and didn't change a thing for you.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#563

Post by esailija »

bottled_poe wrote: post #540
gear54rus wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No amount of cute phrases will change the fact that it is being spread by people who actually understand its flexibility instead of focusing on something that rubs them the wrong way (which, most of the time is the result of working with other, often shiver enterprisey language(s) and thinking that that's how it's done) quite effectively and there's no sign of stopping for its growth. And that is good. With things li…

JS is popular for one reason - browser support.

So what's your excuse for the popularity of Java, C++ etc?

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#566

Post by bottled_poe »

esailija wrote: post #563
bottled_poe wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JS is popular for one reason - browser support.

So what's your excuse for the popularity of Java, C++ etc?

I think the main reason for the popularity of object-oriented languages is that the design corresponds more closely to the physical world, which makes it easier to reason about the architecture of the software.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#567

Post by jaza »

I'm a programmer in my 30s. I've always said (only half-jokingly) that my career goal is to avoid management for as long as possible.

I decided to be an IT professional because I like spending most of my working day programming. If I wanted to spend most of my day talking, meeting, leading, and selling, I could have gone into politics. Or, if I really wanted to make truckloads of money, I could have become an investment banker.

I really don't picture myself ever feeling the regret that the author talks about. The more time spent coding stuff, and the less time spent doing management, the better.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#568

Post by goodgoblin »

The limiting factor in whether someone becomes a manager or stays a coder is that there aren't very many manager roles available relative to programmer positions. Almost perversely because these roles are scarce, they pay more, but are managers really harder to find than programmers?

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#569

Post by collyw »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #207
RodericDay wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty ridiculous. Lawyers, Bankers, and Doctors get to play in intellectual sandboxes, and they get paid really handsomely for it, even if they are completely anti-social people. The reason we get paid less is that we don't have any of their safeguards: - Lawyers aim to become partner. It's very socialist-y this way. The goal working in a firm is to become an owner of the firm and share in its successes. - D…

Both lawyers and doctors have powerful associations that control and regulate the labor supply via a certification process. Technology doesn't have this. In fact, technology has the opposite: a H1B program that brings in more and more labor supply to keep wages low.

People also seem to value experienced Doctors and Lawyers. They just see the front of a web application, and if it looks OK they assume that it has been put together well.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#570

Post by magicalist »

smm2000 wrote: post #555
magicalist wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people say it is, until you ask them if tech interviewing is sane. We can't even find a tech interview process that correlates well with performance and that's just who we let in the door before they even get to rise up as their value merits. Then you add questions of if who is chosen for promotion is sane, if what products a company chooses to focus on is sane, if what products the market chooses to make popula…

1. I think tech interviews are sane and screen for very specific skills - ability to master topic (everyone asks the same algo questions - there is no excuse not to master them even if you do not use knowledge day to day. It's no different from learning any other domain), ability to perform under pressure and ability to feign enthusiasm (it really suck to work with smb who visibly hates his job). Lack of those skills…

> There is some randomness but overall process works very well.

Not many here would agree with you, on both sides of the table. Whiteboarding skills often do not translate into ability at a job.

> Being good at self-promotion is a merit. Some have it and some not. You could not define merit as just technical skills

Sure, but you're starting to beg the question. All systems are meritocracies if merit is defined at being successful within that system.

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