9 - I love it, it's my passion. Programmer by day, programmer by night. Not a 10 because I struggle trying to enjoy life in alternative ways. Not that I haven't found other ways to enjoy life but it's harder to me to get out and make friends out of nothing vs staying in front of the computer.
Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
61–70 of 107 posts
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#624 Part of it is golden handcuffs, okay income, okay workload. Everything is fine. Fine isn't interesting though.
Seems like you might just be bored with your current work - perhaps a change of scenery might help?
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes I'm like that too and I think it's ~80% a personality thing, meaning if you get a job at the local coffee shop you'll still be obsessed or preoccupied with something.
Maybe you wouldn't had that issue if you were, say, a hockey player. Like your body is not prepared to be sitting in front of a screen ten hours a day or a whole shift poring coffee. I've been learning to get over that brain draining feeling by exercising and not just a running session at the end of the day (which really helps) but shorter intervals in the middle of the day. E.g., I had great success exercising every…
On a side note, I always try to remember that happiness is a choice. Simply try. It takes some work.
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#64Points: 7
10 years experience, freelancing as a front-end dev. Working remote for a start-up, it pays well and I don't have to meet people on a daily basis.
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#655 Early 30s, spending days staring at computer screens is a nice way to waste your life, the whole RoR to Node.js to Go and React hype cycle made me realize I'm too old for this shit. Finding a job where I'm above of all that madness would be great but middle management is even worse and it's not in me. Maybe self-sufficiency farming would be a better route. Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you ca…
> Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you can easily socialize with your friends afterwards, with dev work you're brain dead by the end of the day.
This worries me, happens to me lately also. It's probably a pattern that our brain learns from programming, to optimise and simplify everything and actually ignore what does not matter. Probably this translates into our behaviour outside work, where your socialisation skills suffer. What I noticed is that the brain can be resurrected (partially) by exercising. Perhaps we could use the experience of more socialising jobs every once in a while but ... we have our golden-handcuffs.
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#665 Early 30s, spending days staring at computer screens is a nice way to waste your life, the whole RoR to Node.js to Go and React hype cycle made me realize I'm too old for this shit. Finding a job where I'm above of all that madness would be great but middle management is even worse and it's not in me. Maybe self-sufficiency farming would be a better route. Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you ca…
> [...] the whole RoR to Node.js to Go and React hype cycle made me realize I'm too old for this shit.
> Finding a job where I'm above of all that madness would be great [...]
I think the problem is your assuming that programming is limited to cranking out dynamic websites ("web applications" they call them nowadays) all day. There are plenty of problems out there -- even internal ones! IT tools that are missing -- that need solving that don't even come close to have web interface or where web interface is only a superficial part.
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#675 Early 30s, spending days staring at computer screens is a nice way to waste your life, the whole RoR to Node.js to Go and React hype cycle made me realize I'm too old for this shit. Finding a job where I'm above of all that madness would be great but middle management is even worse and it's not in me. Maybe self-sufficiency farming would be a better route. Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you ca…
Are you working for start ups? Just from what you're saying, it seems like working at say Google or Amazon or Microsoft of Apple would really make you happy. Don't mean to sound condescending or anything. It's just I know a lot of people that LOVED start ups post-college and are now feeling the exact same way as you, and kind of forget that there's super cushy jobs out there without a lot of the startup stupidity.
Yeah, all my life was spent in start-ups and I don't know nothing about big corps. It would be nice to start getting a decent pay but then there is the personality side where I'm not 9to5 material, the whole reporting to the manager thing etc. I understand and respect all that but I have a hard time putting up with it and I'm sure "they" would have a hard time putting up with me.
That's why they are always hiring and firing :)
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#681
Already working on making an small goat cheese operation. Goats are amazingly cost efficient and reliable.
To all the other jaded developers: I intend to create an small haven of freedom, but need smart people to do it. Something self-organized, self-sustainable and anarchic.
Who is up for it?
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#695 Early 30s, spending days staring at computer screens is a nice way to waste your life, the whole RoR to Node.js to Go and React hype cycle made me realize I'm too old for this shit. Finding a job where I'm above of all that madness would be great but middle management is even worse and it's not in me. Maybe self-sufficiency farming would be a better route. Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you ca…
> Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you can easily socialize with your friends afterwards, with dev work you're brain dead by the end of the day. This worries me, happens to me lately also. It's probably a pattern that our brain learns from programming, to optimise and simplify everything and actually ignore what does not matter. Probably this translates into our behaviour outside work, where your…
I think it's down to open-offices - when you condition yourself to ignore and blank out the conversations and noise 3 feet away, it's no wonder it's difficult to snap out of it (it certainly is for me). That said, my experience of open offices has been of the condensed, touching-elbows variety.
Re: Ask HN: Software Developers – Do you like your job?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe self-sufficiency farming would be a better route. Wow, are you me? When people ask me if I feel like programming is what I want to do the rest of my life I often reply with "No, I think one day I'll just drop it all and move on the country side". Nice to know I am not the only one :)
Maybe someone should start a commune for ex-software-engineers.
On it ;)