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My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

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Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#601

Post by 20andup »

TheAndruu wrote: post #476

My office mate (both programmers) put it this way: Your title walks into the room before you. In an initial meeting with external customers / partners, the invitees may not know anything about you or your actual role . They see the titles on other people on say a meeting invite- "Senior Architect" or "Director of Engineering" and have much more interest in those guys and ask them the questions. Despite those guys oft…

This reminds me of a story when I was a headhunter in 2009 before I became a programmer. It was that time of the year again and bonuses were being given out. I talked to a candidate about his bonus for that year and he said he got promoted instead be the leaders. Then I ask how many got promoted, and he said the entire team. Finally, I asked, so what difference has his job been since getting the promotion - None.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#602

Post by ilikepi »

20andup wrote: post #599
maverick_iceman wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you own a personal jet or a personal yacht? Bill Gates does (or definitely can).

Owning a yacht is not as glamorous as it seems. You have to pay for parking, cleaning, gas, etc. A yacht is not like a car. Its 10 times more work to upkeep. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Right, but the point was that someone with Bill Gates' money can pay to transfer all those problems to someone else.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#603

Post by UK-AL »

kazinator wrote: post #297

I will always be a programmer, no matter what. My regret is only about not being richer, that's all. I don't want another kind of job ; I want a shitload of money, so I can code whatever I want all day long, until I drop dead at the TTY prompt. Plus do a ton of cycling, running, guitar playing and such. Regret over not having tried this job or that seems misplaced to me. If the job you're missing out on could be done…

"it's really about the money." - There's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of jobs exist that have to be done, that no one would like to do.

People treat money as if it dirty.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#604

Post by mordocai »

kdamken wrote: post #382
cookiecaper wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your intention, but I don't think you can really lecture anyone on retirement savings when you're in your 20s. I'm in my 20s myself and wouldn't do it. Check back in 30 years -- maybe you'll have gotten lucky and not had any major financial drains, or maybe you won't've. People in my family had hundreds of ks saved up for retirement and have lost it all in their 50s. Now they're in their 60s and have no…

Just out of curiosity, what happened to them? Besides significant medical or legal expenses, it's hard for me to picture.

My parents also lost all of their funds in their 50s due to the stock market crash, but they were getting close to retirement and shouldn't have had their funds in high risk.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#605

Post by pmarreck »

I remember DeltaGraph!

I'm also at the same crossroads- 44, have some money, want to push FP and TDD and the languages Elixir/Erlang more, maybe just do it by starting a new company? Encountering too much current trying to push for it in existing orgs as a "mere" programmer. Figure if I think I'm on to something, I should just start a development consultancy or programming shop specializing in the things I think will matter down the road, now.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#606

Post by pmarreck »

davidgl wrote: post #107
forgottenacc56 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to hate npm with the burning heat of a thousand supernovas. I think maybe they changed the way it works because now it tends to work instead of assaulting you viciously with a massive cascade of dependency errors every time you try to install a package. Until recently it was quite the absolute worst experience of software ever for me and I used DOS and Windows 1.0. Every time I realized I had to use npm I woul…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness :D

When I learned of this concept in college, I suddenly realized why it was so hard to convince Windows people to go Mac. ;)

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#607

Post by econner »

didibus wrote: post #560

Sounds like the typical success anxiety everyone suffers from today. You could have been everything, successful, rich, famous, but you chose what you wanted and that's ok, it's for the best, that's true success, don't run after the carrot. Every programmer I meet dream of being CEO, having their own company, making more money. Yet over 90% of them don't enjoy any of their current profit. Literally, with my programmer…

Success anxiety is a great way to put it. As I've started my career in tech I've noticed that everyone seems to be looking somewhere else. Mid stage engineers look at early engineers thinking if only. Early engineers look at founders thinking if only. Founders look at other founders thinking if only. etc etc. No one is happy with where they currently are.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#608

Post by 20andup »

ilikepi wrote: post #602
20andup wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Owning a yacht is not as glamorous as it seems. You have to pay for parking, cleaning, gas, etc. A yacht is not like a car. Its 10 times more work to upkeep. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Right, but the point was that someone with Bill Gates' money can pay to transfer all those problems to someone else.

Yes, and I am saying that when you do get to Bill Gate's money, you will have other problems to deal with.

Never being able to go anywhere spontaneous without your security guards. Everyone looking to take your money. Having to watch your words in everything you say because you are being filmed by strangers 24/7. Can't walk into a coffee shop without being recognized and hassled for a selfie cause some vain dude/girl wants to show off to his friends and get social network "likes". Etc.

The only way to get away from all those problems is probably to buy a private island, build a big house, and trap yourself inside. Which a lot of wealthy people kind of do in one way or another.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#609

Post by erikpukinskis »

Cut_N_Paste wrote: post #525
romanovcode wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Javascript was designed so that clown on your website moves when you click on it.

I just don't understand all the JavaScript hate. I've used languages like java and python, basic and pascal, c, c++, assembly, and for the past 15 years JavaScript... I can say without hesitation, that it is my favorite language... I have a hard time explaining exactly why that is... sort of like trying to explain why chocolate is my favorite desert, I mean I like all kinds of ice cream, but chocolate is my favorite.

Same here. I've been a professional developer for 20 years. I love JavaScript. To me, programming is mostly just about functions and simple data structures. The hard part isn't getting the machine to work, or having easy access to powerful programming constructs. The hard part is finding the simplest model that will get the data where it needs to go, and that requires not programming language features but good design practices.

Generally, unless you're doing systems or realtime programming, or you are writing a serious fast path for a lot of data, the only reason you'd need more than the very basic features present in every programming language is that you're trying to do something more complicated than you should be.

Many programmers seem willing to take on almost any amount of complexity in their toolchain if it will allow them to express an idea in a slightly more concise way. I would prefer to stay much closer to the basics and just take the time to make really beautiful and powerful functions, rather than rely on a rickety stack of concepts that, if not confusing to me, will be confusing to many of the people who end up interacting with my code.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#610

Post by another-dave »

didibus wrote: post #562
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…

> A hundred years ago, they'd be running a milling company, or figuring the best way to get rails installed, etc.

Programmers today are also figuring out the best way to get Rails installed! :)

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