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I no longer build software

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Re: I no longer build software

#711

Post by kens »

kube-system wrote: post #577
coldtea wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we've mostly solved trivial non-problems if/not regressions? People lived in 1990 and didn't feel that bad to have to call a travel agency to get a ticket, or, god forbid, to actually meet friends and not in VR space... I'll give you "self driving cars" -- well, I would if they could work today, which they don't...

Anyone remember spending hours at AAA getting TripTiks and a highlighted route on a vague map for a (now) simple road trip? And the ensuing argument about the passenger's navigation obligations when you inevitably miss an exit halfway into the trip? And spending significant time preparing the (unreliable 80s domestic) car for a road trip? I recently did a ~1000 mile trip that I used to do as a kid in the 90s. Back th…

> Anyone remember spending hours at AAA getting TripTiks

I'm glad to see someone else mention TripTiks. I went on long road trips with my family when I was a kid and TripTiks were the coolest thing. A TripTik was a custom-made flip-book assembled from pages that were map segments with everything of interest noted along the way. Your route was marked with a highlighter. It was bit like turn-by-turn guidance in handheld paper form.

>> People lived in 1990 and didn't feel that bad to have to call a travel agency to get a ticket

Travel agencies were awful; people don't realize how good they have it with online tickets. The way they worked is you'd ask for a flight from X to Y. They'd spend a whole minute typing some cryptic database query into their terminal and come up $1000 leaving at 6:45 am. You'd ask if there's a better price and they'd spend another minute typing a slightly different query before coming up with something slightly better. Repeat for 10 minutes, and you feel guilty every time you ask a question because they're doing you a favor with so much typing. Then ask if there's anything better if you leave Wednesday and the whole process repeats. Finally they obtain a semi-decent flight after a huge effort, but you're left with the feeling that you probably could have saved a bunch more if you'd known the right question to ask.

Re: I no longer build software

#712

Post by RonanTheGrey »

mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

This is probably one of my favorite comments in the history of HN :)

Re: I no longer build software

#713

Post by cpursley »

fxtentacle wrote: post #700
cpursley wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your overall tone is negative and elitist. Thee $300 supermarket bike (I have one and put over 40 miles on it weekly and it's help up fine for four years) provides access to folks who otherwise can't afford the fancy $1,500 aluminium/carbon machines. Fancy bikes are still getting made and even getting better. Newly rich kid or VC funded startups distributes money from wealthy people to an every growing software indus…

I'm not sure I deserve the "elitist" label, but yes, I find this development very negative. While I agree with your point that hobby startups distribute money and enlarge the market, I was trying to point out that people working under management with no experience will probably not learn their craft well. In my opinion, the old apprentice system used for jobs like becoming a carpenter would be quite appropriate for s…

Sorry about that, I didn't mean it to come across as a personal attack. I mostly agree with your paragraph about hobby startups. And I secretly lust after a nicer bike and might go for one soon :)

Re: I no longer build software

#714

Post by adamnemecek »

SahAssar wrote: post #639
genidoi wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's easy to forget that modern tooling (+AWS/GCP/Azure) let's one dev match or exceed the productivity of 15 developers and a couple of PMs in 2005.

I'm not sure if you think all devs 15 years ago where stupid or all devs today are awesome, but either way I'd say you're wrong.

He means that tools have improved.

Re: I no longer build software

#715

Post by [deleted] »

kossTKR wrote: post #555
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay so it seems most people here on HN hates their jobs? That's sad but i think its not unique. Internet comment sections have always biased toward people who hate their jobs, are unhappy with their lives, or are otherwise trying to escape into virtual distractions. Not everyone fits this description, of course, but the negative comments are over represented relative to what the general population thinks. Never in…

Important point. I do remember the general level of cynicism and depression being several magnitudes lower 10-15 years ago though - on early HN/Reddit for example - today it seems everyone hates everything and we are 1 year from collapse every year - and i don't personally disagree that we have more than enough important things to tackle, but the "i have given up"-tone has become widespread even in MS news that i don…

[deleted]

Re: I no longer build software

#716

Post by treis »

crawlcrawler wrote: post #673
treis wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Unfortunately I agree with this. A great quote I saw a while ago: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” –Jeff Hammerbacher They're not really though. Ads may be the revenue stream but it's not like the top engineers at Google were on ads. They were building the search engine.

>> were If you meant to say that Google's top engineers _used to_ work on the search engine but nowadays they work on making people click on ads because that's were the money is, then I wholeheartedly agree with you

No, it's like saying the best athletes of our generation use their gifts to get people to buy stuff. That's how they make their money, but ultimately it's not what they spend their gifts doing. They work to be at the top of their sport and other people figure out how to make money on that.

Re: I no longer build software

#717

Post by ojilles »

mauvehaus wrote: post #123

Holy shit, this is me! A couple things to clarify: I posted the original issue as a minor complaint about the docker cli and promptly forgot about it. I never expected it to get any traction or follow-up. At the time I posted it, I was working as a contractor for my former full time employer. I had left full-time work there in early 2017 to attend the full-time program at the (sadly now-defunct) Furniture Institute o…

Hey, while you are reshooting the pictures, have a look at David Hobby's material over at Strobist [0], especially the lighting 101 series [1]. Hope you find them as helpful as I did!

[0] https://strobist.blogspot.com/ [1] https://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

Re: I no longer build software

#718

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

burger_moon wrote: post #412
nicbou wrote: post #75

Add me to the woodworking ex-developers. I built a website that pays the bills, and now I have a lot of time on my hands. I am finishing my first piece of furniture today. It's pretty scary to work without an undo button. The physical world isn't just instructions, but movements. A little twitch can ruin a cut. A clumsy movement can dent a piece of wood you spent an hour sanding. You truly experience the meaning of "…

I went the other way into programming from the trades. Sometimes, especially when I read about people leaving this industry to go work in the trades it makes me nostalgic and miss working with my hands and building real things. But I also have enough bad memories of shitty work conditions and waking up sore day after day to give me a gut check to stay put for a little longer. > I don't think programming is the probke…

> I think it's pretty universal and why it should probably be more common to switch industries a couple times at least through your career to keep things fun and not stay in a burned out mentality forever.

Isn't that years of education and work to start at the bottom again? If one has a family to support doesn't seem terribly feasible.

Re: I no longer build software

#720

Post by allo37 »

kennu wrote: post #623
throwawaygh wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing with legos is easier then delivering value.

Playing with legos is delivering value. Reinventing the same wheel over and over again is not.

Is it the same wheel? It sounds like you wanted a Honda Civic, but you used the wheels from an Abrams tank. So obviously the solution is to invent a tank wheel Civic chassis adapter layer?
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