Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thoughts on the software industry (2022)

linus.coffee

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–86 of 86 posts

Re: Thoughts on the software industry (2022)

#81

Post by pdimitar »

grey-area wrote: post #78
pdimitar wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Life is too short to stay in bad situations for a long time Life is also too short to get evicted of "your" house (that the bank actually owns) when you miss 3 mortgage payments because you left because "life is too short to stay in bad situations".

Don’t do that then. You can wait to leave a job till you have another lined up. It’s not always easy or simple but it’s certainly possible.

I am forgiven to have been exhausted by the grind and for trying to be loyal and go all-in where I am hired.

Wait, it turned out I am not forgiven and just taken advantage of.

So yeah, I am trying. Not easy by any means. But lesson learned, though way too late in my life and career. I'll definitely be doing that going forward.

Re: Thoughts on the software industry (2022)

#83

Post by tonyedgecombe »

pdimitar wrote: post #72
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you were responding to my statement "It seems we are programmed to feel mildly dissatisfied no matter what our circumstances." I can't see how that squares with the paper I talked about. Of course you can raise your anecdotes but that proves nothing.

What you said are also anecdotes which also prove nothing. The hedonistic treadmill does not exist. It's a feel-good construct, I found.

>What you said are also anecdotes which also prove nothing.

No, it was an actual paper (unfortunately I can't find it now).

>The hedonistic treadmill does not exist.

I never referred to that in my original answer, although it is related it seems straw man like in this context.

Re: Thoughts on the software industry (2022)

#84

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

brink wrote: post #5
bruce511 wrote: post #3

Since the article jumps around a lot, let me add one more; Software is an amazing passion, but a terrible job. Imagine you love music, play the piano for hours every day, then once you grow up someone pays you a huge salary just to play. You're in heaven. Now imagine someone who loves classical music, but can't play. You see the fortunes being made by piano players, so you decide to learn. Which takes years of doing…

The funny thing is 15 years ago, programming was nearly everyone's passion for those that were in the field. There were very few "job" type programmers. Not the case today.

15 years ago, we were saying the same thing :-)

Re: Thoughts on the software industry (2022)

#85

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

pdimitar wrote: post #51
SupremumLimit wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say the same thing except about 25-30 years ago and definitely not 15, which suggests to me that both of us suffer from observer bias and likely there’s always been a real mix of programmers who were really into it and others who were only after a job. Perhaps the proportion of uninterested programmers has increased though.

A lot of people heard there is money in programming so they did the bare minimum and landed a job. The managers who hired them were not complete idiots, mind you. They knew what they were getting but they are playing their own games: they need the bigger head-count, they want to hire their cousin to oversee these sub-par programmers, they want to be seen as professional when they inevitably have to ask for external c…

Having hired more than a few people, I'll suggest a much simpler reason. These programmers might just do the bare minimum, but that bare minimum is enough to accomplish the job we need them to do, and we can stop interviewing and get back to work.
Post reply on HN