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

25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

dev.to

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 213 posts

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#91

Post by salmanarshad321 »

setpatchaddress wrote: post #85
jonnycoder wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interpret it the opposite from you. Sure you probably won’t make a lucrative living restoring an old car but over time the value will go up. The lesson is more about putting in work that builds value, self actualization and doing something gratifying. I do this with land/property. Sure I could hire a dozer operator to clear it all but the time I’ve spent manually as well as renting a mini excavator for a small pric…

Unless the car is a very rare make / model, you will nearly always lose money on it. You won’t suddenly discover a rare carbuerator buried in there that, with some elbow grease, add $50k of value to the car. I realize this is missing the point, but this is why one should pick metaphors carefully.

Can't speak for other places but in my city many have made a business out of doing this. They buy and soup up old cars. There's a trust factor because they've been in the business for more than a decade. Also, they have a reputation for selling at comparatively higher prices -- and they don't seem to be running out of business.

https://m.indiamart.com/yash-car-bazar/

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#92

Post by hu3 »

BucketSort wrote: post #88
ilovecaching wrote: post #58

What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish. Programming is my selfish pleasure; I love it therefore I do it. Just remember, we are a tiny, insignificant speck in the history of our own planet, let alone the universe. If you truly believe you can improve people's lives with code, go do that. But don't make it about proving yourself to other people, or creating a la…

It's a way of coping with our limited lifespan. The thought of leaving something behind gives people a sense of comfort that they may live on in some capacity when they pass. The truth is, even if you do something impactful, future generations will often take it for granted or overturn your work in making progress. No one escapes the bleak nature of our existence. No one.

Pythagoras would like to have a word with you.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#93

Post by salmanarshad321 »

fyfy18 wrote: post #90
news_hacker wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with being comfortable though? Why should one be dissatisfied with being satisfied? Is satisfaction ever OK? And if so, when? When can you know for sure that you've actualized your full potential? Is it even something that's knowable? This seems overly omniscient to me. I see this fearful, regret-filled ethos driving a lot of my peers and the western culture at large and I worry about the mindset it inst…

There is nothing wrong with having comfort, but if you seek to grow and fulfil your potential (either in career, as a person, spiritually, etc), comfort is a trap you can easily get stuck in. Maybe you have a good job, but feel like your career isn't going anywhere, but rather than switching to a different role you stay where you are because you like it there. That's comfort. Plus a lot of people over think what comf…

Walter Isaacson mentions in the biography that Steve had trouble finding the most suitable furniture since he was a perfectionist.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#94

Post by avip »

steve_taylor wrote: post #17
orev wrote: post #3

What every salary-person has to show for it: a life lived; bills paid; food on the table; health; a roof over your head; a body not ravaged and damaged by hard labor; the ability to relax and have some entertainment in the evening; a place to sleep; comfort; relative stability; the ability to make a living using mostly just your brain. Yes, perspective is important, and I’m not saying one should not strive to make mo…

You forgot to mention millions of dollars of value created for other people.

Or burnt.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#95

Post by listen_er »

tluyben2 wrote: post #64
ilovecaching wrote: post #58

What is this obsessions with leaving something behind, or doing something noteworthy? Be selfish. Programming is my selfish pleasure; I love it therefore I do it. Just remember, we are a tiny, insignificant speck in the history of our own planet, let alone the universe. If you truly believe you can improve people's lives with code, go do that. But don't make it about proving yourself to other people, or creating a la…

For me it's not ego, well not primarily I like to think. I find, after programming for 30 years now, that programming is deeply flawed and that it is basically a huge disaster waiting to happen (in many cases it's happening already). I want to try to at least progress the field a little bit further so it's not this bad anymore.

I would love to hear more about why you believe programming is deeply flawed.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#96

Post by pandler »

hu3 wrote: post #92
BucketSort wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a way of coping with our limited lifespan. The thought of leaving something behind gives people a sense of comfort that they may live on in some capacity when they pass. The truth is, even if you do something impactful, future generations will often take it for granted or overturn your work in making progress. No one escapes the bleak nature of our existence. No one.

Pythagoras would like to have a word with you.

Maybe that’s exactly the issue. Statistically no one will leave behind such a legacy as Pythagoras, but we judge ourselves by the success of those who have anyway.

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#98

Post by vardump »

readingnews wrote: post #5

No offense, but you claim you have been "officially coding for 25 years now". You state you are 36. Were you really, officially doing anything at 11 years of age. What does that mean? I was a solder tech at 13 years old. I NEVER throw that out there in any blog or write up, even though I was _literally_ getting a paycheck from a company. Does that make me an official solder tech? Hell no. When people ask how much exp…

When I was 11, I was writing 6510 machine language. Within a year after, 68000. Of course I started all this when I was merely 9.

To this day I've been able to use my knowledge about low level hardware features from those days, like IRQs, timers, DMA and such. So why wouldn't it count?

Re: 25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning

#100

Post by DanielBMarkham »

My father-in-law is a carpenter. When we talk about work, he talks about things we can drive around and see: porches, houses, parts of big buildings, housing projects. I have nothing to point to that would mean much of anything to him. At least I didn't up until the last ten years or so.

I used to focus on the code. People wanted stuff and the code had to be "correct" so that they could get what they wanted. I found "correct" to be endlessly complicated, but heck, that was part of the fun of it.

Then I focused on the people. How am I interacting with the people I'm trying to help such that I have a better idea of what "correct" means? I found that people don't know what they want, they don't know how their desires might change, and even if they did they are incapable of describing that to me in a way that would provide significant architectural guidance.

Finally, I balanced them. I created a definition of good code. Good code is code that does something for people that they value that I can walk away from and never touch again If the code doesn't do anything valuable or I can't walk away from it, it's not good code.

This made me realize that as much as I knew about people and programming, I suck at good code. I get wrapped up in the people part, not figuring out value or being able to scope it well. I get wrapped up in the coding part, building out things that I'll only need in my imagination.

It made me feel a little better to see that so many other developers suck at my definition of good code also, but it was a terrible blow. Humbling.

I'm happy I made the change. I don't feel the way I used to a decade or two ago. My journey is not this author's journey, but I feel the pain he expressed in his essay, and because of that pain I began mine. Best of luck.

Post reply on HN