Programming is a losers game

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[–][deleted]  (6 children)

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    [–]flugegeheimen 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

    That's why I vowed to never go into programming as a career — I don't want my art to be muddied by money, and I don't want a boss over my head.

    I don't understand this logic. How exactly programming as a career is incompatible with amateur (hobby) programming? Do you think they force you to stay at work non-stop 24/7 at IT companies? Or do you think professional programmers give some kind of oath pledging to avoid any kind of coding related activities in their free time?

    [–]asterias 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    Do you think they force you to stay at work non-stop 24/7 at IT companies?

    It depends, because in some places this is exactly what happens.

    [–]flugegeheimen 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    It depends, because in some places this is exactly what happens.

    Okay, I'm calling 911.

    [–]Pis-dur 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    After 8 hours of working I don't really have mental power for coding and stretching my brain. I would love to code after work but family, kids, sport (stationary work is devastating for your health) and other things also need my time.

    [–]lawuigi 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Same here, I would love to work on side projects when I get home but usually hit a wall of apathy.

    Professional programming is definitely a losers game nowadays. Your boss or company ask what it takes to do something, you layout a design and timeline then convert it to cost of equipment and labor and present it. Then you get back an arbitrary cost reduction of 20% based on nothing but accountants and managers saying, "hey wouldn't it be cooler if we could pocket the difference ourselves? I mean all they have to do is type faster." You try to reduce the requirements and get pushback. So you try your best but then your team gets to the point where you have to pull out the duct tape and use half a roll just to get the damn thing done in time. You 'finish' and push to production and fast forward a month the duct tape gives out and you point out the cut corners and beg for time to fix. Nope. Try to 'fix' it with 0 money and 0 hours... somehow. And it's 3 am so you and your coworker look at the other half of that duct tape roll and give each other a solemn nod of 'it's not the solution we need, but it's the solution we deserve' and start taping it back up. You finally get home and try to sleep and dream of code that actually works.