4 ms·

Here is a man thoroughly enjoying his work. I envy him, he just keeps on coding while I feel myself floating away to management.

by neals 11y ago

GuiA 11y ago
A good manager enables happy programmers. We always need more good managers in the world; there is nothing shameful about choosing to head into management. Source: am a programmer, not a manager, but am lucky to currently be experiencing an amazing programmer-turned-manager after years of awful managers.
- pcote 11y ago
  "Choosing" is the keyword tricky phrase here. At my last job interview, the "what do you plan on doing 5 years from now?" question came up. After talking up things that interested me that could fill 5 years of time, he asked me about management aspirations. I confessed that I had no personal interest. He followed with something about how he wished it was "realistic" for himself to stay in non-managerial roles. Apparently, there are a lot of programmers out there that feel some kind of pressure to move into management at some point if they want to stay in the I.T. game.
  - pjmlp 11y ago
    Yes, even socially. Maybe some fellow countryman would speak otherwise, but in Portugal if after 40 you are not a manager of some sort, it is like you failed at it. It is also hard to avoid such situations when quite a few companies use senior developer, technical lead or technical architect as synonyms for team manager. So you only discovered what you really applied to, after being inside. After a certain age if you want to stay in development it is like dodging bullets.
Ocerge 11y ago
I feel exactly the same way. I used to enjoy programming in college, but now it's slowly turning in to an endless grind of new projects. Finish one, in comes another. I don't know if it's just me or my company, but I am definitely burned out and wouldn't mind some people managing for once. But then again, Carmack is an incredible man and engineer; I wouldn't be shocked if he's never burned out in his life.
- rifung 11y ago
  To be fair I don't think it's fair to compare yourself to him in terms of being burned out. I'm sure he's wealthy and famous enough to get to work on whatever he wants to, whereas most people have to work for a living. I imagine if you got to program anything you wanted and only when you wanted, you wouldn't feel as burned out either. Carmack is definitely awesome, but I really don't think his awesomeness is what stops him from getting burned out, and more importantly I seriously doubt your getting burned out implies your lack of awesomeness.
  - Ocerge 11y ago
    Fair enough. Now that you mention it, if I got to work on whatever I wanted, I absolutely would be happy. Just gotta make time after work to reacquaint myself with projects that I find interesting :)
  - whitegrape 11y ago
    You don't need wealth and fame to work on what you want. John Carmack started out with neither but he's always had one thing to go along with his above average smarts and focus/productivity: an unwillingness to compromise on what matters. There were plenty of times in his early career where he challenged management and won (because management realized how valuable he was) but he was fully prepared to take the loss. Better to work as a pizza cook while furiously coding interesting graphics problems and games at night than bow to management's demands to patent something like side-scrolling technology on a PC. If you don't think it's some dimension of his awesomeness that keeps him from getting burned out, what do you think it is? The environment of getting to work on what he wants? Lots of people have that but still burn out, that can't be the only thing. Edit: I do agree with your underlying idea though that you don't need to be as awesome as Carmack to get the same benefits in terms of being highly productive without burning out. Your output will be scaled down accordingly to how much less awesome you are than he is, but it should be possible, even if very difficult, to transform oneself into a focused, disciplined, productive, and happy worker, even if it's very mysterious and individual-specific how to actually do that.
    - 11y ago

Here is a man thoroughly enjoying his work. I envy him, he just keeps on coding while I feel myself floating away to management.

by neals 11y ago

Here is a man thoroughly enjoying his work. I envy him, he just keeps on coding while I feel myself floating away to management.

GuiA 11y ago

A good manager enables happy programmers. We always need more good managers in the world; there is nothing shameful about choosing to head into management. Source: am a programmer, not a manager, but am lucky to currently be experiencing an amazing programmer-turned-manager after years of awful managers.

pcote 11y ago
"Choosing" is the keyword tricky phrase here. At my last job interview, the "what do you plan on doing 5 years from now?" question came up. After talking up things that interested me that could fill 5 years of time, he asked me about management aspirations. I confessed that I had no personal interest. He followed with something about how he wished it was "realistic" for himself to stay in non-managerial roles. Apparently, there are a lot of programmers out there that feel some kind of pressure to move into management at some point if they want to stay in the I.T. game.
- pjmlp 11y ago
  Yes, even socially. Maybe some fellow countryman would speak otherwise, but in Portugal if after 40 you are not a manager of some sort, it is like you failed at it. It is also hard to avoid such situations when quite a few companies use senior developer, technical lead or technical architect as synonyms for team manager. So you only discovered what you really applied to, after being inside. After a certain age if you want to stay in development it is like dodging bullets.

Ocerge 11y ago

I feel exactly the same way. I used to enjoy programming in college, but now it's slowly turning in to an endless grind of new projects. Finish one, in comes another. I don't know if it's just me or my company, but I am definitely burned out and wouldn't mind some people managing for once. But then again, Carmack is an incredible man and engineer; I wouldn't be shocked if he's never burned out in his life.

rifung 11y ago
To be fair I don't think it's fair to compare yourself to him in terms of being burned out. I'm sure he's wealthy and famous enough to get to work on whatever he wants to, whereas most people have to work for a living. I imagine if you got to program anything you wanted and only when you wanted, you wouldn't feel as burned out either. Carmack is definitely awesome, but I really don't think his awesomeness is what stops him from getting burned out, and more importantly I seriously doubt your getting burned out implies your lack of awesomeness.
- Ocerge 11y ago
  Fair enough. Now that you mention it, if I got to work on whatever I wanted, I absolutely would be happy. Just gotta make time after work to reacquaint myself with projects that I find interesting :)
- whitegrape 11y ago
  You don't need wealth and fame to work on what you want. John Carmack started out with neither but he's always had one thing to go along with his above average smarts and focus/productivity: an unwillingness to compromise on what matters. There were plenty of times in his early career where he challenged management and won (because management realized how valuable he was) but he was fully prepared to take the loss. Better to work as a pizza cook while furiously coding interesting graphics problems and games at night than bow to management's demands to patent something like side-scrolling technology on a PC. If you don't think it's some dimension of his awesomeness that keeps him from getting burned out, what do you think it is? The environment of getting to work on what he wants? Lots of people have that but still burn out, that can't be the only thing. Edit: I do agree with your underlying idea though that you don't need to be as awesome as Carmack to get the same benefits in terms of being highly productive without burning out. Your output will be scaled down accordingly to how much less awesome you are than he is, but it should be possible, even if very difficult, to transform oneself into a focused, disciplined, productive, and happy worker, even if it's very mysterious and individual-specific how to actually do that.
  - 11y ago