>No, you're not a good programmer because there's no challenge any more. You're a bad programmer because you've lost sight of the context of your work. I think

>No, you're not a good programmer because there's no challenge any more. You're a bad programmer because you've lost sight of the context of your work. I think you're being more than a little naive here. A very large portion of the software work that actually pays is, on a personal level, total BS. It's about helping a business do something boring in a much more efficient way than ever before. Or providing a service electronically that used to be done via snail mail. Or providing a way for bored people to make their commute bearable. You can try and dismiss this as "turd polishing" but the reality is that if it was easy anyone would be doing it. I'm never going to be passionate about the product my company makes, but I still have the self respect to not produce terrible code that burdens my coworkers (and ultimately the customers). In short: it isn't all about robots, spaceships and self-driving cars and stuff for most programmers. But we still gotta get to work.