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Software development is hard. The first few years out of uni as a software dev can be awesome (if you're lucky enough to land a decent job)... Fast forward 10 y

Software development is hard. The first few years out of uni as a software dev can be awesome (if you're lucky enough to land a decent job)... Fast forward 10 years and you will be mentally exhausted. If you were hard working, ambitious and curious, there is a point (for me it took about 12 years after I started programming) when you realize that you know pretty much everything that there is to know about software. Anything that you don't already know is just tedium. Being a software developer is tough, but then again, most jobs are. I do think that among the jobs that require advanced education, software engineering is definitely one of the toughest psychologically. Software engineering damages you psychologically. The best software engineers that I know are also the most cynical people I know - All atheists, nihilists and pessimists (and sometimes downright depressed). Being a software engineer can subject you to the full, ugly complexity of life.

ghurtado 10y ago
> I really do think that software engineering damages you emotionally and mentally. The best software engineers that I know also the most cynical people I know - All atheists, nihilists and pessimists. Although I don't disagree with your statement regarding emotional consequences, I would argue that these personality traits are just as likely to be a predictor of someone that ends up becoming a software developer, rather than a side effect of doing the job for a number of years. I can definitely speak for myself having been an atheist, nihilist and pessimist for quite a bit longer than I have been a software developer.
- jondubois 10y ago
  When I started, I was agnostic and an optimist; now I'm a pessimist athiest. Psychologically speaking, debugging forces you confront and correct flaws in your reasoning. If you do it 10 to 100 times a day for 10 years or more, I think that your reasoning skills become a lot sharper. I think you have a point though. Maybe it's more of a feedback cycle. Anyway, it's just a random thought.
wyager 10y ago
> you know pretty much everything that there is to know about software. This is an interesting claim. What do you mean by this?
- Pica_soO 10y ago
  You discover that there is rarely something new under the sun. Even the youngsters who want to show you your flaws to feel superior , they pop up like mushrooms if its the season.
  - wyager 10y ago
    > You discover that there is rarely something new under the sun. The only people I've heard say this are those who are ignorant enough of the actual state of the art to think they've seen everything out there. If the field still has people researching it academically, you haven't seen everything under the sun.
    - flukus 10y ago
      They qualified the statement with "rarely". And even if new stuff is being researched, it's very rare to be life changing for most developers. Instead we get yet another generic build tool or MVC framework. React actually reminds me of writing php/asp code more than a decade ago.
    - forgottenpass 10y ago
      It's not about having seen _everything_ out there, it's about having seen _enough_ to operate at the mental level of the categories they exist in. When you're just starting out, learning $foo when all you ever knew was $bar is radical change that upends the world. To the more experienced, learning about the existence of $foo is just another $whatsit with $properties and maybe $novel_feature.

ghurtado 10y ago

> I really do think that software engineering damages you emotionally and mentally. The best software engineers that I know also the most cynical people I know - All atheists, nihilists and pessimists. Although I don't disagree with your statement regarding emotional consequences, I would argue that these personality traits are just as likely to be a predictor of someone that ends up becoming a software developer, rather than a side effect of doing the job for a number of years. I can definitely speak for myself having been an atheist, nihilist and pessimist for quite a bit longer than I have been a software developer.

jondubois 10y ago
When I started, I was agnostic and an optimist; now I'm a pessimist athiest. Psychologically speaking, debugging forces you confront and correct flaws in your reasoning. If you do it 10 to 100 times a day for 10 years or more, I think that your reasoning skills become a lot sharper. I think you have a point though. Maybe it's more of a feedback cycle. Anyway, it's just a random thought.

wyager 10y ago

> you know pretty much everything that there is to know about software. This is an interesting claim. What do you mean by this?

Pica_soO 10y ago
You discover that there is rarely something new under the sun. Even the youngsters who want to show you your flaws to feel superior , they pop up like mushrooms if its the season.
- wyager 10y ago
  > You discover that there is rarely something new under the sun. The only people I've heard say this are those who are ignorant enough of the actual state of the art to think they've seen everything out there. If the field still has people researching it academically, you haven't seen everything under the sun.
  - flukus 10y ago
    They qualified the statement with "rarely". And even if new stuff is being researched, it's very rare to be life changing for most developers. Instead we get yet another generic build tool or MVC framework. React actually reminds me of writing php/asp code more than a decade ago.
  - forgottenpass 10y ago
    It's not about having seen _everything_ out there, it's about having seen _enough_ to operate at the mental level of the categories they exist in. When you're just starting out, learning $foo when all you ever knew was $bar is radical change that upends the world. To the more experienced, learning about the existence of $foo is just another $whatsit with $properties and maybe $novel_feature.