3 ms·
Well said, though one small difference is that no one will call you at 2AM to work on their car / wait on another table / etc. Dev work is potentially stressful
by blacksmith_tb 10y ago
Well said, though one small difference is that no one will call you at 2AM to work on their car / wait on another table / etc. Dev work is potentially stressful in ways most jobs aren't, which isn't to say that it isn't also very well compensated, too. Personally I'm content to like what I do without having that rise to the level of passion - and I don't realistically expect more from my mail carrier, my mechanic, my waiter, or really even my doctor. I don't want them to hate what they do, but I don't have any illusions about them loving it so much they'd do even more of it if they only could. It's work.
- SomeCallMeTim 10y agoPeople will call you at 2AM if you're a plumber. Or a doctor. Or a dentist. Or a locksmith. And sometimes you'll get stuck waiting tables on XMas because the restaurant you work for requires it. Yes, it varies by job. But 2AM calls are hardly unique to programming. FWIW I really do want a doctor that's passionate about medicine, for the same reason that I want my lead developer to be passionate: If it's "just a job" they may not be following current best practices, which do change rather rapidly. To be honest, I think the "GP" doctor's days are numbered. A registered nurse with a really good AI medical reference would likely to a better job than the 80th percentile of doctors, maybe even match the 99th percentile. There's too much information that isn't in any doctor's head, and a GP is basically a human expert system. A really good AI expert system would do a better job, and a solid nurse following the directions could handle the human part of the interaction.