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There's nothing wrong with working for the money, nearly everyone is actually just working for the money unless they're independently wealthy and working for no

There's nothing wrong with working for the money, nearly everyone is actually just working for the money unless they're independently wealthy and working for no salary. The difference is this: some people use "I'm just working for the money" as an excuse for apathy and doing just enough not to be fired. It doesn't have to be that way, if you reframe your personal mission to do as well as you can at the things that are within your control you'll likely find that the quality of your work and job satisfaction goes up. If I kept my satisfaction based on my employer's goals I'd still be making 1/10 of what I make today working on a system that is just now getting upgraded to Java 7 and would know nothing about anything else.

taway_1212 10y ago
The problem is that programming work nowadays is structured in a way that prohibits developing any kind of intrinsic goals or motivation. People like us (HN folks) thrive on autonomy and mastery, while we work on tiny and closely monitored "stories" in garbage codebases.
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  There is a simple beauty to finding the best solution you can given the constraints of the system, and often that's the garbage pile that is the old codebase. The simple truth is that for every greenfield project we get in life, there's probably 30 brownfield projects. A lot of big enterprise developers may never once see a greenfield project. I sure didn't when I was on a product team. If you want new you may find agency life fun. The downside is that if you love building new and are proud to watch things evolve gracefully you'll feel frustrated that you never get time to 'finish' the code. Also it's fucking chaos 24/7. I loved it. It will destroy you if you can't manage the always under the gun feeling though.
shoo 10y ago
> [...] reframe your personal mission to do as well as you can at the things that are within your control [...] this is one of the pieces of life advice from stoic philosphy. (i just finished reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine, and recommend it)

taway_1212 10y ago

The problem is that programming work nowadays is structured in a way that prohibits developing any kind of intrinsic goals or motivation. People like us (HN folks) thrive on autonomy and mastery, while we work on tiny and closely monitored "stories" in garbage codebases.

manyxcxi 10y ago
There is a simple beauty to finding the best solution you can given the constraints of the system, and often that's the garbage pile that is the old codebase. The simple truth is that for every greenfield project we get in life, there's probably 30 brownfield projects. A lot of big enterprise developers may never once see a greenfield project. I sure didn't when I was on a product team. If you want new you may find agency life fun. The downside is that if you love building new and are proud to watch things evolve gracefully you'll feel frustrated that you never get time to 'finish' the code. Also it's fucking chaos 24/7. I loved it. It will destroy you if you can't manage the always under the gun feeling though.

shoo 10y ago

> [...] reframe your personal mission to do as well as you can at the things that are within your control [...] this is one of the pieces of life advice from stoic philosphy. (i just finished reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine, and recommend it)