Oh I know EXACTLY how you feel. I also happen to agree a lot with what you say. I do also think things have got worse. There was a time when with a copy of Tur

Oh I know EXACTLY how you feel. I also happen to agree a lot with what you say. I do also think things have got worse. There was a time when with a copy of TurboBasic, a list of BIOS and DOS interrupts, you could do ANYTHING. I once wrote a complete oil rig data acquisition system in TurboBasic with nothing more than a copy of Peter Norton's guide to the IBM PC and the F1 key. And it was fun. But then software became a real thing and lots of money was at stake and everything became so much more bloated and so much more complex, and less fun too. I remember the software company I worked for, some years ago now, had a "charity in the community day" when we went out and chopped down invasive trees and burned them, and in five years working there it was the best day I'd had. I went home sunburnt and physically tired, but mentally fired up and happy. Once I gave an impromptu English class in a primary school in Thailand back in 2003 where a friend was a teacher, and it was one of the most unforgettable experiences I've ever had. I envied my friend who'd escaped the stale grey corporate world and was living under blue skies and surrounded by happy children day after day. I once asked him if he'd ever go back to his old life. He told me he'd only go back there in a box. I still code, and sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it's not, but I try to have long breaks between coding, and working, and just do other things.