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That may be a bad analogy, considering painting your own apartment is something a great deal of people do, and often with good success. My parents (not in any

That may be a bad analogy, considering painting your own apartment is something a great deal of people do, and often with good success. My parents (not in any way experts on that field) painted their entire house themselves, except for two rooms that were painted by a professional painter, and the professional painter left much worse corners than my parents. This was the paid-for result (ignore the dark corner at the bottom, that’s caused by the flash): https://i.imgur.com/s1VHV2W.jpg https://i.imgur.com/s1VHV2W.jpg

misio 9y ago
Analogies don't always have to apply to your parents.
- kuschku 9y ago
  My argument is that painting is a much smaller skill difference between a hobbyist and a mediocre professional. Actually good software engineering is a much larger skill difference.
  - warrenm 9y ago
    >much smaller skill difference between a hobbyist and a mediocre professional. >Actually good software engineering is a much larger skill difference. Based on my years across various companies, the difference between "hobbyist" and "mediocre professional" developer/programmer is close to nil
vanderZwan 9y ago
Aside from the "sample size of one"-issue: how much time did your parents take, and how much effort and preparation time, and how did that compare to the time and effort the professional needed? It could be a trade-off issue there. Also, note that this thread started with a comment about how many developers don't appreciate what the actual hard problems in their own line of work are, and how that produces poor results because of that. I expect that to be true of any profession that doesn't have some kind of rigorously enforced standard.
- nostrademons 9y ago
  My family painted about half our house ourselves when I was about a pre-teen. My mom just hired a painter to paint her new house. The painter didn't take an appreciably shorter time period than a couple pre-teens did. IIRC, it took us about a week for about 800 square feet worth, and it took the professional 3 weeks for 2400 square feet. And yeah, we did the whole masking-tape, dropcloth, and primer routine as well, and our corners were just as good. (I was gonna say we probably took more cajoling, but given the number of times my mom had to call the painter to make sure he showed up and would have it all done by move-in, I'm not sure that's true.) Painting isn't a profession with a particularly high return on experience. You hire a painter for comparative-advantage reasons. It may take him just as long as it takes you, and several thousand dollars more, but chances are you can make more than several thousand dollars in the time you would've spent painting your house. (If you can't, you may want to re-think hiring a professional, and instead go into business as a painter yourself...)
  - ensignavenger 9y ago
    When you weigh hiring a professional versus DIY, you have to consider the impact of income taxes, not just what you earn/hr versus pay/hr. You have to pay the pro with post-taxed earnings, and then the pro has to pay tax on what you pay them before they can do anything with it. Whereas, if you DIY, you aren't taxed for it. (Also, many people can't just 'work ore hours' to get paid more).
pixl97 9y ago
Have your parents start painting houses every day aND youll find they get far worse at it.

misio 9y ago

Analogies don't always have to apply to your parents.

kuschku 9y ago
My argument is that painting is a much smaller skill difference between a hobbyist and a mediocre professional. Actually good software engineering is a much larger skill difference.
- warrenm 9y ago
  >much smaller skill difference between a hobbyist and a mediocre professional. >Actually good software engineering is a much larger skill difference. Based on my years across various companies, the difference between "hobbyist" and "mediocre professional" developer/programmer is close to nil

vanderZwan 9y ago

Aside from the "sample size of one"-issue: how much time did your parents take, and how much effort and preparation time, and how did that compare to the time and effort the professional needed? It could be a trade-off issue there. Also, note that this thread started with a comment about how many developers don't appreciate what the actual hard problems in their own line of work are, and how that produces poor results because of that. I expect that to be true of any profession that doesn't have some kind of rigorously enforced standard.

nostrademons 9y ago
My family painted about half our house ourselves when I was about a pre-teen. My mom just hired a painter to paint her new house. The painter didn't take an appreciably shorter time period than a couple pre-teens did. IIRC, it took us about a week for about 800 square feet worth, and it took the professional 3 weeks for 2400 square feet. And yeah, we did the whole masking-tape, dropcloth, and primer routine as well, and our corners were just as good. (I was gonna say we probably took more cajoling, but given the number of times my mom had to call the painter to make sure he showed up and would have it all done by move-in, I'm not sure that's true.) Painting isn't a profession with a particularly high return on experience. You hire a painter for comparative-advantage reasons. It may take him just as long as it takes you, and several thousand dollars more, but chances are you can make more than several thousand dollars in the time you would've spent painting your house. (If you can't, you may want to re-think hiring a professional, and instead go into business as a painter yourself...)
- ensignavenger 9y ago
  When you weigh hiring a professional versus DIY, you have to consider the impact of income taxes, not just what you earn/hr versus pay/hr. You have to pay the pro with post-taxed earnings, and then the pro has to pay tax on what you pay them before they can do anything with it. Whereas, if you DIY, you aren't taxed for it. (Also, many people can't just 'work ore hours' to get paid more).

pixl97 9y ago

Have your parents start painting houses every day aND youll find they get far worse at it.