4 ms·

> Coding is a calling. It might be for some, but for many I suspect it is a job. An interesting job, but a job nevertheless. Elevating what is essentially an e

> Coding is a calling. It might be for some, but for many I suspect it is a job. An interesting job, but a job nevertheless. Elevating what is essentially an economic activity to the level of a "calling" seems strange to me. I've been developing software professionally for over 25 years. I think I'm reasonably good at it, although I'm no rockstar dev. I enjoy working with software and it scratches an intellectual itch, but I wouldn't say it makes me happy and I certainly don't see it as something I'm "called" to. I don't see this as an obstacle and I hope there continues to be plenty of room for people like me.

Clubber 8y ago
>Elevating what is essentially an economic activity to the level of a "calling" seems strange to me. I'm not quite the OPs age, but I'm in his orbit. When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive, at least for me. It was something we just loved doing, like drawing or writing music, or writing stories. We just got lucky that it ended up being lucrative. That's what he means by being a calling. In fact, in college, I seriously considered not doing coding as a profession because I liked it so much as a hobby. I believed if I had to do it for a job, I would fall out of love with it. Fortunately I ignored those concerns and have been coding professionally since the late 90s.
- mikestew 8y ago
  When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive, at least for me. Folks have been making an upper-middle class living writing code since at least the late 70s (when my Mom started). There has always been an economic incentive. Now maybe no one was paying your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code for that game idea you had, but if one had a BS in CS there were plenty of companies willing to pay you generously for your time.
  - Clubber 8y ago
    >your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code Lol. JS didn't exist when I was 16, but way to miss the point! Ask your mom how many people knew anything about the computers in the 70s and 80s. It was a very small group of mainly ostracized kids. They certainly weren't doing it to get rich.
    - mikestew 8y ago
      Lol. JS didn't exist when I was 16 Which is why I used it as an example. No need to get personal. Ask your mom how many people knew anything about the computers in the 70s and 80s. Don't have to ask, I was there. And the number is irrelevant. Point is, you said there was "zero economic incentive". I'm saying there was plenty of incentive. Perhaps that wasn't your incentive, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist. Because it existed for others, and given that it was their primary incentive, they didn't always enjoy their jobs very much.
      - Clubber 8y ago
        >No need to get personal. Eh, if you don't want backlash, maybe you shouldn't throw out things like this: "your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code" >you said there was "zero economic incentive" I said, "there was zero economic incentive, at least for me." If you're going to be pedantic, at least read what I wrote.
        mikestew 8y ago
        Eh, if you don't want backlash, maybe you shouldn't throw out things like this: "your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code" You're just bound and determined to take offense, eh? Let me rephrase: "no need to make it personally about you, Clubber". If you're going to be pedantic, at least read what I wrote. I read just fine: "When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive..."
        Clubber 8y ago
        Mike, if you are going to talk shit, at least own it; don't backpedal. >I read just fine: "When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive..." Lol. "You didn't build that..."
    - MisterOctober 8y ago
      My dad-in-law has a CS degree that be got in like 1968, and there were a lot of folks in the field at that time according to him. He got started in FORTRAN and COBOL -- he was not a hipster nerd by any stretch of the imagination, just a regular nine-to-five dude. I get the impression from him that largely, in the pre-RMS era anyway, regular programmers were just like any other type of engineerish folk

Clubber 8y ago

>Elevating what is essentially an economic activity to the level of a "calling" seems strange to me. I'm not quite the OPs age, but I'm in his orbit. When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive, at least for me. It was something we just loved doing, like drawing or writing music, or writing stories. We just got lucky that it ended up being lucrative. That's what he means by being a calling. In fact, in college, I seriously considered not doing coding as a profession because I liked it so much as a hobby. I believed if I had to do it for a job, I would fall out of love with it. Fortunately I ignored those concerns and have been coding professionally since the late 90s.

mikestew 8y ago
When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive, at least for me. Folks have been making an upper-middle class living writing code since at least the late 70s (when my Mom started). There has always been an economic incentive. Now maybe no one was paying your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code for that game idea you had, but if one had a BS in CS there were plenty of companies willing to pay you generously for your time.
- Clubber 8y ago
  >your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code Lol. JS didn't exist when I was 16, but way to miss the point! Ask your mom how many people knew anything about the computers in the 70s and 80s. It was a very small group of mainly ostracized kids. They certainly weren't doing it to get rich.
  - mikestew 8y ago
    Lol. JS didn't exist when I was 16 Which is why I used it as an example. No need to get personal. Ask your mom how many people knew anything about the computers in the 70s and 80s. Don't have to ask, I was there. And the number is irrelevant. Point is, you said there was "zero economic incentive". I'm saying there was plenty of incentive. Perhaps that wasn't your incentive, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist. Because it existed for others, and given that it was their primary incentive, they didn't always enjoy their jobs very much.
    - Clubber 8y ago
      >No need to get personal. Eh, if you don't want backlash, maybe you shouldn't throw out things like this: "your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code" >you said there was "zero economic incentive" I said, "there was zero economic incentive, at least for me." If you're going to be pedantic, at least read what I wrote.
      - mikestew 8y ago
        Eh, if you don't want backlash, maybe you shouldn't throw out things like this: "your sixteen year old self to write shitty JS code" You're just bound and determined to take offense, eh? Let me rephrase: "no need to make it personally about you, Clubber". If you're going to be pedantic, at least read what I wrote. I read just fine: "When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive..."
        Clubber 8y ago
        Mike, if you are going to talk shit, at least own it; don't backpedal. >I read just fine: "When people like us started doing it, there was zero economic incentive..." Lol. "You didn't build that..."
  - MisterOctober 8y ago
    My dad-in-law has a CS degree that be got in like 1968, and there were a lot of folks in the field at that time according to him. He got started in FORTRAN and COBOL -- he was not a hipster nerd by any stretch of the imagination, just a regular nine-to-five dude. I get the impression from him that largely, in the pre-RMS era anyway, regular programmers were just like any other type of engineerish folk