5 ms·

Good thing there are no real problems left to work on in this world or this would be a gross mis-allocation of macro resources. (No judgement on you OP this is

by Jedi72 7y ago

Good thing there are no real problems left to work on in this world or this would be a gross mis-allocation of macro resources. (No judgement on you OP this is the situation we're in)

mekkkkkk 7y ago
The whole point of all of these stories is funny/sad misallocations of resources. The "real problems" thing is a completely unrelated discussion. Not sure why you'd want to weave that in.
- airstrike 7y ago
  He's weaving it in because the parent called it "a success", which is only true from your individual perspective, but not from a societal one. And some people want more from what they're doing than just personal gratification.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Did he even get personal gratification, he got paid handsomely (by the sounds of it), but it didn't come across as him feeling fulfilled beyond that.
    - bshimmin 7y ago
      I can confirm that I both got paid handsomely (especially for the second phase of the project where we were on a retainer and literally did one day of work over the course of three months, barring a couple of phone calls) and that I felt very little satisfaction or gratification at the end of it, especially when the whole thing we had built was eventually rebuilt by a different offshoring company using a much clunkier technology stack without so much as a glance at our code. I stand by my original assessment that, from the perspective of both the client (everyone was happy with the end result) and my consultancy (we delivered work and we got paid), it was a success.
  - mekkkkkk 7y ago
    I think you might be overloading the word "success". A successful project doesn't necessarily imply anything beyond delivery of what was agreed upon.
  - asveikau 7y ago
    I agree that our definition of success should have a strong societal component. However, if you expect societal benefit from every action, including actions heavily dependent on something like the whim of a consulting client, you may be faced with a lot of anxiety when you inevitably fall short, anxiety which may ultimately hamper your later individual capability to achieve societal benefit.
clarry 7y ago
Ah but if someone paid for it, the problem must be exactly that valuable to them! And if it's valuable to someone, it must be a Real Problem!
- weka 7y ago
  When it comes down to it, we're not paid to code. We're paid to solve problems with code and if paying you $75/hr as a contractor to build me three webpages with CI/CD capabilities is it, then off you go.
  - pault 7y ago
    $75? That's about half of what I would charge myself, and an agency is going to be $300 minimum.
- azhenley 7y ago
  They needed this developer to help them understand what they needed. Every project I’ve worked on (even personal projects) has a fair amount of this.
  - Noumenon72 7y ago
    Yeah, if I paid a carpenter to build me a chair, then decided I wanted a stool, then ended up with a footrest, I would be really happy with him if he delivered all those things so I could try them and make up my mind. It could've been that the agents saw it and said "It's great but send me an email when they click the link", and then the development would have gone in that direction.
- soVeryTired 7y ago
  Out of interest, do you mean that seriously or are you parodying the sort of knee-jerk reply that an economist might produce?
  - wool_gather 7y ago
    Personally the capitalized "Real Problem" (along with my current mood) makes me lean towards sarcasm, but yeah, Poe's law...
vibrato 7y ago
This kind of misallocation is really the only thing keeping velocity of money high enough to sustain the economy
- chii 7y ago
  Or those losses the only thing preventing the creation of even greater things
  - vibrato 7y ago
    Well, of course. Problem is that, apparently, we're doing the best we can.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Could you expand that a little for us slowpokes? Aside, I assume you mean "to sustain the [USA] economy"? Perhaps you mean World economy, or EU, or ...?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- wool_gather 7y ago
  While I don't necessarily disagree with the conclusion, I think it's worth questioning the unspoken premise here: Is there no other way to support human life than these accelerating grinding gears of money-shuffling?

by Jedi72 7y ago

Good thing there are no real problems left to work on in this world or this would be a gross mis-allocation of macro resources. (No judgement on you OP this is the situation we're in)

mekkkkkk 7y ago

The whole point of all of these stories is funny/sad misallocations of resources. The "real problems" thing is a completely unrelated discussion. Not sure why you'd want to weave that in.

airstrike 7y ago
He's weaving it in because the parent called it "a success", which is only true from your individual perspective, but not from a societal one. And some people want more from what they're doing than just personal gratification.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Did he even get personal gratification, he got paid handsomely (by the sounds of it), but it didn't come across as him feeling fulfilled beyond that.
  - bshimmin 7y ago
    I can confirm that I both got paid handsomely (especially for the second phase of the project where we were on a retainer and literally did one day of work over the course of three months, barring a couple of phone calls) and that I felt very little satisfaction or gratification at the end of it, especially when the whole thing we had built was eventually rebuilt by a different offshoring company using a much clunkier technology stack without so much as a glance at our code. I stand by my original assessment that, from the perspective of both the client (everyone was happy with the end result) and my consultancy (we delivered work and we got paid), it was a success.
- mekkkkkk 7y ago
  I think you might be overloading the word "success". A successful project doesn't necessarily imply anything beyond delivery of what was agreed upon.
- asveikau 7y ago
  I agree that our definition of success should have a strong societal component. However, if you expect societal benefit from every action, including actions heavily dependent on something like the whim of a consulting client, you may be faced with a lot of anxiety when you inevitably fall short, anxiety which may ultimately hamper your later individual capability to achieve societal benefit.

clarry 7y ago

Ah but if someone paid for it, the problem must be exactly that valuable to them! And if it's valuable to someone, it must be a Real Problem!

weka 7y ago
When it comes down to it, we're not paid to code. We're paid to solve problems with code and if paying you $75/hr as a contractor to build me three webpages with CI/CD capabilities is it, then off you go.
- pault 7y ago
  $75? That's about half of what I would charge myself, and an agency is going to be $300 minimum.
azhenley 7y ago
They needed this developer to help them understand what they needed. Every project I’ve worked on (even personal projects) has a fair amount of this.
- Noumenon72 7y ago
  Yeah, if I paid a carpenter to build me a chair, then decided I wanted a stool, then ended up with a footrest, I would be really happy with him if he delivered all those things so I could try them and make up my mind. It could've been that the agents saw it and said "It's great but send me an email when they click the link", and then the development would have gone in that direction.
soVeryTired 7y ago
Out of interest, do you mean that seriously or are you parodying the sort of knee-jerk reply that an economist might produce?
- wool_gather 7y ago
  Personally the capitalized "Real Problem" (along with my current mood) makes me lean towards sarcasm, but yeah, Poe's law...

vibrato 7y ago

This kind of misallocation is really the only thing keeping velocity of money high enough to sustain the economy

chii 7y ago
Or those losses the only thing preventing the creation of even greater things
- vibrato 7y ago
  Well, of course. Problem is that, apparently, we're doing the best we can.
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Could you expand that a little for us slowpokes? Aside, I assume you mean "to sustain the [USA] economy"? Perhaps you mean World economy, or EU, or ...?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
wool_gather 7y ago
While I don't necessarily disagree with the conclusion, I think it's worth questioning the unspoken premise here: Is there no other way to support human life than these accelerating grinding gears of money-shuffling?