5 ms·

Because there are hard problems to solve. I'm into computer science not capitalism.

by elif 7y ago

scarface74 7y ago
I bet the company you work for is “into capitalism”.
- elif 7y ago
  You don't know anything about my particular situation, and happen to be very wrong. But assuming the role of your rhetorical me, there are thousands more companies just like "mine". they all provide paychecks.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    And how do those companies earn money to give you a paycheck?
    - elif 7y ago
      Most of these paychecks come from unprofitable companies. I'm not sure what point you are wanting me to walk into. Are we still talking about programmer management strategy?
      - scarface74 7y ago
        And whether they are “unprofitable” or not doesn’t mean they don’t either seek to become profitable or get bought out - ie your livelihood is still based on capitalism.
comicjk 7y ago
Pet peeve of mine: solving practical problems often involves capitalism in our system, but that doesn't mean practicality is capitalism. If you're writing ad code, you're working on capitalism only. If you're writing railway logistics code, you're doing practical work that any society needs, capitalist or not. And yes, this might involve understanding customers (or as a different system might call them, "people"). The important question would be "is this work useful," not "does this work involve capitalism."
- scarface74 7y ago
  Speaking of railway logistics. Railroad car repair billing is esoteric and complicated. I wrote software dealing with this at one job. https://www.railinc.com/rportal/documents/18/260737/CRB_ProceduresManual.pdf https://www.railinc.com/rportal/documents/18/260737/CRB_Proc...
lexicality 7y ago
Do you not consider finding out what the person asking for things actually wants to be a hard problem to solve? I live to build things and continuously fend off attempts to slide me into management, but I find actually programming things to be only half the part of the puzzle. Humans are extremely bad at articulating what they want and will generally tell you the wrong thing up front because they haven't thought it through fully. A day spent with a stakeholder carefully picking their brains and properly crafting a plan can be just as satisfying as a day of straight coding - sometimes more so. (tbh this is probably also why I find UX work so interesting - getting a user to click on a button is considerably harder than making the button in the first place)

Because there are hard problems to solve. I'm into computer science not capitalism.

by elif 7y ago

Because there are hard problems to solve. I'm into computer science not capitalism.

scarface74 7y ago

I bet the company you work for is “into capitalism”.

elif 7y ago
You don't know anything about my particular situation, and happen to be very wrong. But assuming the role of your rhetorical me, there are thousands more companies just like "mine". they all provide paychecks.
- scarface74 7y ago
  And how do those companies earn money to give you a paycheck?
  - elif 7y ago
    Most of these paychecks come from unprofitable companies. I'm not sure what point you are wanting me to walk into. Are we still talking about programmer management strategy?
    - scarface74 7y ago
      And whether they are “unprofitable” or not doesn’t mean they don’t either seek to become profitable or get bought out - ie your livelihood is still based on capitalism.

comicjk 7y ago

Pet peeve of mine: solving practical problems often involves capitalism in our system, but that doesn't mean practicality is capitalism. If you're writing ad code, you're working on capitalism only. If you're writing railway logistics code, you're doing practical work that any society needs, capitalist or not. And yes, this might involve understanding customers (or as a different system might call them, "people"). The important question would be "is this work useful," not "does this work involve capitalism."

scarface74 7y ago
Speaking of railway logistics. Railroad car repair billing is esoteric and complicated. I wrote software dealing with this at one job. https://www.railinc.com/rportal/documents/18/260737/CRB_ProceduresManual.pdf https://www.railinc.com/rportal/documents/18/260737/CRB_Proc...

lexicality 7y ago

Do you not consider finding out what the person asking for things actually wants to be a hard problem to solve? I live to build things and continuously fend off attempts to slide me into management, but I find actually programming things to be only half the part of the puzzle. Humans are extremely bad at articulating what they want and will generally tell you the wrong thing up front because they haven't thought it through fully. A day spent with a stakeholder carefully picking their brains and properly crafting a plan can be just as satisfying as a day of straight coding - sometimes more so. (tbh this is probably also why I find UX work so interesting - getting a user to click on a button is considerably harder than making the button in the first place)