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I find there is more and more of a focus on making $$$ by working in tech and honestly I find it kind of sad. There are so many YouTube videos that treat dev ro

by exdsq 7y ago

I find there is more and more of a focus on making $$$ by working in tech and honestly I find it kind of sad. There are so many YouTube videos that treat dev roles as a gold rush - spend x hours learning DS/A and you’ll earn > $100k. Learn Swift to make side projects to retire by 30 etc. I imagine if you read this comment it doesn’t apply to you (you care enough to be on a forum about tech) and I realise you can do both - enjoy tech and want to earn more (which is fair, I do too). But seeing Tai Lopez style adverts on YouTube about learning JavaScript and React is just sad and negatively impacts our field. As Alan Kay said on another thread, he and his contemporaries worked at Parc because it was “their calling” and only one wanted to make money. Nowadays the focus sadly seems to be comp first and passion second. Edit: Just went to watch a video and had a recommendation titled "Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript, C++, C#... WHO MAKES MORE MONEY?". Point, I think, made.

fierarul 7y ago
In many ways this is a SV / USA bubble. Tech pays well in other countries too, but nowhere near those levels. I think in many ways tech salaries as still depressed. We forget about the Apple / Google / Adobe / eBay / Intel salary fixing ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... ). Since SV 'set the bar' for salaries I think that deal depressed the tech compensation until today. The period when salaries were intentionally depressed (2005 to 2009) was especially important for the growth of the industry with mobile phones and cloud computing starting then.
wrnr 7y ago
I feel you bro, the struggle is real, it's a shame not all dev jobs are as inherently interesting as those at Xerox Parc in the good old days. If you enjoy tech, sometimes the best option is to code for the $$$ during the day and enjoy yourself coding at night. Same thing goes if you want to be a marine biologist, you'll first have to be a millionaire and then you can study the asexual reproductive cycle of micro organisms at the bottom of the ocean.
- emmanueloga_ 7y ago
  Another way to be a marine biologist is to draw cartoons :-p https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg#Early_career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg#Early_caree...
fxtentacle 7y ago
In every successful industry you'll see scammers pop up. I've also seen those videos and usually at the end of it they'll try to sell you on their course, private membership forum, or something like that. Also, the iOS app boom is clearly over, so I wouldn't trust anyone that claims learning Swift will lead to a comfortable retirement. That said, even for projects that you do as a calling, I still believe you should charge a lot, simply to make others and especially business types respect you.
logicchains 7y ago
On the bright side, most people who are only in it for the money will not do as well as people who are passionate about it, because a passionate person can naturally spend their spare time learning and tinkering, so will improve more. Someone who's not passionate about it will probably burn out if they force themselves to spend their spare time on something that doesn't interest them a lot.

by exdsq 7y ago

fierarul 7y ago

In many ways this is a SV / USA bubble. Tech pays well in other countries too, but nowhere near those levels. I think in many ways tech salaries as still depressed. We forget about the Apple / Google / Adobe / eBay / Intel salary fixing ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... ). Since SV 'set the bar' for salaries I think that deal depressed the tech compensation until today. The period when salaries were intentionally depressed (2005 to 2009) was especially important for the growth of the industry with mobile phones and cloud computing starting then.

wrnr 7y ago

I feel you bro, the struggle is real, it's a shame not all dev jobs are as inherently interesting as those at Xerox Parc in the good old days. If you enjoy tech, sometimes the best option is to code for the $$$ during the day and enjoy yourself coding at night. Same thing goes if you want to be a marine biologist, you'll first have to be a millionaire and then you can study the asexual reproductive cycle of micro organisms at the bottom of the ocean.

emmanueloga_ 7y ago
Another way to be a marine biologist is to draw cartoons :-p https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg#Early_career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg#Early_caree...

fxtentacle 7y ago

In every successful industry you'll see scammers pop up. I've also seen those videos and usually at the end of it they'll try to sell you on their course, private membership forum, or something like that. Also, the iOS app boom is clearly over, so I wouldn't trust anyone that claims learning Swift will lead to a comfortable retirement. That said, even for projects that you do as a calling, I still believe you should charge a lot, simply to make others and especially business types respect you.

logicchains 7y ago

On the bright side, most people who are only in it for the money will not do as well as people who are passionate about it, because a passionate person can naturally spend their spare time learning and tinkering, so will improve more. Someone who's not passionate about it will probably burn out if they force themselves to spend their spare time on something that doesn't interest them a lot.