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Or, more optimistically, if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life. I love programming too and have no plans on stopping either. And there's

Or, more optimistically, if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life. I love programming too and have no plans on stopping either. And there's nothing wrong with that.

paulcole 6y ago
Programming is the thing you love the most and if it was 100% up to you what to do with your time you’d still do it? I mean I don’t hate my job but damn I’d just sit in front of the TV and go for walks if that was an option.
- yters 6y ago
  I spend most of my free time programming for fun. It is not unheard of.
  - EdwardWarren 6y ago
    I'm 78. I do the same. I select problems from Codeforces or Codewars and work on those. I did enter contests for awhile but needed more experience to successfully compete. I learned python a few years ago and have experience with several other languages as well. Python is perfect for someone like myself. To me it is a thing of beauty. I read a lot - history and biography mainly. Favorites: The Fatal Shore and Empire of the Autumn Moon. Travel 2-3 times a year. Been to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America as well as all over North America. Favorite place? Singapore. Walk 2 miles+ a day. Am a top backgammon player on ZooEscape. Been married 51 years today and been blessed with 3 great kids. Not rich but comfortable. Always been a saver or what my sister calls a cheapskate. Am definitely slowing down. Am more cranky. And think the world is going crazy. Other than that life is better than I expected it would be at this age.
- jlokier 6y ago
  Personally I love programming, among other things that people might regard as similar to programming. The prospect of just sitting in front of TV and going for walks is horrifying. For short breaks, sure, that's really nice. For years? Horrifying. Solving technical problems is vastly more satisfying than that. It's like maths to a mathematician, physics to a physicist. Why would they ever stop, given freedom to carry on? I would love to be able to retire for the freedom, but with that freedom I would want to build technology, much as I do now except I'd choose the things (and they would be much better things!) (It might be that the kind of programming you do in your job is a very different thing though. I'm not excited by writing more business forms either. Programming is an extremely broad term these days.)
  - paulcole 6y ago
    > The prospect of just sitting in front of TV and going for walks is horrifying. For short breaks, sure, that's really nice. For years? Horrifying. Can you acknowledge that solving technical problems for decades is just as horrifying to me? And that watching TV and doing nothing is extremely satisfying to me?
    - wizzwizz4 6y ago
      I don't think that acknowledgement is necessary. Nobody's distrusting you; it's just… people are different. What applies to you doesn't necessarily apply to other people. If someone's still working years after they got the option to retire, chances are they enjoy it.
    - fsckboy 6y ago
      I have no problem understanding your preferences and I don't question your choices, except for one: why would you spend time on news.ycombinator? I assume you find it ... fun?
      - paulcole 6y ago
        I build up the karma of my accounts and then sell them.
        dang 6y ago
        I seem to recall you saying this before, and I assumed it was a joke, since someone who was doing that probably wouldn't say they were doing it, and it would devalue the sold account to leave a comment like that up. But now users are asking me if this is ok. Obviously it's extremely far from ok, if true, so I need to ask: is it true?
    - thomaslord 6y ago
      I want to start by acknowledging that's a totally legitimate perspective. I'm curious though - do you think you'd be fine with only doing walks and TV for 40+ hours a week? Personally I got interested in computers and programming very early, and at first it was 100% a leisure activity. It stayed at roughly that level of exciting for me until probably 6 months to a year into being employed as a developer, but it's no longer the #1 thing I like to do when I'm not at work. My current situation is work with a side of typical relaxation (watch tv, browse the internet, etc.), but I expect when I eventually retire I'll start spending a bunch of leisure time on programming and general messing-with-computers stuff again.
- Bjartr 6y ago
  Without a doubt I'd continue programming even if I wasn't working. It's a craft. And like any other craft there are those who enjoy it as a creative outlet.
- Mary-Jane 6y ago
  Yes, absolutely! Obviously there's other things I enjoy doing as well, but programming by far has the greatest impact on the world around me, and I love seeing the things I help create making other people's lives easier.
- Polylactic_acid 6y ago
  >I’d just sit in front of the TV and go for walks if that was an option. Thats fun for the first week. The second week its depressing but you still do it. On the third week you will be picking up hobby projects and working on them just for fun.
zerr 6y ago
Continuing programming != continuing being an employee, working for others.
- kbenson 6y ago
  Some types of work are only feasible to do when working for others. For example, of you love rocket science and working on rockets, you're probably better off working for NASA or SpaceX.
- Mary-Jane 6y ago
  What's wrong with working for others? Similarly, what's the point of programming (or of any work, I suppose) if it isn't helping someone?
  - sah2ed 6y ago
    > What's wrong with working for others? Nothing really. I guess what the parent was getting at was that if you are an employee at a point of your life when society expects you to be retired, then you will not be able to allocate your free time as you see fit. In other words, working for others past retirement means you never really retire enough to indulge in things you never had time for in your prime, like spending quality time with one’s spouse for instance [0]. [0] Google’s former highly-paid CFO decides to retire after working for nearly 30 years consecutively https://mashable.com/2015/03/10/googles-cfo-retires-memo/ https://mashable.com/2015/03/10/googles-cfo-retires-memo/
  - zerr 6y ago
    Not all jobs are the same or similarly enjoyable. E.g. instead of working on CRUD apps for the rest of the life, one might prefer working on a Rust interpreter in Haskell or a Gameboy emulator in Prolog - would be hard to find such 9-to-5 jobs - and after all, one might not want 9-to-5 schedule at all. In other words - one might want freedom, basically. As for not helping someone - programming can be recreational, just for the sake of enjoyment.
  - vidarh 6y ago
    Depends on personality too, I guess. I finish projects when they're for work. Or at least, I stay focused. My own hobby projects are more fulfilling to me, but I often put them aside for long periods - sometimes years - because I don't need to finish them to get pleasure out of doing them, and it's much harder to stay motivated to finish the often very boring parts when I don't have to. But it feels good to finish things up too. I can push myself to do that for side projects, but the time and energy it takes to get me motivated to do that when I don't have the external pressure to motivate me is much harder. If I "retire" I'll probably have to do a startup again to have some of that pressure...

Or, more optimistically, if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life. I love programming too and have no plans on stopping either. And there's nothing wrong with that.

paulcole 6y ago

Programming is the thing you love the most and if it was 100% up to you what to do with your time you’d still do it? I mean I don’t hate my job but damn I’d just sit in front of the TV and go for walks if that was an option.

yters 6y ago
I spend most of my free time programming for fun. It is not unheard of.
- EdwardWarren 6y ago
  I'm 78. I do the same. I select problems from Codeforces or Codewars and work on those. I did enter contests for awhile but needed more experience to successfully compete. I learned python a few years ago and have experience with several other languages as well. Python is perfect for someone like myself. To me it is a thing of beauty. I read a lot - history and biography mainly. Favorites: The Fatal Shore and Empire of the Autumn Moon. Travel 2-3 times a year. Been to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America as well as all over North America. Favorite place? Singapore. Walk 2 miles+ a day. Am a top backgammon player on ZooEscape. Been married 51 years today and been blessed with 3 great kids. Not rich but comfortable. Always been a saver or what my sister calls a cheapskate. Am definitely slowing down. Am more cranky. And think the world is going crazy. Other than that life is better than I expected it would be at this age.
jlokier 6y ago
Personally I love programming, among other things that people might regard as similar to programming. The prospect of just sitting in front of TV and going for walks is horrifying. For short breaks, sure, that's really nice. For years? Horrifying. Solving technical problems is vastly more satisfying than that. It's like maths to a mathematician, physics to a physicist. Why would they ever stop, given freedom to carry on? I would love to be able to retire for the freedom, but with that freedom I would want to build technology, much as I do now except I'd choose the things (and they would be much better things!) (It might be that the kind of programming you do in your job is a very different thing though. I'm not excited by writing more business forms either. Programming is an extremely broad term these days.)
- paulcole 6y ago
  > The prospect of just sitting in front of TV and going for walks is horrifying. For short breaks, sure, that's really nice. For years? Horrifying. Can you acknowledge that solving technical problems for decades is just as horrifying to me? And that watching TV and doing nothing is extremely satisfying to me?
  - wizzwizz4 6y ago
    I don't think that acknowledgement is necessary. Nobody's distrusting you; it's just… people are different. What applies to you doesn't necessarily apply to other people. If someone's still working years after they got the option to retire, chances are they enjoy it.
  - fsckboy 6y ago
    I have no problem understanding your preferences and I don't question your choices, except for one: why would you spend time on news.ycombinator? I assume you find it ... fun?
    - paulcole 6y ago
      I build up the karma of my accounts and then sell them.
      - dang 6y ago
        I seem to recall you saying this before, and I assumed it was a joke, since someone who was doing that probably wouldn't say they were doing it, and it would devalue the sold account to leave a comment like that up. But now users are asking me if this is ok. Obviously it's extremely far from ok, if true, so I need to ask: is it true?
  - thomaslord 6y ago
    I want to start by acknowledging that's a totally legitimate perspective. I'm curious though - do you think you'd be fine with only doing walks and TV for 40+ hours a week? Personally I got interested in computers and programming very early, and at first it was 100% a leisure activity. It stayed at roughly that level of exciting for me until probably 6 months to a year into being employed as a developer, but it's no longer the #1 thing I like to do when I'm not at work. My current situation is work with a side of typical relaxation (watch tv, browse the internet, etc.), but I expect when I eventually retire I'll start spending a bunch of leisure time on programming and general messing-with-computers stuff again.
Bjartr 6y ago
Without a doubt I'd continue programming even if I wasn't working. It's a craft. And like any other craft there are those who enjoy it as a creative outlet.
Mary-Jane 6y ago
Yes, absolutely! Obviously there's other things I enjoy doing as well, but programming by far has the greatest impact on the world around me, and I love seeing the things I help create making other people's lives easier.
Polylactic_acid 6y ago
>I’d just sit in front of the TV and go for walks if that was an option. Thats fun for the first week. The second week its depressing but you still do it. On the third week you will be picking up hobby projects and working on them just for fun.

zerr 6y ago

Continuing programming != continuing being an employee, working for others.

kbenson 6y ago
Some types of work are only feasible to do when working for others. For example, of you love rocket science and working on rockets, you're probably better off working for NASA or SpaceX.
Mary-Jane 6y ago
What's wrong with working for others? Similarly, what's the point of programming (or of any work, I suppose) if it isn't helping someone?
- sah2ed 6y ago
  > What's wrong with working for others? Nothing really. I guess what the parent was getting at was that if you are an employee at a point of your life when society expects you to be retired, then you will not be able to allocate your free time as you see fit. In other words, working for others past retirement means you never really retire enough to indulge in things you never had time for in your prime, like spending quality time with one’s spouse for instance [0]. [0] Google’s former highly-paid CFO decides to retire after working for nearly 30 years consecutively https://mashable.com/2015/03/10/googles-cfo-retires-memo/ https://mashable.com/2015/03/10/googles-cfo-retires-memo/
- zerr 6y ago
  Not all jobs are the same or similarly enjoyable. E.g. instead of working on CRUD apps for the rest of the life, one might prefer working on a Rust interpreter in Haskell or a Gameboy emulator in Prolog - would be hard to find such 9-to-5 jobs - and after all, one might not want 9-to-5 schedule at all. In other words - one might want freedom, basically. As for not helping someone - programming can be recreational, just for the sake of enjoyment.
- vidarh 6y ago
  Depends on personality too, I guess. I finish projects when they're for work. Or at least, I stay focused. My own hobby projects are more fulfilling to me, but I often put them aside for long periods - sometimes years - because I don't need to finish them to get pleasure out of doing them, and it's much harder to stay motivated to finish the often very boring parts when I don't have to. But it feels good to finish things up too. I can push myself to do that for side projects, but the time and energy it takes to get me motivated to do that when I don't have the external pressure to motivate me is much harder. If I "retire" I'll probably have to do a startup again to have some of that pressure...