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>I've met many engineers with extraordinary talent who decided to stop making software. They wanted to program computers all their lives. They were born for it.

by jasode 6y ago

>I've met many engineers with extraordinary talent who decided to stop making software. They wanted to program computers all their lives. They were born for it. After spending six, eight, ten years in the industry, they quit for good. [...] Something had to have gone wrong for them to abandon their first love. >But sitting at a mandated retrospective or mindlessly gluing APIs together doesn't put me over the moon. It makes me feel the opposite (whatever the opposite of being over the moon is). I like Slava Akhmechet essays but this theme of disillusionment doesn't resonate with me. As background, a relevant wikpedia article when thinking of personal change: End-of-history illusion[1] I used to think I became disillusioned because the industry was "getting worse". But I changed my mind because it's just too convenient that my peak of creative excitement and wonder about technology just happened to coincide with the "good old days". My opinion changed when the new iPhone came out in 2007 and I noticed I was not excited about it. How can that be? How can I spend all-nighters messing around with less powerful 8-bit and 16-bit toy computers and not also be obsessed with the idea of playing with the new Apple gadget that's 1000x more powerful?!? I had to dissect this strange contradiction. I finally had to admit that it's because I simply got older. As another extreme example, as a little boy I used to be excited about hopping on escalators and elevators because they were like fun little amusement rides. But now, they're everyday boring. Escalators didn't change; I changed. I remember being a teen at a loud rock concert and thinking about no old people being there and being confused as "how can anybody ever stop going to concerts?" Well, it turns out I stopped too. I won't blame disillusionment. Instead, I just got bored of it. I still like live music but not enough to go out of my way to buy expensive tickets and deal with the traffic jam to get back home. I used read lots of fiction. I don't anymore. Fiction author Philip Roth also stopped reading[2] others' fiction when he got older. I'm sure today's fiction is just fine. But my motivation to read it isn't there anymore. I won't blame the book industry and I'm not disillusioned about fiction. I'm just a different person now. Is it disillusionment or just getting older? There are confounding variables. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-history_illusion#:~:text=The%20end%2Dof%2Dhistory%20illusion,or%20mature%20in%20the%20future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-history_illusion#:~:tex.... [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/06/philip-roth-ive-stopped-reading-fiction/352196/ https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/06/philip-r...

jeffreyrogers 6y ago
I think getting older is part of it. I used to love learning about different assembly architectures and spent lots of time on it, but as I got older a couple things happened: one, other things take up more of my time. Two, I already know a lot about assembly, so I don't get much from learning a new architecture that is probably only marginally different from one I already know. I remember discovering HN around 2008 when I was a teenager. I hardly understood anything on the front page. I knew how to program a little bit, but only at a superficial level. Now, it's rare for me to come across something I don't understand unless it is very specialized or about some scientific topic. But I think Slava is right that if you want to stay motivated and stay interested you have to find a way to remind yourself of the bigger picture. Otherwise you get bored no matter how interesting the work is. I know a guy who left a job working on rocket guidance systems because after a few years it got boring to him.
- cambalache 6y ago
  > I remember discovering HN around 2008 when I was a teenager. > Now, it's rare for me to come across something I don't understand And here I was, reading you thinking you were Donald Knuth, I think you vastly overestimate the breadth and depth of your knowledge.
  - logicslave 6y ago
    I agree with his point though, and I could have written that post myself. Its not that you fully understand everything on here, its that you are familiar enough that it removes the magic of it. I have been grappling with the same issue, in the past I could read manuals on distributed databases, but now I know enough about how those distributed systems work under the hood, its boring for me
    - cambalache 6y ago
      If everything is boring to you I am pretty sure it is because it is trivial to you so it's possible you may come up with more interesting applications. I think a better explanation is that you are not as enthusiastic about CS as you think you are. When I see guys like Brian Kernighan, David Paterson or Andrew Tanenbaum still excited about stuff I cannot share your POV.

by jasode 6y ago

jeffreyrogers 6y ago

I think getting older is part of it. I used to love learning about different assembly architectures and spent lots of time on it, but as I got older a couple things happened: one, other things take up more of my time. Two, I already know a lot about assembly, so I don't get much from learning a new architecture that is probably only marginally different from one I already know. I remember discovering HN around 2008 when I was a teenager. I hardly understood anything on the front page. I knew how to program a little bit, but only at a superficial level. Now, it's rare for me to come across something I don't understand unless it is very specialized or about some scientific topic. But I think Slava is right that if you want to stay motivated and stay interested you have to find a way to remind yourself of the bigger picture. Otherwise you get bored no matter how interesting the work is. I know a guy who left a job working on rocket guidance systems because after a few years it got boring to him.

cambalache 6y ago
> I remember discovering HN around 2008 when I was a teenager. > Now, it's rare for me to come across something I don't understand And here I was, reading you thinking you were Donald Knuth, I think you vastly overestimate the breadth and depth of your knowledge.
- logicslave 6y ago
  I agree with his point though, and I could have written that post myself. Its not that you fully understand everything on here, its that you are familiar enough that it removes the magic of it. I have been grappling with the same issue, in the past I could read manuals on distributed databases, but now I know enough about how those distributed systems work under the hood, its boring for me
  - cambalache 6y ago
    If everything is boring to you I am pretty sure it is because it is trivial to you so it's possible you may come up with more interesting applications. I think a better explanation is that you are not as enthusiastic about CS as you think you are. When I see guys like Brian Kernighan, David Paterson or Andrew Tanenbaum still excited about stuff I cannot share your POV.