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I found this comment the most depressing: You have an extremely hot wife, who also happens to be extremely wealthy. Instead of making love to her and rolling a

I found this comment the most depressing: You have an extremely hot wife, who also happens to be extremely wealthy. Instead of making love to her and rolling around in money all day, why on Earth would this freak waste his time building rockets and shite? I never thought I'd have to explain why having a hot wife AND building rockets would be a better life than just having a hot wife. Extra points if you build rockets together.

potatolicious 15y ago
I've always found that coders have more in common with artists than traditional white-collar technical people. The basis of our industry is driven by passionate creators, many of whom would continue to create even if they didn't have a financial worry in the world. Most people in the general population don't get this. I've found that artists and musicians largely do.
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  I've found there are two types of programmers: Staff programmers program because they are paid well to do it. At the end of the day, they generally clock out of software development and into whatever their real passion is (sports of some sort as often as not for guys). Some staff programmers are really, really good at developing software. The majority are average at best. Coders are the artists. They code because their computer is their canvas and their editor is their paint. Regardless what their day job might be, they would be coding in the evening. Many are artists in other media as well, very often music and photography, which utilize a similar melding of technology and inner-eye as coding. They almost never stop coding, no matter how far away a computer actually is. The former will generally get you a repeatable (perhaps highly inefficient) process. The latter will get you http://www.anseladams.com/ http://www.anseladams.com/, http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.html http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.html, or http://www.philborges.com/ http://www.philborges.com/. But you'll likely leave a few slides on the darkroom floor in the process.
- pyre 15y ago
  Most people have a passion for something, even if that something is doing nothing. I'll bet that most of the people that agree with that comment wouldn't agree with it if it were advocating that he should have given up watching sports/playing video games/playing sports/reading books/etc.
  - potatolicious 15y ago
    I disagree - many people don't have a passion - there is no driving thing in their life, even if it s watching TV or playing video games. From my own observation, many people go through life with a smattering of interests - but nothing that inspires them and truly grips them. "Having interests" is not the same as "having passions". But even disregarding that, many people do not understand creation. A passion for watching TV or playing video games maps poorly to someone obsessed with creating things - whether it's sculpture, software, music, or architecture. Personally I find it very difficult to identify with non-creators, while there is a very natural mesh when I talk with other creators - even if I know nothing of their craft. Their fundamental passion and mentality is mutually understood.
pyre 15y ago
I found that comment sort of odd. Usually people are pissed off at rich folks because they use their money to insulate themselves from the world at large. Here is someone that was rich and trying to affect social change. And we complain that he was not spending more time using money to isolate himself from the 'mendicants?' Huh?
- roel_v 15y ago
  There's "what should somebody in that situation do" and there's "what would I do in that situation". I guess the post we're talking about was more of the second variety.

potatolicious 15y ago

I've always found that coders have more in common with artists than traditional white-collar technical people. The basis of our industry is driven by passionate creators, many of whom would continue to create even if they didn't have a financial worry in the world. Most people in the general population don't get this. I've found that artists and musicians largely do.

SoftwareMaven 15y ago
I've found there are two types of programmers: Staff programmers program because they are paid well to do it. At the end of the day, they generally clock out of software development and into whatever their real passion is (sports of some sort as often as not for guys). Some staff programmers are really, really good at developing software. The majority are average at best. Coders are the artists. They code because their computer is their canvas and their editor is their paint. Regardless what their day job might be, they would be coding in the evening. Many are artists in other media as well, very often music and photography, which utilize a similar melding of technology and inner-eye as coding. They almost never stop coding, no matter how far away a computer actually is. The former will generally get you a repeatable (perhaps highly inefficient) process. The latter will get you http://www.anseladams.com/ http://www.anseladams.com/, http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.html http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.html, or http://www.philborges.com/ http://www.philborges.com/. But you'll likely leave a few slides on the darkroom floor in the process.
pyre 15y ago
Most people have a passion for something, even if that something is doing nothing. I'll bet that most of the people that agree with that comment wouldn't agree with it if it were advocating that he should have given up watching sports/playing video games/playing sports/reading books/etc.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  I disagree - many people don't have a passion - there is no driving thing in their life, even if it s watching TV or playing video games. From my own observation, many people go through life with a smattering of interests - but nothing that inspires them and truly grips them. "Having interests" is not the same as "having passions". But even disregarding that, many people do not understand creation. A passion for watching TV or playing video games maps poorly to someone obsessed with creating things - whether it's sculpture, software, music, or architecture. Personally I find it very difficult to identify with non-creators, while there is a very natural mesh when I talk with other creators - even if I know nothing of their craft. Their fundamental passion and mentality is mutually understood.

pyre 15y ago

I found that comment sort of odd. Usually people are pissed off at rich folks because they use their money to insulate themselves from the world at large. Here is someone that was rich and trying to affect social change. And we complain that he was not spending more time using money to isolate himself from the 'mendicants?' Huh?

roel_v 15y ago
There's "what should somebody in that situation do" and there's "what would I do in that situation". I guess the post we're talking about was more of the second variety.