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Though there is some wisdom in what Zed says here, I am getting quite tired of the 'actually, programming itself (especially as a job) is boring' meme, as if sa

Though there is some wisdom in what Zed says here, I am getting quite tired of the 'actually, programming itself (especially as a job) is boring' meme, as if saying that marks you out as some sort of world-weary but insightful practitioner of the arts who has somehow risen above the mere trivial and seen it for the dull plod it really is. Please stop telling me what I think + feel about my craft - you feel that way, you want to do it down, fine, but don't act as if it is some sort of immutable truth, especially when you are talking to people new to the craft which I think is quite unethical, frankly. Why assume your own experience/opinion is somehow necessarily correct and ought to be dictated as hard-won truths, when your entire schtick is 'dissecting others' logic'? No matter how many times I read these sorts of things, nothing changes the fact that I find programming a joy, the whole thing of being able to render machines of such incredible power + complexity to do stuff at all a miracle and know it is something I want to spend as much time doing as I can for the rest of my life - no jaded naysayer, not even an 'internet famous' one can change my personal experience of the thing, and I am absolutely nowhere, a nobody in a CRUD job, and not even that good of a programmer, but my passion and love for it remains. A funny thing about this is that no matter what pursuit you can think of, there are always those in it who say 'actually the reality of this is horrible', people who take that attitude exist everywhere in every field, no matter how wonderful and joyous it seems and often actually is. I think that's something to contemplate - if it were all true then nothing would be worth pursuing. There is a lot of bullshit spoken about programming, lots of crap aspects to the reality of it, lots of crap aspects of dealing with other people in trying to get things done, but people seriously - this thing is amazing, let's be grateful and celebrate it for once, please.

zedshaw 15y ago
If you read what I actually wrote, instead of what you wanted to hear, you'd see that I said the profession is boring. Why would I write a book teaching people programming if I thought it was boring? Coding is awesome fun and my favorite thing, but damn the job is really super boring.
- singular 15y ago
  With all due respect, I did read TFA - "I have been programming for a very long time. So long that it is incredibly boring to me." But you do of course later say: "This doesn't mean I think programming is boring, or that you will think it's boring, only that I find it uninteresting at this point in my journey." And, of course:- "Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but if you want to make about the same money and be happier, you could actually just go run a fast food joint." To me that all seems a little contradictory, but ultimately seems to say to me 'actually, after all these years I've seen through all the naive bullshit and realised that it is, in fact, rather boring'. There are obviously crap and boring aspects to any activity, but how on earth can you say the act of doing something is interesting, but the profession itself is not? Do you mean to say that everything in the profession other than the programming is boring? Well I'd disagree with that too, though less emphatically.

zedshaw 15y ago

If you read what I actually wrote, instead of what you wanted to hear, you'd see that I said the profession is boring. Why would I write a book teaching people programming if I thought it was boring? Coding is awesome fun and my favorite thing, but damn the job is really super boring.

singular 15y ago
With all due respect, I did read TFA - "I have been programming for a very long time. So long that it is incredibly boring to me." But you do of course later say: "This doesn't mean I think programming is boring, or that you will think it's boring, only that I find it uninteresting at this point in my journey." And, of course:- "Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but if you want to make about the same money and be happier, you could actually just go run a fast food joint." To me that all seems a little contradictory, but ultimately seems to say to me 'actually, after all these years I've seen through all the naive bullshit and realised that it is, in fact, rather boring'. There are obviously crap and boring aspects to any activity, but how on earth can you say the act of doing something is interesting, but the profession itself is not? Do you mean to say that everything in the profession other than the programming is boring? Well I'd disagree with that too, though less emphatically.