6 ms·

what kind of work did you get into after programming out of curiosity? rare to see people go the other way

by volkk 6y ago

inglor_cz 6y ago
Not the OP, but I left professional programming to become a writer (in Czech, not in English; pardon my mistakes). It actually has something in common, you still write structured text for living, though your target audience are now people, not machines. Some readers commented that they find my style clear and understandable; maybe it is a carry-over from programming, where you cannot be ambiguous. But I find writing for people much more enjoyable than writing for computers. As a computer programmer, you mostly receive negative feedback: something stopped working and the users are often angry or frustrated. As a writer for people, you receive more than a few thank-you e-mails from your readers, which brighten your day.
- jdkoeck 6y ago
  Hi, I'm really curious, what do you write exactly for a living? Do you write fiction books, non-fiction books, blog posts, technical documentation?
  - inglor_cz 6y ago
    1. Political commentary for a local newspaper. They pay reasonably well. 2. Popularization of science and technology for a few web outlets. 3. Books about interesting historical events, these are by far the most popular and earn me majority of my writing income. 4. I dabbled a bit in fiction, but long forms like novels seem to be out of reach for me. My strength is in shorter texts that can be written in an afternoon. 5. A free blog that comes with an e-shop where my books can be bought.
    - tasuki 6y ago
      Mind linking any of your work?
      - inglor_cz 6y ago
        This is my profile at Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18339067.Marian_Kechlibar https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18339067.Marian_Kechli... Everything I write is in Czech, though. Automatic translation from Czech to English sucks.
        tasuki 5y ago
        Thank you! And don't worry I'm Czech :)
- kungfuscious 6y ago
  Writing human-language and programming indeed have a lot of skill transfer. They're both writing after all. But most importantly it's the ability to clearly communicate ideas and organize thoughts.
- kbenson 6y ago
  > As a computer programmer, you mostly receive negative feedback FWIW there are different types of writing and different types of programming. Writing copy for a bank will probably generate a lot of feedback about mistakes that need to be fixed. Writing code to reduce annoying monotonous tasks for coworkers so it takes ten minutes instead of two hours will get you a lot thank yous from your coworkers, and will also brighten your day. It's all about what your job is, and how close you are to the people you are affecting.
  - inglor_cz 6y ago
    This is a good observation. The software that I spent most of my time with was a communication tool. So whenever something broke down, people had problems calling or texting one another. This pissed them off, naturally. OTOH now my bestsellers are about half-forgotten events from world history. Aside from a weird e-mail I received from an even weirder Stalin-apologist, people generally enjoy this kind of reading and do not feel angry about it. If, on the other hand, I were an investigative journalist and dug out dirt on politicans and mafia, the tone of the e-mails from readers would definitely get rougher, to say the least.
nitrogen 6y ago
rare to see people go the other way I suspect this is literally true, but only because we don't see them. I've heard second-hand the story of a top developer at a famous unicorn who just couldn't keep up with all the stimulants everyone was using to code more and burned out, bought a cabin in the woods, and became a hermit.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  > all the stimulants everyone was using to code more That's interesting. Do you mean Adderall/Ritalin? That stuff has a relatively fixed useful half-life. It doesn't work for as long as people might think. It also doesn't actually make thinking clearer. It makes people feel as if they are thinking more clearly. I don't feel like looking for it, but this has been studied and reported, somewhere. If you are referring to crank, well, the half-life of that stuff is even shorter...
  - dleslie 6y ago
    Cocaine, MDMA and LSD seem to be favourite drugs around town, here in BC. I mean, besides the usual marijuana, tobacco and beer.
  - bnjms 6y ago
    Amphetamines, cocoon, and modafinil are the likely targets. Other than that look up stimulant nootropics.
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    Never tried any of them myself and don't know which they were referring to, but the other replies are probably in the right direction.
meremortals 6y ago
looks like OP got into woodworking based on his profile: https://www.longwalkwoodworking.com https://www.longwalkwoodworking.com
mauvehaus 6y ago
OP: I build furniture now, but I still lurk here because the news is interesting. Sometimes there's even overlap :-)
dopidopHN 6y ago
Really? I see a consistent trend of friends and ex coworker exiting the technologies and engineering space to go toward either agriculture, manual crafts and artisanat. I thought is was obvious. It’s even some type of cliché. But... now that I’m writing this. All those folks are either French, German or Central European. I currently lives in the US and I see more folks doing bootcamps to archive better income and address their debts. Hmm. I would be curious to see number about that, because obviously it’s highly anecdotal. Exemple : - starting to roof painting company - starting a small farm business ( direct to farmer market type ) - starting a goat herding business - becoming a wood worker - becoming a car mechanic in a communal garage - becoming a teacher ( of non tech things ) - become a bootcamp teacher - becoming a kumbutcha brewer I know myself that I will burn out ( in a soft way ) of tech roles. To clarify : those folks where able to do it because : - their state offer reconversion package - they have tech money

what kind of work did you get into after programming out of curiosity? rare to see people go the other way

by volkk 6y ago

what kind of work did you get into after programming out of curiosity? rare to see people go the other way

Not the OP, but I left professional programming to become a writer (in Czech, not in English; pardon my mistakes). It actually has something in common, you still write structured text for living, though your target audience are now people, not machines. Some readers commented that they find my style clear and understandable; maybe it is a carry-over from programming, where you cannot be ambiguous. But I find writing for people much more enjoyable than writing for computers. As a computer programmer, you mostly receive negative feedback: something stopped working and the users are often angry or frustrated. As a writer for people, you receive more than a few thank-you e-mails from your readers, which brighten your day.

jdkoeck 6y ago
Hi, I'm really curious, what do you write exactly for a living? Do you write fiction books, non-fiction books, blog posts, technical documentation?
- inglor_cz 6y ago
  1. Political commentary for a local newspaper. They pay reasonably well. 2. Popularization of science and technology for a few web outlets. 3. Books about interesting historical events, these are by far the most popular and earn me majority of my writing income. 4. I dabbled a bit in fiction, but long forms like novels seem to be out of reach for me. My strength is in shorter texts that can be written in an afternoon. 5. A free blog that comes with an e-shop where my books can be bought.
  - tasuki 6y ago
    Mind linking any of your work?
    - inglor_cz 6y ago
      This is my profile at Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18339067.Marian_Kechlibar https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18339067.Marian_Kechli... Everything I write is in Czech, though. Automatic translation from Czech to English sucks.
      - tasuki 5y ago
        Thank you! And don't worry I'm Czech :)
kungfuscious 6y ago
Writing human-language and programming indeed have a lot of skill transfer. They're both writing after all. But most importantly it's the ability to clearly communicate ideas and organize thoughts.
kbenson 6y ago
> As a computer programmer, you mostly receive negative feedback FWIW there are different types of writing and different types of programming. Writing copy for a bank will probably generate a lot of feedback about mistakes that need to be fixed. Writing code to reduce annoying monotonous tasks for coworkers so it takes ten minutes instead of two hours will get you a lot thank yous from your coworkers, and will also brighten your day. It's all about what your job is, and how close you are to the people you are affecting.
- inglor_cz 6y ago
  This is a good observation. The software that I spent most of my time with was a communication tool. So whenever something broke down, people had problems calling or texting one another. This pissed them off, naturally. OTOH now my bestsellers are about half-forgotten events from world history. Aside from a weird e-mail I received from an even weirder Stalin-apologist, people generally enjoy this kind of reading and do not feel angry about it. If, on the other hand, I were an investigative journalist and dug out dirt on politicans and mafia, the tone of the e-mails from readers would definitely get rougher, to say the least.

nitrogen 6y ago

rare to see people go the other way I suspect this is literally true, but only because we don't see them. I've heard second-hand the story of a top developer at a famous unicorn who just couldn't keep up with all the stimulants everyone was using to code more and burned out, bought a cabin in the woods, and became a hermit.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
> all the stimulants everyone was using to code more That's interesting. Do you mean Adderall/Ritalin? That stuff has a relatively fixed useful half-life. It doesn't work for as long as people might think. It also doesn't actually make thinking clearer. It makes people feel as if they are thinking more clearly. I don't feel like looking for it, but this has been studied and reported, somewhere. If you are referring to crank, well, the half-life of that stuff is even shorter...
- dleslie 6y ago
  Cocaine, MDMA and LSD seem to be favourite drugs around town, here in BC. I mean, besides the usual marijuana, tobacco and beer.
- bnjms 6y ago
  Amphetamines, cocoon, and modafinil are the likely targets. Other than that look up stimulant nootropics.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  Never tried any of them myself and don't know which they were referring to, but the other replies are probably in the right direction.

meremortals 6y ago

looks like OP got into woodworking based on his profile: https://www.longwalkwoodworking.com https://www.longwalkwoodworking.com

mauvehaus 6y ago

OP: I build furniture now, but I still lurk here because the news is interesting. Sometimes there's even overlap :-)

dopidopHN 6y ago

Really? I see a consistent trend of friends and ex coworker exiting the technologies and engineering space to go toward either agriculture, manual crafts and artisanat. I thought is was obvious. It’s even some type of cliché. But... now that I’m writing this. All those folks are either French, German or Central European. I currently lives in the US and I see more folks doing bootcamps to archive better income and address their debts. Hmm. I would be curious to see number about that, because obviously it’s highly anecdotal. Exemple : - starting to roof painting company - starting a small farm business ( direct to farmer market type ) - starting a goat herding business - becoming a wood worker - becoming a car mechanic in a communal garage - becoming a teacher ( of non tech things ) - become a bootcamp teacher - becoming a kumbutcha brewer I know myself that I will burn out ( in a soft way ) of tech roles. To clarify : those folks where able to do it because : - their state offer reconversion package - they have tech money