5 ms·
Does software engineering sound boring ?
by thewarrior 5y ago
Does software engineering sound boring ?
- wincy 5y agoSure, people don’t get excited and ask me more when I say I work on mortgage software. If I said I’m a game developer you can bet that’d be way less “boring” sounding.
- ipaddr 5y agoMortgage software actually sounds interesting and complex. Game developer working for someone else sounds boring.
- afavour 5y agoThere is no way that being a game developer does not sound interesting and complex. I say this as someone that doesn’t even play many games! But it’s something almost everyone has a point of reference for and has (hopefully?) enjoyed at some point in the past.
- tharkun__ 5y agoI would say it depends. Never say never. Personally mortgage software sounds complex but boring to me. Game developer sounded interesting and complex before I knew more about it. Now it's more boring as in after knowing the death march culture I don't want to know more. I guess your parent meant that too by 'boring'. If you work for yourself or with like minded indie developers that sounds more interesting to me. It can definitely be complex.
- nitrogen 5y agoHaving also worked on mortgage software, there are ways to "sell" it -- the people your software helps are getting homes when they might not otherwise have been able. That's pretty exciting for them.
- ipaddr 5y agoWorking by yourself (or with friends) you get to make the engine and that's where the fun is. You can write really unique stuff that may or may not work. Working for a big studio is like creating a movie with directors and for some that feels like fun but working on mortgage software is about data normalization which can offer it's own high.
- pugets 5y agoNot to the average person. Even CS freshmen seem to think game design means playing early prototypes of Grand Theft Auto 6.
- toast0 5y agoYes. Sometimes, when my spouse is really having trouble sleeping, she asks me to tell her about something I'm working on. About 30 seconds in, dead asleep.
- thewarrior 5y agoWhen I have trouble sleeping I stay up to read HackerNews to find out what others are working on :P
- MonaroVXR 5y agoYes and it's 7AM. Hackernews is interesting
- rcfaj7obqrkayhn 5y agothe opposite for me: reading HN before bed just make me feel like a lazy slob and makes me feel motivated and demotivated at the same time
- analog31 5y agoIt doesn't have to be boring to you. But I will admit that as a college student, when I had a summer internship in a government computer facility, I came away with the impression that while I enjoyed programming when I could do it on my own terms, an actual programming job would be boring. But instead of boring, you could substitute unpleasant or unglamorous, and the point still stands pretty well. For instance, fixing a toilet is usually not particularly hard, but something that most people are repulsed by.
- Gibbon1 5y ago> boring In 1983 I spent a few months working on a crud app. Finished it and never worked on another.
- the_only_law 5y agoWhat have you done since?
- Gibbon1 5y agoElectronics and firmware. I'd be better off financially if database stuff didn't make my eyes bleed.
- renerthr 5y agoWhat about SQL makes your eyes bleed?
- fellellor 5y agoEverything. It certainly isn’t as sexy as CSS and JavaScript. It doesn’t have the arcane mystical aura of Haskell and Brainfuck. Nor the fanatic intensity associated with Rust and C. Nor the stupid simplistic charm of Go and Ruby. “Select a from b where x join blah blah”. What about that isn’t boring? It’s like ordering around a servant who has to do the real planning and stuff.
- Ocerge 5y agoYes, it's boring as hell. But I value stability more than a stimulating job.
- miked85 5y agoIt doesn't just sound boring, it is boring.
- aesyondu 5y agoI think it depends. The problem solving aspect of software engineering is definitely exciting to me.
- the_only_law 5y agoA vast majority of software engineering jobs do.