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I don't really understand the problem, or maybe it's more, I don't think this problem exists as an existential one for more than the set of people for whom it's

I don't really understand the problem, or maybe it's more, I don't think this problem exists as an existential one for more than the set of people for whom it's an existential probem. Programming and software engineering and their subdomains and superdomains are no longer a priesthood or an academic exercise or playground for Levy-style oldskool hackers, or rather, no longer remotely those things exclusively. Most of what most people who fit in the supercategory do is work. The specifics of the work vary. If they aren't the ones that give you joy, change categories is a good and readily available solution. If you want to hack on beautiful code, there are 1000x more ways to do so today spanning the purely aesthetic defined as many ways as you like (live coding, avocational language design, exercises in new tricks for old tools like the demoscene and emulator worlds), to the aggressively useful (small tools made by small teams of solo devs upon which empires balance). You don't need to be a mid-level IC at MassiveCorp unless you can't give up access to the mana-tap of massive scaling. In which case maybe that IS your thing and the complaint is flat. The joy hasn't left. Maybe it's just harder for the author to find? Or the problem is simply that no matter what you do for work, it's work, "chase your bliss" being of course a lie, because work IS work, and dissatisfaction like water will always find its level.

adra 4y ago
It sounds about right. At the end of the day, most developers work to produce features. Features and business domains are far less likely to be exciting than technical problems, but the business domain is way more important to adding value. Both need to be kept in check, but I'm sorry to say, technical achievement will not put food on the table or revenue on the balance sheet. At the end of the day, you almost always need to actually sell what you're doing (in one form or another).

adra 4y ago

It sounds about right. At the end of the day, most developers work to produce features. Features and business domains are far less likely to be exciting than technical problems, but the business domain is way more important to adding value. Both need to be kept in check, but I'm sorry to say, technical achievement will not put food on the table or revenue on the balance sheet. At the end of the day, you almost always need to actually sell what you're doing (in one form or another).