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As someone who has spent an amazing amount of time coding, it's not because someone was paying my rent. It's because I sacrificed things to be able to work on m

As someone who has spent an amazing amount of time coding, it's not because someone was paying my rent. It's because I sacrificed things to be able to work on my art. I have never had my rent paid for. I did not have a secret pile of cash or someone funding me. "Everyone who made it when I couldn't was secretly wealthy" is an interesting take but it seems more like coping mechanism than reality.

alpark3 3y ago
Coding? Your art is one of the most directly financially valuable skills on the planet and you're comparing yourself to starving musicians?
- vorpalhex 3y ago
  My coding wasn't valuable when I started, anymore than the beginner guitarist is Bon Jovi.
  - platyp 3y ago
    The distinction is that working on your "art" is a direct pathway to thousands of salaried jobs with benefits. If you are a reasonably strong programmer and software engineer, you have to actively choose not to accept one of those jobs to struggle. It is not comparable at all to the struggles of someone in the fine arts.
  - sonicshadow 3y ago
    The difference is that a bottom 20% developer can make 6 figures after a few years of experience, while even a top 10% musician can barely make rent in a major city
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    There are a lot more jobs for programmers than musicians, at higher median pay (but a lower mean, because the pay for musicians is much more concentrated in a small cadre of very high earners.) Very different markets. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes272042.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes272042.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151251.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151251.htm
    - OkayPhysicist 3y ago
      I'm pretty surprised that software doesn't run into the mean skew. I guess you stop calling yourself a programmer when you're a CTO/CEO of your tech company you founded.
fallendev 3y ago
Good for you if you have a day job outside of coding that pays your bills while you work on your coding craft. You're a dayjobber.
tinycombinator 3y ago
The article does shoot some shots at "Richy Rich" characters, but I think it's mainly to convince/uplift the reader to stop comparing their own success with other people's success if their upbringings never made it a fair comparison in the first place. Your worldly achievements and accomplishments in code should not be compared to a version of you who indeed had a secret pile of cash or someone funding them and never had to sacrifice things for their art, who might have achieved more worldly things.
Floegipoky 3y ago
Having studied both CS and music, IMO the skill threshold where you can get paid to code is a lot lower than where you can get paid to music (unless you get very, very lucky and get paid to music because of celebrity rather than skill).
- westernpopular 3y ago
  I second that. The time it took me from when I started to learn programming to getting paid for a project was just a little over year, and three years to steady pay (i.e. employment). In contrast, I've been making music for over ten years of my life and have gotten paid a handful of times.
- AlwaysRock 3y ago
  lol I got paid to code when I had zero fucking idea what I was doing after compleating half a 3 month online part time bootcamp. It took me several years to get paid to do stand up and even then it was $150 here or $20 there. I was able to pay my entire rent exactly once from comedy. It's hard to make money being an artist.
elzbardico 3y ago
You should not stop reading as soon as you get to a point in the text where you get horribly offended and then comment as if you had read the whole thing.
- vorpalhex 3y ago
  The author repeats the point several times including in the second to last paragraph. The game is not rigged. It's not some death of meritocracy. He sort of gets near an important idea when he talks about spotify leading to bandcamp sales, but then misses it: being a successful musician is about more than just playing an instrument, just like being a successful business person is about more than wearing a suit and holding meetings.

alpark3 3y ago

Coding? Your art is one of the most directly financially valuable skills on the planet and you're comparing yourself to starving musicians?

vorpalhex 3y ago
My coding wasn't valuable when I started, anymore than the beginner guitarist is Bon Jovi.
- platyp 3y ago
  The distinction is that working on your "art" is a direct pathway to thousands of salaried jobs with benefits. If you are a reasonably strong programmer and software engineer, you have to actively choose not to accept one of those jobs to struggle. It is not comparable at all to the struggles of someone in the fine arts.
- sonicshadow 3y ago
  The difference is that a bottom 20% developer can make 6 figures after a few years of experience, while even a top 10% musician can barely make rent in a major city
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  There are a lot more jobs for programmers than musicians, at higher median pay (but a lower mean, because the pay for musicians is much more concentrated in a small cadre of very high earners.) Very different markets. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes272042.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes272042.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151251.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151251.htm
  - OkayPhysicist 3y ago
    I'm pretty surprised that software doesn't run into the mean skew. I guess you stop calling yourself a programmer when you're a CTO/CEO of your tech company you founded.

fallendev 3y ago

Good for you if you have a day job outside of coding that pays your bills while you work on your coding craft. You're a dayjobber.

tinycombinator 3y ago

The article does shoot some shots at "Richy Rich" characters, but I think it's mainly to convince/uplift the reader to stop comparing their own success with other people's success if their upbringings never made it a fair comparison in the first place. Your worldly achievements and accomplishments in code should not be compared to a version of you who indeed had a secret pile of cash or someone funding them and never had to sacrifice things for their art, who might have achieved more worldly things.

Floegipoky 3y ago

Having studied both CS and music, IMO the skill threshold where you can get paid to code is a lot lower than where you can get paid to music (unless you get very, very lucky and get paid to music because of celebrity rather than skill).

westernpopular 3y ago
I second that. The time it took me from when I started to learn programming to getting paid for a project was just a little over year, and three years to steady pay (i.e. employment). In contrast, I've been making music for over ten years of my life and have gotten paid a handful of times.
AlwaysRock 3y ago
lol I got paid to code when I had zero fucking idea what I was doing after compleating half a 3 month online part time bootcamp. It took me several years to get paid to do stand up and even then it was $150 here or $20 there. I was able to pay my entire rent exactly once from comedy. It's hard to make money being an artist.

elzbardico 3y ago

You should not stop reading as soon as you get to a point in the text where you get horribly offended and then comment as if you had read the whole thing.

vorpalhex 3y ago
The author repeats the point several times including in the second to last paragraph. The game is not rigged. It's not some death of meritocracy. He sort of gets near an important idea when he talks about spotify leading to bandcamp sales, but then misses it: being a successful musician is about more than just playing an instrument, just like being a successful business person is about more than wearing a suit and holding meetings.