3 ms·

Yeah this sounds a lot like me. I find it hard to imagine what kind of personality _could_ tolerate a software job. Maybe some people are more amenable to accep

Yeah this sounds a lot like me. I find it hard to imagine what kind of personality _could_ tolerate a software job. Maybe some people are more amenable to accepting the company's mission as part of their identity, and can therefore find the inherent satisfaction of doing a good job. But yeah, I always found the meetings and coordination aspect to be quite taxing.

VyseofArcadia 2y ago
I have known a lot of people at work who don't really care about computers at all. (Not at my current job, more at previous jobs.) They don't go home and do more computer stuff for fun. They don't geek out over the new things coming in C++23 or get nerd sniped by computer science problems. If you ask them why they became a software engineer, they'll say it's because the pay is good. A lot of us are just drawn to computers and couldn't imagine not tinkering with them constantly, but for some people this is just, like, an office job. No different from being an accountant or an insurance claims adjuster or something.
- piva00 2y ago
  One can also go through the phase of programming being the most fun hobby, getting into a career related to it, and phase out programming as a hobby. It was one of the most fun hobbies I had earlier in life, now after 20+ years of career, and even longer from starting to program, it's just not that fun anymore. I still tinker with it in fun ways I could never try as a career, like electronics projects with microcontrollers, but since my free time and energy dwindled with age I allocate my hobbies' time to other more personally fulfilling endeavours than keeping up with languages' updates, compsci problems, etc. It's just not that interesting anymore. I stumbled upon this career, at the time I never even considered or had known it was a very well paid one so I've been extremely lucky for that but I don't hold that much more interest in it as a hobby, for that I believe the time has passed. It's now, to me, a very well paid office job.
  - nyarlathotep_ 2y ago
    > One can also go through the phase of programming being the most fun hobby, getting into a career related to it, and phase out programming as a hobby. Yeah this is my path. I'd guess 50% of the code I've ever written was from when I was a hobbyist for many years, and a large portion of the "general" software skills I've gained are from that as well.
- ghysznje 2y ago
  You summed up my experience at big tech pretty well :)
- stefanos82 2y ago
  This is where you see the injustices of life my friend...some people desperately want to get a job like this because technology is their passion and others change them like shirts because they have the work experience but it's not their great love...they just happen to know how to interview and get hired! And here's the sad thing for me; these people are actually unhappy because they're not doing something they love; they're just doing it for the money, when they could be doing something else that was their great passion. Can you imagine how many well-hidden unknown `Picasso`s, `Mozart`s, and `Meryl Streep`s are out there unbeknownst to us?! It drives me crazy!

VyseofArcadia 2y ago

I have known a lot of people at work who don't really care about computers at all. (Not at my current job, more at previous jobs.) They don't go home and do more computer stuff for fun. They don't geek out over the new things coming in C++23 or get nerd sniped by computer science problems. If you ask them why they became a software engineer, they'll say it's because the pay is good. A lot of us are just drawn to computers and couldn't imagine not tinkering with them constantly, but for some people this is just, like, an office job. No different from being an accountant or an insurance claims adjuster or something.

piva00 2y ago
One can also go through the phase of programming being the most fun hobby, getting into a career related to it, and phase out programming as a hobby. It was one of the most fun hobbies I had earlier in life, now after 20+ years of career, and even longer from starting to program, it's just not that fun anymore. I still tinker with it in fun ways I could never try as a career, like electronics projects with microcontrollers, but since my free time and energy dwindled with age I allocate my hobbies' time to other more personally fulfilling endeavours than keeping up with languages' updates, compsci problems, etc. It's just not that interesting anymore. I stumbled upon this career, at the time I never even considered or had known it was a very well paid one so I've been extremely lucky for that but I don't hold that much more interest in it as a hobby, for that I believe the time has passed. It's now, to me, a very well paid office job.
- nyarlathotep_ 2y ago
  > One can also go through the phase of programming being the most fun hobby, getting into a career related to it, and phase out programming as a hobby. Yeah this is my path. I'd guess 50% of the code I've ever written was from when I was a hobbyist for many years, and a large portion of the "general" software skills I've gained are from that as well.
ghysznje 2y ago
You summed up my experience at big tech pretty well :)
stefanos82 2y ago
This is where you see the injustices of life my friend...some people desperately want to get a job like this because technology is their passion and others change them like shirts because they have the work experience but it's not their great love...they just happen to know how to interview and get hired! And here's the sad thing for me; these people are actually unhappy because they're not doing something they love; they're just doing it for the money, when they could be doing something else that was their great passion. Can you imagine how many well-hidden unknown `Picasso`s, `Mozart`s, and `Meryl Streep`s are out there unbeknownst to us?! It drives me crazy!