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Imagine you are an artist, and you are hired to paint very boring "hotel art" your whole life. Yes, your job would suck and you might as well not learn to pain

Imagine you are an artist, and you are hired to paint very boring "hotel art" your whole life. Yes, your job would suck and you might as well not learn to paint. The vast, vast majority of programming jobs suck (if yours does not, you are lucky). Every single one of my jobs has been pretty boring, and many of them were relatively exciting compared to your average programming job. But I love to program. Just not for other people. I spend all of my spare time programming. To me, programming is a video game with millions of unsolved challenges, each with millions of creative solutions. The more time I invest in programming, the more empowered I feel, as if I have a second augmented brain waiting to be instructed. I agree with the majority of the author's messages. That said, programming may or may not be for everyone, but there is definitely no harm in just trying it out.

brudgers 14y ago
One of my neighbors makes a living painting. It is unlikely you've heard of her unless you're in this regional art market. It's a job. She works every morning. She makes money painting pieces which sell, and she has a good idea about what will and won't. But she loves because she loves making art and she loves making art so much that she uses her non-working time to make art that she knows won't sell. Her "hotel art" or rather big house art is both a means to an end and a creative outlet. The choice is not one or the other.
- gavanwoolery 14y ago
  Agreed :)
- eshvk 14y ago
  Perhaps hotel art is not the right analogy that OP should have used? Here is a better analogy: Think of hiring an artist to paint the walls of a building, where painting them is defined by a rigid instruction set by a PM, we have two week sprint cycles where your progress on each wall is measured. You are actively encouraged with generous redbulls to crush painting the wall and work long hours painting the wall. You furthermore see that industry is obsessed with dozens of articles on whether people should paint their walls horizontally or vertically. There are people talking about making their first millions painting a building which has odd geometrical shapes. Yet, the reason you got into painting/art was because you loved to design and create. You loved the fact that art school gave you the opportunity to do that. You are sometimes hopeful when you go interviews and you are asked questions on design, ask to create something amazing. Hoping that maybe this time things will be different and you won't be asked to paint fucking walls.

brudgers 14y ago

One of my neighbors makes a living painting. It is unlikely you've heard of her unless you're in this regional art market. It's a job. She works every morning. She makes money painting pieces which sell, and she has a good idea about what will and won't. But she loves because she loves making art and she loves making art so much that she uses her non-working time to make art that she knows won't sell. Her "hotel art" or rather big house art is both a means to an end and a creative outlet. The choice is not one or the other.

gavanwoolery 14y ago
Agreed :)
eshvk 14y ago
Perhaps hotel art is not the right analogy that OP should have used? Here is a better analogy: Think of hiring an artist to paint the walls of a building, where painting them is defined by a rigid instruction set by a PM, we have two week sprint cycles where your progress on each wall is measured. You are actively encouraged with generous redbulls to crush painting the wall and work long hours painting the wall. You furthermore see that industry is obsessed with dozens of articles on whether people should paint their walls horizontally or vertically. There are people talking about making their first millions painting a building which has odd geometrical shapes. Yet, the reason you got into painting/art was because you loved to design and create. You loved the fact that art school gave you the opportunity to do that. You are sometimes hopeful when you go interviews and you are asked questions on design, ask to create something amazing. Hoping that maybe this time things will be different and you won't be asked to paint fucking walls.