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That's actually an interesting reply. Do you actually get paid to do, say, computer vision? If so, what's the ratio of enjoyable to menial work (please be hones

That's actually an interesting reply. Do you actually get paid to do, say, computer vision? If so, what's the ratio of enjoyable to menial work (please be honest)? Also how do you manage to find jobs like this? I found that hiring managers tend to, like, lie about the jobs. What I mean is there's no shortage of interestingly-sounding job descriptions out there that have nothing in common with what the hired person actually supposed to do. And you can't know the day-to-day reality of any job before you'll actually get it and then it's too late. How do you work around this situation?

lovelearning 12y ago
I totally agree with you that most job descriptions don't quite match the day-to-day tasks we end up doing. It's been my experience as well. Not just in all my salaried jobs, but even in the freelance contracts I took up. My solution to that might seem extreme to many, but here goes: I simply stopped applying for any salaried jobs and ignored almost all the freelance gigs that came my way! The answer to your question is that I'm not getting paid by anybody. I don't even want to get paid by anybody. Working for others on _their_ ideas is something I find downright unpleasant. When I worked for others, many tasks seemed "menial" / "time consuming" / "boring" to my mind. In the past, I did not realize that this unpleasantness is simply because I'm working on others ideas, instead of my own. Instead, I blamed it on the field of software engineering. I even remember confessing to a friend that I'd started to find programming boring. That was some 4 years ago. As I said, things have totally turned around for me since then. Now when I work for myself, everything becomes a new adventure from which I learn something more. I feel that the only way to get work satisfaction and make any impact is to explore the frontiers in different fields, work on my own, indulge my hobbies and build my own innovative products. It's definitely a risk, but luckily I had built up a nice nest egg during my salaried and freelancing days. If all this sounds too radical or impractical to you, then you can gently start off by offering to develop a full fledged software solution for a small business you know about via your connections (somebody mentioned veterinarians above...I agree with that kind of thinking). I'd avoid the freelancing sites though - they are a whole different set of unpleasantness. In small business freelancing projects, you are usually the only developer doing everything, and so you will make an impact without any kind of restraints on your technical creativity. Depending on the luck and nature of that business, that impact may even be widespread in some way. Of course, like me, eventually you may get bored of this too, since most such freelance projects too start off as CRUD type applications. But even when implementing such boilerplate, I kept my mind open for alternate solutions that involved unconventional fields like computer vision and speech recognition. Many business processes today involve humans in the chain only because vision, cognitive thinking, reasoning and speech do not have practical software solutions. Imagine implementing a computer vision based system that is able to keep accounts automatically from handwritten bills, without requiring users to enter details. Such problems are most definitely not solved. I'm ok if all I end up changing is making one local business richer and happier...it's still better than zero.
- UncleOxidant 12y ago
  Maybe I missed it, but how do you get money to live on? I'm kind of doing the same thing. I quit a corporate job a few months back to work on stuff I'm really interested in. Doing a bit of blogging and hoping that maybe working on things I'm interested in and then blogging about it will get me a gig getting paid to work on things I'm interested in. But I suspect it's going to be a long slog getting to that money part. I'm fortunate, in that I've been frugal over the years and saved up so that I could continue on this path for at least another six months to maybe a year (well, insurance for myself and my wife is almost the biggest expense, almost as much as the mortgage). I'm just afraid that after six months or a year or whenever I can't afford to keep doing this that in the end nobody will have taken notice and I'll just have to go back to a soul crushingly boring corporate job again.
  - lovelearning 12y ago
    Soul crushing is exactly what they are! My earnings from previous jobs and contracts, and the returns on my financial investments, will keep me going for the next 5 years. I'm single, so it's relatively easy for me. I'm currently writing an ebook and working on 2-3 software project ideas which I hope to sell to local businesses and earn revenue. I'm also preparing some training materials, since trainings pay a decent dime here. My long term plan too is the same - software products, some electronics products, ebooks, and trainings. In addition to waiting for a gig, perhaps you can also think of monetizing your ideas into a business to sell to customers.

lovelearning 12y ago

I totally agree with you that most job descriptions don't quite match the day-to-day tasks we end up doing. It's been my experience as well. Not just in all my salaried jobs, but even in the freelance contracts I took up. My solution to that might seem extreme to many, but here goes: I simply stopped applying for any salaried jobs and ignored almost all the freelance gigs that came my way! The answer to your question is that I'm not getting paid by anybody. I don't even want to get paid by anybody. Working for others on _their_ ideas is something I find downright unpleasant. When I worked for others, many tasks seemed "menial" / "time consuming" / "boring" to my mind. In the past, I did not realize that this unpleasantness is simply because I'm working on others ideas, instead of my own. Instead, I blamed it on the field of software engineering. I even remember confessing to a friend that I'd started to find programming boring. That was some 4 years ago. As I said, things have totally turned around for me since then. Now when I work for myself, everything becomes a new adventure from which I learn something more. I feel that the only way to get work satisfaction and make any impact is to explore the frontiers in different fields, work on my own, indulge my hobbies and build my own innovative products. It's definitely a risk, but luckily I had built up a nice nest egg during my salaried and freelancing days. If all this sounds too radical or impractical to you, then you can gently start off by offering to develop a full fledged software solution for a small business you know about via your connections (somebody mentioned veterinarians above...I agree with that kind of thinking). I'd avoid the freelancing sites though - they are a whole different set of unpleasantness. In small business freelancing projects, you are usually the only developer doing everything, and so you will make an impact without any kind of restraints on your technical creativity. Depending on the luck and nature of that business, that impact may even be widespread in some way. Of course, like me, eventually you may get bored of this too, since most such freelance projects too start off as CRUD type applications. But even when implementing such boilerplate, I kept my mind open for alternate solutions that involved unconventional fields like computer vision and speech recognition. Many business processes today involve humans in the chain only because vision, cognitive thinking, reasoning and speech do not have practical software solutions. Imagine implementing a computer vision based system that is able to keep accounts automatically from handwritten bills, without requiring users to enter details. Such problems are most definitely not solved. I'm ok if all I end up changing is making one local business richer and happier...it's still better than zero.

UncleOxidant 12y ago
Maybe I missed it, but how do you get money to live on? I'm kind of doing the same thing. I quit a corporate job a few months back to work on stuff I'm really interested in. Doing a bit of blogging and hoping that maybe working on things I'm interested in and then blogging about it will get me a gig getting paid to work on things I'm interested in. But I suspect it's going to be a long slog getting to that money part. I'm fortunate, in that I've been frugal over the years and saved up so that I could continue on this path for at least another six months to maybe a year (well, insurance for myself and my wife is almost the biggest expense, almost as much as the mortgage). I'm just afraid that after six months or a year or whenever I can't afford to keep doing this that in the end nobody will have taken notice and I'll just have to go back to a soul crushingly boring corporate job again.
- lovelearning 12y ago
  Soul crushing is exactly what they are! My earnings from previous jobs and contracts, and the returns on my financial investments, will keep me going for the next 5 years. I'm single, so it's relatively easy for me. I'm currently writing an ebook and working on 2-3 software project ideas which I hope to sell to local businesses and earn revenue. I'm also preparing some training materials, since trainings pay a decent dime here. My long term plan too is the same - software products, some electronics products, ebooks, and trainings. In addition to waiting for a gig, perhaps you can also think of monetizing your ideas into a business to sell to customers.