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I just want to code (2023)

(www.zachbellay.com)
288 points SCUSKU | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.284s | source
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alkonaut ◴[] No.43818348[source]
Do many people hobby code with that entrepreneur mindset thing? Or sit down to play guitar thinking they want to make a hit and feeling bad if they just noodle some cover songs? What a miserable existence that must be. How do you get that way? Should we blame LinkedIn or what is it?
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ramon156 ◴[] No.43818559[source]
Because having your own product is something that on paper sounds extremely rewarding. If you do it well, the maintenance might be less than the work you put in your actual job.

Some people want to break out of the cycle, and you can't really blame them for it when the economy is hurting working people (ofcourse excluding that writing software is relative to other jobs a cushion job)

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zeroc8 ◴[] No.43818724[source]
It's not a cushion job. At least not when you are working on a huge codebase together with lots of other developers.
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sethammons ◴[] No.43819503[source]
What other jobs have you had? I have been a photo lab assistant, a sign maker apprentice, a graphic designer, an insurance agent, a financial advisor, a construction worker and manual laborer, an inner-city math teacher, a software developer turned manager turn developer, now at the staff level.

Software is the most cush job I have had. More money for less work. Better perks. Less stress overall. Constantly learning, yes. Often frustrating, yes. But having financial resources beyond what the other jobs could provide is a thing. Other jobs I could leave at work, sure, but others I couldn't. I would never go back to being a public high school teacher; that shit was the suck. So was selling stocks. Software is a dream in comparison.

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1. aleph_minus_one ◴[] No.43824701[source]
> Software is the most cush job I have had. More money for less work. Better perks. Less stress overall. Constantly learning, yes. Often frustrating, yes. But having financial resources beyond what the other jobs could provide is a thing. Other jobs I could leave at work, sure, but others I couldn't. I would never go back to being a public high school teacher; that shit was the suck. So was selling stocks. Software is a dream in comparison.

The problem is: there exists a very specific group of people who do software development as a job who are really passionate and idealistic about software (that's why they actually got interested in software development and decided to do this professionally). For these people, the whole "politics" about software devlopment, bullshit project management processes, not being allowed to make use of their full potential and skills, and office politics is (thus) hell on earth.

I thus very plausibly do believe that exactly for people who are incredibly passionate about software development, other jobs (that are outside their passion) can actually (paradoxically!) be more convenient.