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Well, I'm not stuck. In fact, quite the opposite, as consulting tends to be a financial rollercoaster. Right now, I'm sitting in a lovely cafe in Great Barrington, MA working on stuff. I work at home, make my own hours, and it's a great environment. While the financial stuff can be really stressful, I've decided to take the standpoint that I'm not willing to compromise, no matter what happens, for the kind of crap work environments I've experienced. Sure, Google and Facebook do look like great places to work, and I would actually work for Google (but Facebook? ugh, I do have a sense of ethics) and even CP looks like a nice place to work. So they are out there, and I should qualify my prior statement that almost all places where I would have to commute to are not places I would want to subject myself to, nor do I think any human being should be subjected to.
Call me arrogant or not, but I think we've compromised far too much.
Marc
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Hear hear!
Why spend 2 hours a day travelling to somewhere you don't want to be, surrounded by people you don't consider real friends, wearing clothes that you don't actually want to?
All you get is stressed out, strung out, and frustrated by the other commuters. You get home, and it's too late to do much by the time you have unwound enough to go to bed ready for the next day of the same. And a large chunk of your wages goes in paying for all this! 
Sod that. Life is too important to waste on things you don't want to do every day. OK, what I do has dull patches - coding is like that - but the balance I have is about right, I think.
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+5 for the correct use of Hear! Hear! (I loathe seeing it written as here here!"
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I'm here for 1 reason only... to support my family. The money in software makes that easy.
If I didn't have that responsibility? I'd go into the Christian ministry. Probably as either a missionary or pastor.
But for now... I have a career and maybe in the future when the kids are out the door, opportunities will arrise. Until then, I just volunteer where and when I can, keeping myself ready.
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I am paid enough, work close to where I live, do different things each day, run my own department as I see fit, answer only to the MD and FD, have 99% autonomy, like the people I work with, and am completely satisfied with my output.
I would only leave for a much bigger salary or to be a test pilot for Slumberland.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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It's simple. I applied for the job and was unlucky enough to get it. And then to my big surprise, I noticed that to maintain the living standards I had become accustomed to, I had to go back the day after as well. And the day after... etc.
Why does it have to be so hard when all I really want is to get a fat paycheck but not have to show up for work??? 
Nah, I'm just kidding, I really enjoy my work. I have good colleagues, a good boss, reasonably few demands to produce anything at all and I work only 5 minutes away from my home.
Only thing that could be better is the pay, but if I were to take another job with higher pay, I would have to weigh it off against the travel time and be damned sure it was worth it.
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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I work to ssupport my family, without a doubt. I have been fortunate to be where I am. I can honestly say I get paid to play, surf the internet, drink coffee and try out cool new stuff. (Granted what spins my wheels may be different from other people…) 
I’ve been with my company for 13 years, 7 years as a software engineer (Although I have been programming all 13 years). My manager at the time told ma that since I was spending a good deal of my time programming that I should be in programming so I was promoted. I stay because of what my company does, we design and manufacture medical devices that save and improve people’s lives.
To entice me away would be to do a tour to open for a band like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Foo Fighters or something like that. Otherwise early retirement would work too.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Stuck in my career or stuck at my current location?
The career, I actively chose; I tasted programming in the early '80s, decided I very much enjoyed it and never looked back.
Places of employment:
food manufacturing facility working on plant automation for almost 13 years; very much enjoyed the work; left when the company restructed and I lost my job
from there, moved to take a job at a paper manufacturing facility doing much of the same work I had done previously; same platform, language, tools, etc.
left that job after almost 13 years when recruited to work with a data collection platform that had woven itself into my career over the last 20 years; LOVE my job!
Why do I stay? In order of importance:
1. LOVE the environment
2. great people
3. great pay
4. didn't have to move; almost same commute length in a different direction
5. ability to work from home as needed
What would entice me away?
I have no intentions of leaving anytime soon. The platform developer has a user's conference every year. I attended it in April with my wife. When she spoke to other spouses and said who she was, they said, "My husband knows of your husband and wants to talk to him!" My wife's words, "I didn't know I was married to the Forrest Gump of <platform>"
While I could probably work directly for the company, that would entail leaving the people I enjoy working with along with moving. So, no, I think I'm here for the long haul...
Tim
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I'm in software because I couldn't find an interesting job in geology (which is my degree and what I guess I actually want to do), and it's a hobby skill I'd developed over many years. I'm in this particular company because it's a good place to work – everyone here is highly skilled, intelligent and receives proper training so on the work side it's very productive and satisfying (a problem at my previous job); the pay is decent, though I'm sure I could get more elsewhere, which is nice after doing some self-employed consulting where money is always a worry in the medium and long term; I've moved so that I'm a 5 minute cycle away from work and I'd have to do that again if I moved to a company in a different town, so I'd have to be sure it was much better; and the people here are mostly fun to be with and there's a good sports and social scene as well.
Money doesn't really come into it for me beyond 'having some', I've never been materialistic and as I'm single my discretionary expenses are very small. So to entice me away from here you'd have to offer me a more interesting job or a significantly better working atmosphere and environment ... which is quite difficult to imagine in software, really.
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I blame my manager(s).
I'm stuck...very stuck.
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I've been a programmer for almost 34 years, and worked at my current job for a little over 23. A substantial pay increase, more interesting projects, or better conditions could entice me away.
A big pay increase isn't likely, as I'm an old fart and already at the top of local pay scales. I will not take a managerial position just to get an increase. I can 'manage' if necessary, but I'm not tempermentally suited to it for the long term.
More interesting projects would mean something that would give me exposure in programming environments other than the Windows desktop. Embedded, Linux, web stuff, data base, mobile, etc. This is probably the easiest of the three considerations.
Better conditions would be difficult. My current employer has flex-time and provides a fitness room for employees. This means I can run or work out during my lunch break. We have local running routes ranging from 3 to 8 miles in flat to hilly elevations, plus trails. We're located about 12 miles from where I live, so it's a nice distance when I want to commute to work on my bike. Frankly, this concern outweighs the pay consideration for me. I can get the money anywhere.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I'm not stuck at all; are you?
I don't have much mobility, of course, since people my age don't get hired. But the job's excellent, the pay far better than most in this area (though only 65% of the average for my position), and the cost of living is relatively low. I plan to stick here until I retire. 
Will Rogers never met me.
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I'm not stuck in my job or career. There's nothing else in life I want to do but build software. Been doing it for almost 30 years and can't think of anything else I'd rather do. If I won the $600M+ Powerball, I wouldn't quit my job or stop programming. Would prolly give most of it to charity and maybe buy a wireless mouse.
/ravi
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I've been doing this for almost 30 years as well. All of it with the same company, if you disregard the 2 times my company was bought by competitors in the last 12 years.
I still enjoy what I do, more or less. After the last acquisition a couple years ago they closed the office where I worked so now I get to work from home, pretty much doing what I have been doing for almost 30 years.
In some ways I am stuck in my career but in reality it is winding down any way. I have golden handcuffs. I can't expect to go somewhere else at my age and enjoy the same pay and benefits I currently have.
That being said, if I win the $600M+ Mega Millions tonight I will not quit. I will however become very difficult to manage!
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txmrm wrote: if I win the $600M+ Mega Millions tonight I will not quit. I will however become very difficult to manage!
/ravi
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Well I'm a tart so it would take 2 sh*t pots of money to get me to move! While the environment I work in is bloody horrible it is a big sh*t pot!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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...that works "easily" with semantic types? For example, I may have:
int age = 51;
which completely loses the concept that 51 is an age (in years). What I want is something like:
AgeInYears myAge = 51;
and yet still be able to specify that I can perform, say, arithmetic operations on "myAge". For example, in C#, I could write:
class AgeInYears
{
public int Value {get;set;}
}
... implement operators on AgeInYears
But that gets messy real fast - every "semantic type" needs these operators, etc.
Furthermore, the unit of measurement is still not handled very elegantly.
So, as the question states, are there programming languages out there that are more expressive of semantic types?
Marc
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Maximilien wrote: In C++11, there is the notion of user defined literals.
Wow, that was a fascinating read - thanks for the link. It's been many years since I looked at C++!
Marc
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Well, you can do things analagous to this in Smalltalk.
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: Well, you can do things analagous to this in Smalltalk.
Funny you mention that, I was looking at smalltalk a couple minutes ago!
Marc
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Great minds and all of that.
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I hate myself for typing this:
namespace TestApp1
{
using AgeInYears = System.Int32;
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
AgeInYears myAge = 10;
AgeInYears oldAge = 50;
AgeInYears timeUntilOldAge = oldAge - myAge;
}
}
}
Yes, that's perfectly legal C# code. Its technically an int, works the same way that #define does in c++ to replace types. It only works in single code files though.
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Ron Beyer wrote: AgeInYears oldAge = 50;
You know that you're offending quite a lot of the CP users here, don't you? 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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