|
I've lost and regained the passion for software development a couple times in my 30 year career, mostly due to the company I was working for at the time being too damn cheap to invest in the tools needed to move the product forward or provide the needed staffing or the manager(s) getting caught up in the latest buzz words and thinking they knew better than the developers how to create good software.
The last time this happened I resorted to building auto-cross race cars in my off time to stimulate my creative needs. Resulted in me now owning 2 very fast "race" cars plus I learned to weld, spray paint, tune suspensions and rewire modern fuel injected engines. Exploring the engine control systems I came across a DIY fuel injection system (Mega-Squirt), built one and end up modifying the open-source firmware to provide capabilities I needed. Rekindled my passion for software and got me more involved in low level embedded work.
So, there is hope in the tech related world if you get too jaded/burned out by all the BS involved in the day-to-day grind of corporate software development.
Ken W.
|
|
|
|
|
I'm in jaded mode at the moment. I use to love programming - I've been doing it for 45 years; but it has become commoditised. Agile / scrum means we are interchangeable components, effectively code-monkeys, small cogs in large wheels. We no longer 'own' our work; no-one cares about elegance and beauty in the code; there is no sense of achievement - it's just a case of getting a small piece of work done and then doing the next small job. Even my home projects have languished as my disillusionment with work tasks has taken the shine off my home programming. Would moving to another job help? Probably not - it could be out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I know that I am fortunate - if I had been a few years older, there is no way I'd have made the grade of those hype intelligent pioneers of the computing world. If I had been a few years younger, I would have hated 'Computer Studies' being all about business and infrastructure and very little about programming and design. Modern programming has simultaneously 'dumbed down' the skill set (I'm from the generation that did not see the need for compilers - they only do what you you've already done in your head) and has complicated everything - you no longer just write a program that does something; you have to know dozens of frameworks, technologies, design patterns etc even to do simple tasks.
I used to write large systems / applications; now all I do is fix figures in reports and add views in databases. Job satisfaction? You decide.
I suppose it is the same in all maturing industries. We were metaphorically exploring the uncharted wild west, now we are cruising in air conditioned cars on a motorway. Yes, you get to the destination quicker and more comfortably; but where is the sense of adventure, danger, excitement and achievement?
Give us a meaningful, significant project that is challenging and rewarding (intellectually) where we can use our unique insights and innovations and we will stop being jaded. Treat us as unskilled production line workers and we will stay depressed.
Despite all that, I love programming, I love the folks around me in the office. I am living in the best possible time in history being paid for being involved with something that I am passionate about. So why am I still jaded and miserable?
|
|
|
|
|
jsc42 wrote:
Despite all that, I love programming, I love the folks around me in the office. I am living in the best possible time in history being paid for being involved with something that I am passionate about. So why am I still jaded and miserable?
That encapsulates so much of what I feel day to day. Nicely articulated.
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.
|
|
|
|
|
Jeremy Falcon wrote: And yet, we do this because we're creators.
You nailed it. I started in software development in the late 90's because I was striving for a means of fullfilling creative expression. I've made it a point over the years ensure the products I engineer are clean, visually unique, and expressive of my personality.
A few years ago I really felt like I had arrived. 15+ years of experiences in a very diverse product environment gave me great satisfaction and gratitude. Since that time I've watched the technologies I'd devoted so many late nights studying and mastering basically die (GDI/WinForms, ASPNET WebForms, etc) and be completely replaced by newer (presumably better) frameworks (WPF, MVC, Store Apps, etc).
Its a crushing feeling having to endure the thought of starting all over again every 5-10 years having to learn the latest framework (or hotness). Sometimes I just wish I had gone into pure engineering or some other industry. After all math doesn't change often, nor do most of the principles and tools in use in most other industries.
I seem to spend most of my times these days porting code for problems I solved years ago in one platform over to whatever the newest platform is since the youngsters demand everything be written in whatever is the flavor of the month happens to be.
|
|
|
|
|
Is a boycott when all the girls stop dating?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, the only remedy is to climb higher on the ladder.
... such stuff as dreams are made on
|
|
|
|
|
Sounds like a 'dry spell' to me, but let me first base this on hard facts.
We can assume when judging the truth: it's not part of a phallux-see.
Ravings en masse^ |
---|
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
Also if true they're all just dating each other. Then you have to asks for pitte' dates as long as you keep your seed to yourself.
|
|
|
|
|
...and a mascot is when everybody goes home.
Sin tack
the any key okay
|
|
|
|
|
What is an "asset"? A small donkey.
What is an "ascot"? It's where the donkey sleeps.
- Benny Hill
|
|
|
|
|
Is it still Netflix and chill if the Internet freezes?
Jeremy Falcon
|
|
|
|
|
No! Boycot is what Lorena did to John Bobbitt!
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
|
|
|
|
|
Out of morbid curiosity, what range of up/down speeds do you guys work with, globally?
Here in Brisbane, Australia, I've got decent download but comparatively terrible upload (due to severe ISP rate-limiting) http://i.imgur.com/rNF0q5A.png[^]
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
|
|
|
|
|
I have 20 Mbps - symmetric, and it is fairly enough to everything I need...
Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results[^]
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most results are quite meaningless,
I get 120 D / 60 U to my own ISP (this PC connected to router through concrete wall via WIFI - wired would be higher - 1GB to the ISP).
But connecting from here to say OG's ISP (Fasthosts Internet) I get about 10 - 15 each way - much more realistic usage rates as my own ISP has nothing that interests me - the rest of the world is where I look around.
But the OP is correct, he has severely throttled upload.
Why? Because that's Australia and that's the way it is there.
(supposedly Aus has full open competition, except that Aus telecoms and it's 'independent' authorities are dominated by a govt protected telco that's about 50 years behind the rest of the world ... but to be fair they are catching up ... albeit slowly, really slowly.)
Sin tack
the any key okay
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: except that Aus telecoms and it's 'independent' authorities are dominated by a govt protected telco that's about 50 years behind the rest of the world That sounds SO Australian!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
|
|
|
|
|
Mitchell J. wrote: decent download 88 Mbps is more than decent. I usually have 25-30 Mbps and I can work from home, have one son gaming online with his 360, and 2 netflixes all running with no issues.
But your upload is pretty terrible. I get about 6 Mbps.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
|
|
|
|
|
Down73.09 Mbps, up 6.83 Mbps, and I was promised more. I started with a 300 baud modem. So I should be grateful. Right. Grateful.
|
|
|
|
|
at home i get about 10 down and .5 up (DSL)
|
|
|
|
|
I'm at 9 Mbps down and .6 Mbps up on DSL at a little after midnight and it decreases drastically during peak hours not to mention dropping out completely on a fairly regular basis. All of my friends are on cable and complain about the slowness of my internet when they're over, but the cable company pays the city I live in to keep the competition out (I really want FIOS), which angers me to the point I won't pay them for their services. So I pay more for slower and less reliable DSL...
|
|
|
|
|
At home I have 7.5Mb down (DSL) and probably less up (I never checked it).
At work I have 887Mb down and 831Mb up (I just tested it) so I am never going home again!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
It so happens Frontier (the old Verizon) gave us a complimentary upgrade from 25 / 25 to 100 / 100 this morning, complete with a new router compatible with the higher speed. I do believe I see smoke coming from my browser when I surf the net.
Edit: I checked the speed: Actual upload is 98 and download is 105. Nice!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
modified 28-Jun-17 13:51pm.
|
|
|
|
|
Back in Melbourne I get about 12 down and 1 up. It's rough.
Here in Toronto I recently signed up for gigabit ethernet. I need to get onto them and give them a hard time about it because I'm only getting about 300 down / 100 up.
it's really, really nice
cheers
Chris Maunder
|
|
|
|
|
Ran just now (work) 270 D/ 270 U
That's sharing w/several hundred users
Ravings en masse^ |
---|
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|