I've lost my mojo...
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
I had the same problem. But I replaced my mojo with mojito and it's been great ever since. :cool:
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
rarius@rarius.co.uk wrote:
Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind.
Or, as a wild guess, maybe it is because you have been doing it for 25 years.
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You should definitely change your username... And probably change your job also... :rose:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Hi Joan, I agree, strongly, with your name change idea : here's a few ideas: various.various precarious.various verifiably.voracious motivated.motivator be-all.do-all nevermiss.deadline agilescrum.aupair Are hyphens legal ? best, Bill
The glyphs you are reading now: are place-holders signifying the total absence of a signature.
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I had the same problem. But I replaced my mojo with mojito and it's been great ever since. :cool:
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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rarius@rarius.co.uk wrote:
I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years...
rarius@rarius.co.uk wrote:
When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95...
:doh: I know my math is not the same it use to be, but unless you had a time machine that is under 20 years (17 if you were into it right away)
Computers have been intelligent for a long time now. It just so happens that the program writers are about as effective as a room full of monkeys trying to crank out a copy of Hamlet.
Collin Jasnoch wrote:
I know my math is not the same it use to be, but unless you had a time machine that is under 20 years (17 if you were into it right away)
Ah! The lost years, now we know where he lost his mojo. :sigh:
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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I have been looking. I have had several interviews but they all seem to much the same. Does no-one actually write applications any more. Has software development degenerated into a game of high-tech Lego?
I try to make a living gluing components together, and fill in my own components and special glues in between. The latter two keep me interested in the finer points of .NET and C# and the former one allows be to pursue them. I have had episodes of burnout though, where nothing at all gets me interested except a break.
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Cool. I guess it's a topic for another discussion, but I saw a lot of apps build with Unity and I wonder how's learning curve? I myself build couple of games using a home grown framework similar to PhoneGap (https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=GASP[^]). Since it's all standard HTML/JS it was pretty straight forward after building/migrating framework to a new environment (Android/iOS). If I would of known than what I know now, I would of chosen PhoneGap. The problem though is performance with either AI or animation since it goes through DOM/JS and all the layers. I thought something like Unity would address at least performance. What's your thoughts on that?
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Cool. I guess it's a topic for another discussion, but I saw a lot of apps build with Unity and I wonder how's learning curve? I myself build couple of games using a home grown framework similar to PhoneGap (https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=GASP[^]). Since it's all standard HTML/JS it was pretty straight forward after building/migrating framework to a new environment (Android/iOS). If I would of known than what I know now, I would of chosen PhoneGap. The problem though is performance with either AI or animation since it goes through DOM/JS and all the layers. I thought something like Unity would address at least performance. What's your thoughts on that?
Unity has its ups and downs as far as learning curve goes. If you've had a primer in 3d graphics before it's not that bad and they have pretty helpful forums and lots of examples. The biggest plus for me with Unity was that it can use Monodev. I got to re-use all my C# game logic and objects pretty much as-is. Unity performed very well for me. I did all my testing on the Samsung Galaxy S (old dog of a phone compared to what is on shelves now) and the AI and graphics ran just fine.
Play my game Gravity: IOS[^], Android[^], Windows Phone 7[^]
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Unity has its ups and downs as far as learning curve goes. If you've had a primer in 3d graphics before it's not that bad and they have pretty helpful forums and lots of examples. The biggest plus for me with Unity was that it can use Monodev. I got to re-use all my C# game logic and objects pretty much as-is. Unity performed very well for me. I did all my testing on the Samsung Galaxy S (old dog of a phone compared to what is on shelves now) and the AI and graphics ran just fine.
Play my game Gravity: IOS[^], Android[^], Windows Phone 7[^]
Thanks a lot for your reply. I wish there would be a forum for a discussion like that. The Galaxy S is oldie but still good. In my stats it's #6. Though you are right - a year ago I was getting much more complaints about performance then I do now - so I guess as hardware moves on, browser-based solutions becomes more acceptable. Early on I decided trade performance for development speed. Somehow HTML/JS/jQuery/Notepad++/Firebug gives me pretty quick turn around. Also I thought that this is the only way to cover for all mobile devices, Facebook and others... I thought that something like Angry Birds, FarmVile, actually uses HTML solution to cover for all their environments - Chrome/Android/iOS... The longer I spend researching the more I'm convinced that they probably have multiple versions for different environments sharing only level design and timing constants - to large degree similar to what you do with XNA/Unity.
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Thanks a lot for your reply. I wish there would be a forum for a discussion like that. The Galaxy S is oldie but still good. In my stats it's #6. Though you are right - a year ago I was getting much more complaints about performance then I do now - so I guess as hardware moves on, browser-based solutions becomes more acceptable. Early on I decided trade performance for development speed. Somehow HTML/JS/jQuery/Notepad++/Firebug gives me pretty quick turn around. Also I thought that this is the only way to cover for all mobile devices, Facebook and others... I thought that something like Angry Birds, FarmVile, actually uses HTML solution to cover for all their environments - Chrome/Android/iOS... The longer I spend researching the more I'm convinced that they probably have multiple versions for different environments sharing only level design and timing constants - to large degree similar to what you do with XNA/Unity.
gstolarov wrote:
I wish there would be a forum for a discussion like that.
You might find this forum[^] interesting.
"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.
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Collin Jasnoch wrote:
I know my math is not the same it use to be, but unless you had a time machine that is under 20 years (17 if you were into it right away)
Ah! The lost years, now we know where he lost his mojo. :sigh:
It was broke, so I fixed it.
I actually started writing software several years before Win95. To be honest it is more like 23 years than 25, but I was rounding up!
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
Been there, but my biggest problem at the end of the 90s was every company I was working for either went out of business or was assimilated (bought out) by a larger and even more impersonal company. The environment at those jobs was poor to say the least, and couple that with maintaining the same solution over and over again, I burned out. I got out of the technology business, became a fishing guide, and went back to school for a journalism degree. I did that long enough to get a good perspective on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I now have a job that let's me work on a wide array of projects and technology, and being the lead lets me cherry pick the best projects to work on. I am loving it. My advice: If you have a passion outside of technology, and you can afford to do it for a few years, take a little break. When you come back, you'll have a whole new outlook. "I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand." - Douglas Adams
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
Uh oh, the 'R' word: "Resources". I'll bet your company has a Human Resources Department. In the old days resources were what people dug out of the ground and sold ... maybe nothing's changed here.
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
Recently I've been asking myself this question too often, for two reasons: 1 - I can't keep up with it anymore 2 - I don't want to do it in my free time anymore. It's just not as much fun anymore and I wonder if it's time for me to take a different path...
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
Since 2009, after being laid off from a segement of the auto industry in January ofthat year, I have been through 3 consulting assigments and 2 employee positions. Recently my current contract was cut yet again due tio mismanagement and I am now looking for my 6th gig. I have been in the field 38 years. I still very much enjoy working with technology but I no longer have the emotional strength to put up with all the bad management I have encountered in my career. I have had some interesting work over the years but the management people have just drained me. For me, its now getting a major e-commerce site up and running for my wife's new jewelry business, which we are hopeful will do well. Hopefully, I'll finally be able to say good-bye to the corporate world. I've had enough... :-(
Steve Naidamast Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com
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Recently I've been asking myself this question too often, for two reasons: 1 - I can't keep up with it anymore 2 - I don't want to do it in my free time anymore. It's just not as much fun anymore and I wonder if it's time for me to take a different path...
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
I too am at 26 yrs of it and have wondered a lot lately how the cobol programmers felt because our PC tech was new and different and they were so stuck with their tech. Now, I'm finding I'm like them where the tech is changing and I'm stuck with the existing. Another big change is that this new younger breed of ambitious people rising in the management ranks (not techie's either) believe they know tech or at least like to protray it and are willing to make decisions based upon their own limited and bias knowledge of tech. Their disdain for us techies seems to be a basic requirement for them because they don't want anyone knowing they don't know what they're talking about. Plus, they like to make all the decisions and not defer to the techies. Plus, they hate us when they see us get paid better than them and think that its an injustice to them. The world doesn't respect us anymore. They feel technically empowered (self sufficient) and don't depend upon us for knowledge and understanding of it. They're all iphone experts.
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I too am at 26 yrs of it and have wondered a lot lately how the cobol programmers felt because our PC tech was new and different and they were so stuck with their tech. Now, I'm finding I'm like them where the tech is changing and I'm stuck with the existing. Another big change is that this new younger breed of ambitious people rising in the management ranks (not techie's either) believe they know tech or at least like to protray it and are willing to make decisions based upon their own limited and bias knowledge of tech. Their disdain for us techies seems to be a basic requirement for them because they don't want anyone knowing they don't know what they're talking about. Plus, they like to make all the decisions and not defer to the techies. Plus, they hate us when they see us get paid better than them and think that its an injustice to them. The world doesn't respect us anymore. They feel technically empowered (self sufficient) and don't depend upon us for knowledge and understanding of it. They're all iphone experts.
donedge wrote:
They're all iphone experts.
You said it all there...
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I've been a software engineer for nigh on 25 years and just recently I have come to realise that I just don't give a damn about software anymore. Maybe its because I work for a company that just treats us all like resources not people. Maybe its because all I get to do is customise someone else's badly written software. Or maybe its just that software development has changed so much since I started out that it has left me behind. When I started, I was writing windows controls for Win95, C++ was new and exciting and no-one had heard of a garbage collector. Now all I ever seem to write is glue code sticking other developer's components together. Am I alone in this, or have other people hit this kind of crisis?
Rarius
I'm right there with you. Back then we engineered software. C was (and still is) the king of system-level development, without having to drop to assembler (much). Many could do it, but few could do it well. Now? I'm being hounded daily about how some new javascript library is going to change the world. How this or that CSS "revolutionizes" the web. Blah, blah, blah. Add to that the corporate politics where sysadmin scripters will argue that Ruby on Rails is better than any compiled language simply because it's "easy". You know the ones, they're the people who attach themselves to management and give hourly/daily updates about how clever they are. Technology is useless unless it makes life better for us somehow. Yet it seems many are just in love with the technology for it's own sake. Fanboys, zealots all. In the end, I did 2 things:
- Started my own company as a side venue. I don't want it growing like crazy because I'm not willing to take much time away from my family. It's just an outlet where I can do things using all my experience and creativity, and make a little money to boot.
- Accepted a job with a great company where there appears to be room for me to stretch my other skills, yet still develop.
I have to admit, the political side still disgusts me. And I still haven't regained my hunger. But software pays the bills.
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Recently I've been asking myself this question too often, for two reasons: 1 - I can't keep up with it anymore 2 - I don't want to do it in my free time anymore. It's just not as much fun anymore and I wonder if it's time for me to take a different path...
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
Fabio Franco wrote:
2 - I don't want to do it in my free time anymore
My amount of 'free time' has changed over the years. When I started over 12 years ago, it was not uncommon for me to work past midnight. It was challenging and exciting and the time seemed to fly by. Anymore, wifey complains when I need to work/study after hours, or there's always some family/friends obligation. I can still get 'caught up' in the moment, but only for brief periods, before something interrupts me...like my cell phone...again...'free time' is fleeting!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse