How Many Years Coding
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
Whoa! 80 hour weeks? If I've got my math right, that's like 10 hours every day, for 8 days a week. That's a lot of work. I am salaried to 40 hour weeks and they get at least 8 hours out of me each 2 week paycheck. :-D
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
Being paid to program since Nov. 18, 1991. dBase III+ and Clipper to C using BRIEF as an editor (still miss my Microsoft C 5.1 function reference, it was in 3 ring binder form. Pages always laid flat. BRIEF had a macro language like jEdit does it was kick-a$$) [in the Travel data arena] to a job where I did VC++, Powerbuilder, SQL, network maintenance, etc. [pension calculation company] to Delphi 6 [working for a US gov't contractor] to another job in Delphi 6 that is transforming into Java projects. [back to travel data, funny how the world works] Rarely put in more than 40 hours a week.
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Whoa! 80 hour weeks? If I've got my math right, that's like 10 hours every day, for 8 days a week. That's a lot of work. I am salaried to 40 hour weeks and they get at least 8 hours out of me each 2 week paycheck. :-D
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
_WinBase_ wrote:
put in 80+ hour weeks
Well, I think we can rule out that you work in France... The programmers I know that loved programming and solving problems then moved to management hated it. They also turned out to be very poor managers. I've become complacent at times, but have discovered that there are plenty of different types of jobs out there. I have also found with many of them you really can work a regular work week. I have been reluctant to change jobs because I thought the money couldn't get any better, or whatever else. Basically the fear of change, but non of my fears have turned out to be true. Hopefully you are working with a technology that you enjoy, and is somewhat sustainable. I would suggest to stay on top of the technologies that are used for the types of programming that you enjoy and whats relevant for that industry.
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
The first lines of code I wrote were in Basic on a Texas Instruments TI99-4A; we then were in 1983, and I was 10. But I only code seriously since 10 years now; I've merely known only .NET languages (a litlle bit of VB6, but I quit it quickly). Edit: I forgot to mention that I studied Prolog during the last year before graduation. I remember we had a project, a nice program that allowed us to check every fact about greek deities genealogy. From this language, I forgot almost everything, though.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
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Emmanuel Medina Lopez wrote:
what would you do if money was never gonna be an issue
Tending bar in a third-world cantina.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
Tending bar in a thirdan off-world cantina.
FTFY ;) http://starwars.com/explore/encyclopedia/locations/cantina/[^]
A positive attitude may not solve every problem, but it will annoy enough people to be worth the effort.
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_WinBase_ wrote:
put in 80+ hour weeks
Well, I think we can rule out that you work in France... The programmers I know that loved programming and solving problems then moved to management hated it. They also turned out to be very poor managers. I've become complacent at times, but have discovered that there are plenty of different types of jobs out there. I have also found with many of them you really can work a regular work week. I have been reluctant to change jobs because I thought the money couldn't get any better, or whatever else. Basically the fear of change, but non of my fears have turned out to be true. Hopefully you are working with a technology that you enjoy, and is somewhat sustainable. I would suggest to stay on top of the technologies that are used for the types of programming that you enjoy and whats relevant for that industry.
Paul M Watt wrote:
Well, I think we can rule out that you work in France...
Would you care explaining the causality behind this assumption? Because it does not seem directly obvious to me.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
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Emmanuel Medina Lopez wrote:
what would you do if money was never gonna be an issue
Tending bar in a third-world cantina.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote:
Tending bar in a thirdan off-world cantina.
FTFY ;) http://starwars.com/explore/encyclopedia/locations/cantina/[^]
A positive attitude may not solve every problem, but it will annoy enough people to be worth the effort.
Prefer the cantina in Star Trek V -- with the triple-breasted cat woman. "The closest thing to Paradise."
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Prefer the cantina in Star Trek V -- with the triple-breasted cat woman. "The closest thing to Paradise."
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
So ... just how many hands do you have? ;)
A positive attitude may not solve every problem, but it will annoy enough people to be worth the effort.
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Paul M Watt wrote:
Well, I think we can rule out that you work in France...
Would you care explaining the causality behind this assumption? Because it does not seem directly obvious to me.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
I'm guessing it's something along these lines[^] as to why the statement was made, it was a funny one though.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
Started as a senior in high school in '68, then got a summer job with the traffic court in Chicago. I've been programming full time since then, except for a (roughly) 2 year break to be a blacksmith. Unfortunately, while I'm a decent smith, I'm terrifyingly bad as a salesman. I look forward to retiring in perhaps 4 years; probably will continue doing some programming and working part time in my wife's piano store. One advantage of my longevity is that I can call everyone else in my department 'young whippersnapper' and get away with it - because it's true. :cool:
According to my calculations, I should be able to retire about 5 years after I die.
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
_WinBase_ wrote:
I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines
Something tells me that regardless of your productivity, the deadlines aren't going to change. The guy who is making the planning should be fired, without any further discussion.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I'm guessing it's something along these lines[^] as to why the statement was made, it was a funny one though.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
Oh yes, now I see. Funny as this 35-hours rules pretty did not change anything in the amount of hours most people work a week. On quiet weeks, I usually work about 42 hours; but that can grow up sometimes (more often than that, in fact). This has just set up some additional resting days (about 1.5 days a month) that we can take when we need; pretty useful as most administrations are closed on week-ends. Thanks for your clarification :)
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
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Oh yes, now I see. Funny as this 35-hours rules pretty did not change anything in the amount of hours most people work a week. On quiet weeks, I usually work about 42 hours; but that can grow up sometimes (more often than that, in fact). This has just set up some additional resting days (about 1.5 days a month) that we can take when we need; pretty useful as most administrations are closed on week-ends. Thanks for your clarification :)
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
When this was reported in the US, they presented it in a somewhat humorous light, making it seem as though the whole country was a bunch of slackers. However, I think it was really jealousy (at least I was jealous anyway). ;)
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
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Paul M Watt wrote:
Well, I think we can rule out that you work in France...
Would you care explaining the causality behind this assumption? Because it does not seem directly obvious to me.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
It's a reference to this demotivator from despair.com: Effort[^]
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It's a reference to this demotivator from despair.com: Effort[^]
Ok, I didn't know this one. I don't see things this way, either ^^ But I get how it is seen from outside.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't. "I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
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It's a reference to this demotivator from despair.com: Effort[^]
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I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living, & am writing my best stuff, but look at all the new languages, frameworks, operating systems etc. and think "here we go again" so am getting increasingly reluctant to want to keep re-learning it all once more, and at 52 I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines but can feel a bit of the passion dying year on year, so how long have others kept on? and if you moved away to a different sphere or know of others that did, what did they do? I earn good money which is hard to give up but it isn't the be all and end all, i'm just looking for something different where I can put my experience to good use and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'. Thanks.
_WinBase_ wrote:
and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'
That of course depends entirely on you. A comedian can make a lot of money but if you absolutely refuse to get on a stage it isn't going to be much fun. A good sales person can make much more than a good developer but if you are going to be miserable doing that then it doesn't matter.
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_WinBase_ wrote:
put in 80+ hour weeks
Well, I think we can rule out that you work in France... The programmers I know that loved programming and solving problems then moved to management hated it. They also turned out to be very poor managers. I've become complacent at times, but have discovered that there are plenty of different types of jobs out there. I have also found with many of them you really can work a regular work week. I have been reluctant to change jobs because I thought the money couldn't get any better, or whatever else. Basically the fear of change, but non of my fears have turned out to be true. Hopefully you are working with a technology that you enjoy, and is somewhat sustainable. I would suggest to stay on top of the technologies that are used for the types of programming that you enjoy and whats relevant for that industry.
Paul M Watt wrote:
moved to management hated it ... very poor managers
I've worked for a couple of bosses who had been developers and wished they still had the time to develop. But they didn't appear to hate it and weren't bad at it. It sure beats working for someone who has no idea what development is all about -- those can be some bad bosses.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.