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'm in the same boat. If I'm a commodity to the company, the job is a commodity to me as well. If they don't like my approach, I'll just go get another one. Let's be clear; this is not to say I don't care about performance. I get here, I work pretty hard, I try to build solid, reliable applications and solve the business problems we're faced with. I'm not just throwing together things and walking away. (In fact, a lot of what I do is repair that approach). I just don't care when people try to stress deadlines, et cetera. Nobody is going to die if we don't have something done today. If there are real production problems, I'm on it until it's solved. The things for the next release, I'll work on diligently to try to complete them. But, if I'm given an unreasonable deadline, I'll point that out instead of working tons of overtime to try to reach the deadline. I think a couple of things happen once you've been out there this long. You realize there's more to life than solving business problems and solving those problems isn't nearly as exciting as it once was.
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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.
I still have an old programming I keep for the nostalgia. "Programming the OS/2 Presentation Manager" - Written by Charles Petzold and Published by Microsoft Press. I show the younger programmers that at one point in time Microsoft and IBM used to be "friends" and actually worked on an OS together. Microsoft did the PM and IBM I believe did the Kernel. That book I believe is now over just over 20 years (maybe my math is off) but we were doing C++ and I don't recall it being the "new" thing.
as if the facebook, twitter and message boards weren't enough - blogged
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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
Reading all the replies to this thread scares the hell out of me..about can the same happen to me after 23 years more in field of programming :( .. its only been 1.5 years since I've started my career as a Software Engineer, but I'm sad to say I'm not happy how things happen at the job. I'm very much interested in software design and architecture and I was very proud about my skills back in the days at university. Hoping to further sharpen my skills I've secured a job offer until now , just to find out that I've no longer been able to get the self satisfaction by designing a software system and see it running as expected...its because at the office all I have to do is to use a third party framework and features to get the work done.. I even asked with the superiors.. and they told me that the project needs to be completed quickly hence they have to use the framework...damn its very boring to use some code while we can design a better one which is more suited for our case.I feel that because of all the competition to secure the clients its very hard to evolve as a very good software engineering person. I think I'm in need of a life changing decision :):)
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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
You are not alone. I may be a young Software Engineer just in college but I have done so much coding. Right now I have millions of unfinished projects because I just can't complete them as I lose the mojo whenever I leave the keyboard. I'll gladly do a project and finish it if I'm freelancing. I'd say there has to be some sort of motivation behind it. For me it seems like coding for someone (challenge) motivates me. It's not so much about the money I get afterwards as this is my passion, but it seems like when I start doing my own projects, challenging myself, I give up easily. In other words, I'll code and finish if someone challenges me. If I don't get as much challenges, I'll be base raping some noobs on Battlefield 3 until my PS3 controller breaks. Maybe that might be the issue with you too somewhere in you. ;)