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0 pointsinglor6y ago0 comments

Maybe a dumb question - but what are you passionate about? What do you find fun and rewarding?

I genuinely enjoy building software. For the first ~10 years as a software developer I was genuinely surprised I was getting paid.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

scarface746y ago· 2 in thread

By the time I got my first real job as a developer in the mid 90s, I had already spent a decade doing hobby projects in assembly on 8 bit computers and later C on Macs. It had really just become a method to enjoy the big city life in my 20s to mid 30s (including a brief bad marriage).

During that time I dabbled in real estate, was a part time fitness instructor and personal trainer.

In my 40s, I enjoy just working out (home gym), traveling (pre-Covid), hanging out with my wife and friends (again pre-Covid). I have spent a lot of time over the past four years working my butt off at work and after work learning and gaining experience to prepare for (relatively) high paying consulting roles.

Now that is done and I landed a job at $major_cloud_provider, until Covid dies down, I have no idea what life looks like for us on the other side.

inglorOP6y ago

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

The transition I've seen people who enjoy traveling and hanging out with friends a lot is to developer advocate roles where they travel a lot to conferences.

I actually did that quite a bit last year (14 conferences which is hardly a lot but then again I'm not a devrel). Now I'm stuck with the boring parts (making the talks) and none of the interesting ones (traveling, meeting people and tech).

If you spent a decade doing hobby projects - what happened that made that "just a job"?

scarface746y ago

That decade was from the time I was 12 until I was 22. I was a short fat kid with a computer - what else was I going to do? By the time I got to college, I started having a social life.

I got into exercise and fitness after college and my circle started consisting of non-geek professionals who were active. That became my hobby.

Once I had to look at a computer all day, I wanted to do anything else besides looking at a computer after work. You can’t imagine how much fun it was to transform from “computer geek” during the day to “outgoing drill sergeant fitness instructor” in the evening.

I have turned down two or three decent paying ($120/hr+) side contracting opportunities because I would rather just spend time doing anything else when I get off of work.

As far as travel, post-Covid, my job will require extensive travel. I should be able to get frequent flier miles for my personal use.

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