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0 pointsChrisMarshallNY1y ago0 comments

> Meanwhile I can pump out hundreds of lines a weekend on my own free software projects and actually feel like I'm getting things done.

I can relate. It's sort of "Hell is other people." I work very effectively on my own, but the scope is limited. Big things require teams.

I realize how fortunate I am, that I could afford to retire. I don't have as much money as I would, with another ten years under my belt, but I should be OK.

It absolutely stuns me, that young folks are getting paid more out of school, than I made, in my entire career, and have less to show for it.

0 comments

cmrdporcupine1y ago

When I left Google 3+ years ago I was at first delighted to find I still really loved writing code, because I felt like work had drained it out of me.

And then, yes, I found, wait, I actually need to work in a team because like you say there's a limit to how far you can get by yourself. To do big things you need more people.

So I gave up on my fantasy of solo working or somehow retiring, and returned to work.

Only to spend the last 3 years increasingly frustrated.

At least Google dumped insane quantities of money on me, so the frustration was worth it. Plus free food.

Now I'm just frustrated and not nearly as wealthy.

xnx1y ago

AI coding tools are rapidly changing what a single person can accomplish.

cmrdporcupine1y ago

Where I ran up against the limits was not in coding tasks. Programming is "easy"

It's UX & UI design, documentation, product specification, promotion.

I'm unsurprisingly just not that good at these things, but also don't really like to do them. And missed having team members who specialized in them.

1 more reply

DanielHB1y ago

The bigger the companies/products/teams the less code you actually write.

Right now I have a project where a PM asked me to describe the logic of a certain thing to him and I couldn't do it. Literally I couldn't spell it out better than just reading the code.

I ended up translating the code into pseudo code and send it to him (would have made a flow chart if he wasn't very smart).

And it is not just because of "bad engineering" or bad org, no it was just features added to account for multiple series of edge cases that had to work properly or a few thousands of people would call our company to complain the system wasn't working.

Like the hard part wasn't the code, it was the flow chart. Changes to that flow chart could take weeks to implement/test/release.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsChrisMarshallNY1y ago0 comments

> Meanwhile I can pump out hundreds of lines a weekend on my own free software projects and actually feel like I'm getting things done.

I can relate. It's sort of "Hell is other people." I work very effectively on my own, but the scope is limited. Big things require teams.

I realize how fortunate I am, that I could afford to retire. I don't have as much money as I would, with another ten years under my belt, but I should be OK.

It absolutely stuns me, that young folks are getting paid more out of school, than I made, in my entire career, and have less to show for it.

0 comments

cmrdporcupine1y ago

When I left Google 3+ years ago I was at first delighted to find I still really loved writing code, because I felt like work had drained it out of me.

And then, yes, I found, wait, I actually need to work in a team because like you say there's a limit to how far you can get by yourself. To do big things you need more people.

So I gave up on my fantasy of solo working or somehow retiring, and returned to work.

Only to spend the last 3 years increasingly frustrated.

At least Google dumped insane quantities of money on me, so the frustration was worth it. Plus free food.

Now I'm just frustrated and not nearly as wealthy.

xnx1y ago

AI coding tools are rapidly changing what a single person can accomplish.

cmrdporcupine1y ago

Where I ran up against the limits was not in coding tasks. Programming is "easy"

It's UX & UI design, documentation, product specification, promotion.

I'm unsurprisingly just not that good at these things, but also don't really like to do them. And missed having team members who specialized in them.

1 more reply

DanielHB1y ago

The bigger the companies/products/teams the less code you actually write.

Right now I have a project where a PM asked me to describe the logic of a certain thing to him and I couldn't do it. Literally I couldn't spell it out better than just reading the code.

I ended up translating the code into pseudo code and send it to him (would have made a flow chart if he wasn't very smart).

Like the hard part wasn't the code, it was the flow chart. Changes to that flow chart could take weeks to implement/test/release.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse