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0 points127001brewer13y ago0 comments

My father worked with his hands for his entire working life; at the time, he tells me, he worked on the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle more than anyone else (such as replacing the entire decking, etc). It's something that he's extremely proud of and something he can actually show his grandchildren.

On the other hand, I build things that are, for the most part, abstract and virtual. I enjoy what I do because it allows me to be creative using technologies and tools that I enjoy working with. (And I really enjoy building entire applications from scratch, so much so that I will be creating businesses to really scratch my itches.)

I'm proud that an application that I built half a decade ago is still being used. But, for the most part, most of my work has a limited life-span. Is that so bad?

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ken13y ago

I think that the example of a military sailing vessel (!) shows that almost everything people build with their hands has a limited life-span, too.

In many cases the lifespan is longer, but in other cases it's shorter. My malloc() is older than my car, even though they both still get regularly used.

IanDrake13y ago

I had a poster of that ship on my wall for about 10 years. It's beautiful. Your dad should be very proud.

brc13y ago

You should learn how to work with your hands as well. There are a lot of similarities to programming, and the things you make will last your lifetime.

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