My guess is that I've been coding for longer than Zed, and I don't remember _ever_ thinking it was boring, and a lot of the stuff he says might be true for Zed, it sure as hell isn't true for the rest of us:
"Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but if you want to make about the same money and be happier, you could actually just go run a fast food joint."
If this is actually true for you, and you can actually code, you really need to be making brighter career moves.
"People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and get no respect. People who can code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing things to advance those disciplines."
Well, maybe. But this sounds like random riffing from someone who hasn't held a senior, stable position in an actual tech company nor worked as a programmer in any of the long list of disciplines. I've met plenty of people who were the duty programmer in a non-CS area who were treated like shit.
But what would I know? At around the time I was messing around with software pipelined SIMD string and pattern matchers, Zed was pursuing the real business of a Working Programmer, which is to say, writing rants and offering to rent a boxing ring to fight people who made physical threats to him (which, I admit, is kinda cool).
I definitely got a different, more inspiring read out of this post. I'd sum it up as "programming for the point of programming will eventually reach a local maximum of enjoyment; focus instead on the creative potential and possible reach of the art programming has enabled you to create." In other words, "make something people want", and from that you will really receive fulfillment.
The true, lasting satisfaction that you'll look back on 20 years from now isn't the number of programming languages you've learned, but what you've created and the impact those creations have had on those who have used them.
You'll find that this part of the book gets interpreted by different people in different ways. Some folks, usually those who've invested their life in only programming, take it offensively and assume I'm insulting them. Others who are beginners or maybe having a hard time with programming find it inspiring. Still others just find it weird.
Your post reminds me to time when I did my first freelance project. I want to create software/applications that people can use, and can make their life easier.
don't let Zed's online persona (they ZSFA type one) fool you. He's actually a brilliant coder, has done all the things that it sounds like he hasn't and is one of those who I think has actually given more to the community than the "community" has ever given him (I'm making reference to the phrase "give back to the community")
Sure, he has a fairly unapologetic and somewhat confrontational nature (much like DHH) that seem to irk people, but (also like DHH) his walk matches or exceeds his talk.
Like you I dislike the way Zed has a tendency to group all Ruby people together and target them as a whole, when in reality his complaints would be better directed at a specific subset. I'm a Ruby dev (not a Rails one) and it stings when Zed fires his literary shotgun at Rails, and Ruby, standing next to Rails also gets hit.
But... this isn't about Zed being a dick. I was pointing out that there's also a massive amount of good stuff he's done as well. I'm not a fanboy of his (Zed has fanboys?) but I do have a fair bit of respect for his ability and what he has done, and his writing does nothing to diminish the quality of his work.
The comparison with DHH I thought was positive. DHH has strong opinions and (it appears) an ego to match, but can back it up with code.
From your article: "I have been programming for a very long time. So long that it is incredibly boring to me."
So, to continue rhapsodizing to each other about our inabilities, you're apparently unable to read _your_ _own_ _writing_. You may be remembering this sentence instead, which you also wrote: "Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting."
> Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting.
Direct quote you pulled from my book and then commented on. The quote you just referenced is just what I think as my personal opinion, not a statement of fact.
So yes, you can't read, especially when you quote the material.
Sigh. You appear to be in a selective parsing frenzy. Have fun with that.
You attempting to draw Big Important Distinctions between the bits of that particular passage that are 'personal opinion' and 'statement of fact' is at least entertaining, given that the whole piece is _all_ pure opinion.
"Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but if you want to make about the same money and be happier, you could actually just go run a fast food joint."
If this is actually true for you, and you can actually code, you really need to be making brighter career moves.
"People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and get no respect. People who can code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing things to advance those disciplines."
Well, maybe. But this sounds like random riffing from someone who hasn't held a senior, stable position in an actual tech company nor worked as a programmer in any of the long list of disciplines. I've met plenty of people who were the duty programmer in a non-CS area who were treated like shit.
But what would I know? At around the time I was messing around with software pipelined SIMD string and pattern matchers, Zed was pursuing the real business of a Working Programmer, which is to say, writing rants and offering to rent a boxing ring to fight people who made physical threats to him (which, I admit, is kinda cool).