I started learning how to code at 14 when my parents bought me a Sharp MZ-700 instead of a C64 like I asked (I guess the salesperson had a better commission on that!) and since there were basically no games I had to write my own, that was about 30 years ago and I've been programming ever since
I still love coding, getting in the zone, learning something new, in general the feeling of being able to make the computer do what I want it to do, and I am still good at it, but career wise it's getting to be not nearly as fun anymore, since as the years go by it's a smaller and smaller part of my day, being pushed more and more into team leading and endless scrum / standup / grooming / planning / ... meetings, having to deal with politics and so on.
The money is definitely much better now than it used to be, but I would honestly take a 50% pay cut if I was able to just deal with the code working at home, I am a fairly frugal person and wish there was something like basic income so I could just spend my days programming on projects that interest me. You don't see musicians being forced to become conductors as their careers progress and being given less and less time to practice their instruments, why is it that we developers often end up doing that?
Unfortunately I don't have an entrepreneurial bone in my body so I am really not sure how to get from where I am now to where I'd like to be, and I am sure I am not the only one in this situation.
> I would honestly take a 50% pay cut if I was able to just deal with the code working at home, I am a fairly frugal person and wish there was something like basic income so I could just spend my days programming on projects that interest me.
sometimes I wish that all these software-made billionaires instead of buying the n-th yacht or mansion set up a fund where you could apply and get to work on open source projects at reasonable living wages, sort of like a "basic income for coders" basically.
Pipe dream, I know, one can always dream though, I definitely envy artists / craftsmen that can live off their work, but I don't see that possibility for us programmers as it's not like you could open a "virtual shop" with code you worked on on your own because it interested you and people could see and "ohh, this distributed database election system by teatraodonpuffer looks nice, what's the sticker price? sure, I'll buy it"
I still love coding, getting in the zone, learning something new, in general the feeling of being able to make the computer do what I want it to do, and I am still good at it, but career wise it's getting to be not nearly as fun anymore, since as the years go by it's a smaller and smaller part of my day, being pushed more and more into team leading and endless scrum / standup / grooming / planning / ... meetings, having to deal with politics and so on.
The money is definitely much better now than it used to be, but I would honestly take a 50% pay cut if I was able to just deal with the code working at home, I am a fairly frugal person and wish there was something like basic income so I could just spend my days programming on projects that interest me. You don't see musicians being forced to become conductors as their careers progress and being given less and less time to practice their instruments, why is it that we developers often end up doing that?
Unfortunately I don't have an entrepreneurial bone in my body so I am really not sure how to get from where I am now to where I'd like to be, and I am sure I am not the only one in this situation.