I love programming and still consider myself a programmer first, although I do a lot of other things too.
If I wanted to rag on programming, I'd point out how many dysfunctional programming workplaces we have, or how our tools are always 100 times more complex than they need to be, or how setting up and managing the programming environment can take the joy right out of actually doing the work. (I could go on at length here)
But overall it's a great place to be. We're the Michelangelos of the great age of machine intelligence which is yet to come. We're sketching out how it's all going to look. We're at the forefront of solving incredible problems and creating magical devices. A guy told me something back in my 20s when I was just getting started that rings true today: technology development is the one area where you can create your own reality. Not only in terms of a virtual reality, but in terms of how you want your work day to go, how you want to interact with your peers, how you get compensated, how you spend your free time. It's all up to you. This is completely unlike many other professions such as doctors where everything is tightly regimented.
I worry that as the job of programming matures, we are losing track of that fundamental insight. One of the reasons I like Agile and Scrum is, when done correctly, it liberates the teams and takes them back to the way programming should be.
> I worry that as the job of programming matures, we are losing track of that fundamental insight.
Reminds me of the intro to SICP:
“I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep
fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course,
the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began
to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were
responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I
don’t think we are. I think we’re responsible for stretching them, setting them
off in new directions and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of
computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don’t
become missionaries. Don’t feel as if you’re Bible salesmen. The world has
too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will
learn. Don’t feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands.
What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the
machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it
more.”
— Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990)
We're the Michelangelos of the great age of machine intelligence which is yet to come.
If there's a great age of machine intelligence to come, then one in a million of us may be a Michelangelo. The rest of us are house-painters, and the houses we paint are slated for demolition within our own lifetimes.
What is wrong with everyone doing well, including your peers and descendants? Why must everyone want to be the top dog forever? You are going to die. No one will buy or code their way out of that, not even Zuck or Gates
My point was more how as programmers, the emotional toll of everything that we're making will be destroyed, usually in only a few years.
Yes, we're paid. But it's hard to have satisfying work when the result you produce becomes worthless. It would be like spending 12 months carving a beautiful piece of furniture out of wood, get paid $100k for your work, and then handing it to the owner who lights it on fire right in front of you.
I thought XP actually imposes quite strict guidelines about how the work day should go? Everyone should be in the same physical office, and maintain pretty much the same "office hours" so they can pair for 4-hour sessions?
If I wanted to rag on programming, I'd point out how many dysfunctional programming workplaces we have, or how our tools are always 100 times more complex than they need to be, or how setting up and managing the programming environment can take the joy right out of actually doing the work. (I could go on at length here)
But overall it's a great place to be. We're the Michelangelos of the great age of machine intelligence which is yet to come. We're sketching out how it's all going to look. We're at the forefront of solving incredible problems and creating magical devices. A guy told me something back in my 20s when I was just getting started that rings true today: technology development is the one area where you can create your own reality. Not only in terms of a virtual reality, but in terms of how you want your work day to go, how you want to interact with your peers, how you get compensated, how you spend your free time. It's all up to you. This is completely unlike many other professions such as doctors where everything is tightly regimented.
I worry that as the job of programming matures, we are losing track of that fundamental insight. One of the reasons I like Agile and Scrum is, when done correctly, it liberates the teams and takes them back to the way programming should be.
It is rarely done correctly.