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Comment by taurath | Hacker News Reader

Thats not true at all in my experience - programmers who love their work burn out all the time. I had a dream job in the gaming industry but after months of 65 hour weeks decided the tradeoffs aren't worth it. I loved that job, but the sacrifices necessary to do it were too much of a cost. There are a lot of people who would love to play a game for 10 hours a day. Playing and training are different things though.

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I disagree. I wrestled at a DI level in college, it was grueling, it was incredibly hard, some days I hated it. But it wasn't the same kind of burn out that I feel from software development. I don't wake up excited for work the way I would wake up excited to train. It's just different. The harder you work the better you get in sport. You may work harder at software development and become a better developer but the gains you may get aren't so concrete, you don't win, you likely won't even get a raise.

At a professional level, people plateau all the time. They're beaten by people who train less hard but have more talent or ability.

You can work harder and harder at a game but not end up better than someone with superhuman reaction times despite a lot of hard work. Also, the game changes due to patches and content updates - all that work you put in for a year understanding a mechanic might be for nothing at the drop of an update.

I'm not seeing the connection between being a top tier professional in a sport and working as a programmer 65hrs at a gaming company? One involves a necessary dedication and persistence for high reward, while the other is a useless exercise in exploitation (as no programmer is productive 65hrs/week and would only be rewarded sufficiently high in a few situations, such as having stock/ownership).

Try being a top tier professional in an obscure sport: racquetball for example. You need a large amount of dedication and effort and you will not get high rewards no matter how good you are.

I wasn't a programmer at the gaming company - more of a producer type. I went into programming after for less hours and more work/life flexibility. I'd never program for 65hrs/week, but it was very possible to do my production job that much - the problem is I didn't go on a date for half a year, and my work became the entire bit of my life.

Trust me, no programmer loves their work in the same way a gamer loves gaming.

Even implying they do is blasphemous.

I don't know. Followed Carmack since I was a kid. Guy's an inspiration.

I’m all for gaming and you can see my posts defending it but I don’t know who you can say this with confidence.

People love different things. It’s how you get masters at different crafts. Some people love solving things and some love creating... programming is both of those.

Blasphemous is an interesting choice of words - I wouldn't be so certain or dogmatic.

> Trust me, no programmer loves their work in the same way a gamer loves gaming.

I can't, sorry. I'm pretty into playing games (though by no means a "gamer" in the sense that it controls my life, etc.) but I will often choose to program rather than play games in my free time.

Competitive endeavours will dominate your life if you have the personality for it, and those people competing on that level do.

You are a casual gamer, but in this context you are as much of a gamer as a random board game player is one compared to Magnus Carlsen.

When I was younger, I'd agree. Was for sure a vidiot but now I don't play much. But programming is more compelling now than playing in someone else's skinner box.

Watching something compile, link and pass all your test cases after you add a new feature is a pretty big dopamine rush in of itself.

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