I would like to know what HN thinks about the 'solitary' nature of programming? Isn't programming more or less a group endeavor now?
It is jungle and can be confusing/sad/demotivating to realize that your best is no longer at their best interest.
Yet, I find myself as developer still fortunate to have somewhat rational managers and the market condition still in our side mostly.
It is still more solitary than many other jobs.
On the other hand, I hate that it becomes more and more a group endeavor - I would love if it stayed much more solitary as in former days.
It affects productivity and makes people who prefer to work by themselves unhappy.
Unfortunately when tool use is mandated without applying critical thinking, it often results in a great deal of waste. Mandated collaboration is also very susceptible to abuse as it typically provides an additional layer of obfuscation to shield low performing leechers.
High school group projects dialed up to 11.
I guess this is the overtraining hampering growth I've heard about as a kid. Being an olympic level athlete makes a lot of hormones to whack.
Now, Pair programming as in "sit next to your colleague for hours per day" is just BS
Some people may have the capacity for pair programming but I doubt that it is sustainable. The conclusion of the famous Steele/Stallman session is this:
"My first thought afterward was: it was a great experience, very intense, and that I never wanted to do it again in my life."
Yes, they then went to their desks, alone, and coded it all up. And yes, they all had the skills to actually put ideas into code. But to say the real work only gets done in isolation ignores the majority of the amazing collaborative work that makes great software.
Even so, there's a significant difference between programming or a job in sales or PR or management or etc., anything where your core job is dealing with people.
But I would still say it is far from really social jobs - after school, I worked at a home for elderly people, and everyday left me exhausted. After work as a programmer, my social batteries feel much more charged.
One could make programming an extremely social endeavour though, i.e. by constant pair programming (two of Googles best Software Engineers are doing this).
I am a developer now, was a PM, and was a developer before that. Even with actively reaching out to people to talk to, my day to day always felt objectively solitary, and certainly solitary compared to what I experienced as a PM. That was what originally drove me away from engineering, and when I went back I got reminded of that fact.