Hacker News Reader

Sounds like he doesn't enjoy cocky, arrogant behavior. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Maybe his personality is orthogonal to that which he surrounds himself by...

I think this issue has more to do with personality than "culture".

I don't know; to me it sounds like he got himself into the wrong profession. He's not the least bit passionate about his work.

You seem to be confusing passion with talent / ability / skill. Perhaps he's very very good at it... It's the thing he is best at. Should he not do something he is great, for the sake of argument, at just because he doesn't have passion for it?

He's definitely hurting both himself and the people he works with, both from the fact that he's not likely to work to improve himself, and from his depression/frustration and the fact that it's manifesting as resentment towards his coworkers. I don't mean to attack him, it's just that in collaborative work that requires skill (read: practice), a bad team member can be worse than having one too few. If it really is what he's best at, then he really needs to start practicing something he actually does enjoy, or find some way to enjoy it enough to practice.

To an extent you must be "cocky" to be great at...anything. Who is going to trust an engineer who questions his ability? Plus, people think about their job when they go home because they truly love their job, this guy seems to have had a negative outlook on it from the very beginning.

You simultaneously disprove and prove his point all in one post.

proved how?

So what the hell is this guy's problem? Why doesn't he just quit and do something he likes instead of whine about it like a petulant child?

The post author never said he didn't like programming, but rather that he only does it during work hours. To respond that he should just quit and call him a petulant child for expressing discontent with negative personalities is the part that seems to prove his point.

it seems the post is down now so i can't be sure and i can't quote it directly, but as i recall the author actually implies several times he doesn't enjoy programming. the also article ends with a statement about how he stays because it pays well.

edit: perhaps the confusion is that i can't see how you can enjoy something while judging others for pursuing it recreationally.

edit 2: "It’s probably unclear from my previous posts, but I’m a software engineer. I guess I don’t really talk about it much, since I don’t really like it that much."

if you want to be semantic yes, he isn't speaking of programming directly. but i cannot imagine someone who enjoys programming saying this. likewise, i don't see anything in the post that would lead me to believe he enjoys it.

That seems to be the impression that HN readers are getting, but I've reviewed it a few times and I don't see anywhere that he has stated that he dislikes or does not enjoy programming.

To address your edit, I think it's purely inference to conclude that he either likes or does not like programming itself.

He states that he does it because the money is good, and because he can't do anything else.

He can't believe there are people who program on the weekends, for fun.

He can't be bothered to learn anything new, or to even hear about concepts he doesn't understand.

He posts all the above on a public (until recently) blog, where his boss and all his coworkers can read it. What more do you need? If he has any interest in programming, he's doing a good job of covering it up with his endless complaints.

What more do you need?

An actual statement from him, of course.

I didn't know it was down; I got a login screen and wondered what kind of idiot expected someone to log in to read a blog post.

I don't think the author would mind carpenters getting together to work on their craft, or working on their craft privately. He says in the article that the basic idea of programmers getting together sounded good to him. Rather, he would be put off by carpenters getting together at an event called "SuperHappyCarpentryHouse", with the stated goal of "creating a key to unlock a door to a better world for humanity." What he doesn't like are the peculiarities and the strength of the culture. (The culture of these particular folks he works with.)

I dunno, but it seems to be his main issue is what might amount to bragging and boasting which he appears to have encountered in his dealings.

It seems to be, to a degree, a protest against conformity to a programming culture he's encountered. He wants to live his programming life as he sees fit, not so much as others seem to assume he would align with?

If he wants to alienate himself from his peers and colleagues, that's fine. But that's a pretty self-defeating position to take, is it not? What, is programming culture going to change because this guy has a problem with it?

He should be the change he wishes to see, etc. etc. instead of just bitching like an angsty teenager.

So many people have posted comments that suggest they didn't read the whole article. Towards the end of the article the author explains that many of his peers do not participate in the particular form of the culture that he finds so distasteful.

I read the whole article, and he didn't say "peers," he said "friends." And he didn't explain anything beyond that.

People do not passively participate in a culture. We collectively create a culture by forming relationships with everyone around us, not just our friends. You have to get along with your coworkers if you want to succeed in any field, and if you are a software engineer, that's probably going to involve geeking out about programming.

He was definitely talking about other people at his job, or at least in his profession. He was explaining why he didn't leave the profession. I would quote the article but it's down.

This guys problem? To paraphrase Freud, "u mad cuz u bad".