what kind of work did you get into after programming out of curiosity? rare to see people go the other way
It actually has something in common, you still write structured text for living, though your target audience are now people, not machines. Some readers commented that they find my style clear and understandable; maybe it is a carry-over from programming, where you cannot be ambiguous.
But I find writing for people much more enjoyable than writing for computers. As a computer programmer, you mostly receive negative feedback: something stopped working and the users are often angry or frustrated. As a writer for people, you receive more than a few thank-you e-mails from your readers, which brighten your day.
FWIW there are different types of writing and different types of programming.
Writing copy for a bank will probably generate a lot of feedback about mistakes that need to be fixed.
Writing code to reduce annoying monotonous tasks for coworkers so it takes ten minutes instead of two hours will get you a lot thank yous from your coworkers, and will also brighten your day.
It's all about what your job is, and how close you are to the people you are affecting.
The software that I spent most of my time with was a communication tool. So whenever something broke down, people had problems calling or texting one another. This pissed them off, naturally.
OTOH now my bestsellers are about half-forgotten events from world history. Aside from a weird e-mail I received from an even weirder Stalin-apologist, people generally enjoy this kind of reading and do not feel angry about it.
If, on the other hand, I were an investigative journalist and dug out dirt on politicans and mafia, the tone of the e-mails from readers would definitely get rougher, to say the least.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18339067.Marian_Kechli...
Everything I write is in Czech, though. Automatic translation from Czech to English sucks.
I suspect this is literally true, but only because we don't see them. I've heard second-hand the story of a top developer at a famous unicorn who just couldn't keep up with all the stimulants everyone was using to code more and burned out, bought a cabin in the woods, and became a hermit.
That's interesting. Do you mean Adderall/Ritalin?
That stuff has a relatively fixed useful half-life. It doesn't work for as long as people might think. It also doesn't actually make thinking clearer. It makes people feel as if they are thinking more clearly. I don't feel like looking for it, but this has been studied and reported, somewhere.
If you are referring to crank, well, the half-life of that stuff is even shorter...
I thought is was obvious. It’s even some type of cliché.
But... now that I’m writing this. All those folks are either French, German or Central European. I currently lives in the US and I see more folks doing bootcamps to archive better income and address their debts.
Hmm. I would be curious to see number about that, because obviously it’s highly anecdotal.
Exemple :
- starting to roof painting company
- starting a small farm business ( direct to farmer market type )
- starting a goat herding business
- becoming a wood worker
- becoming a car mechanic in a communal garage
- becoming a teacher ( of non tech things )
- become a bootcamp teacher
- becoming a kumbutcha brewer
I know myself that I will burn out ( in a soft way ) of tech roles.
To clarify : those folks where able to do it because :
- their state offer reconversion package
- they have tech money