The “Midlife Crisis” of a Programming Career
farath.com
farath.com
Farath> I probably met only one person who could teach me
Farath> something. Most of what I know I have learned by myself,
Farath> reading books and forums, asking in forums and googling
Farath> for revelation thoughts.
Farath> I don't know how it happened, but I managed to somehow
Farath> build an input barrier. I stay open, listen and if I see
Farath> some potential for self-improvement I research and maybe
Farath> adopt some technique or idea. But no BS can ever get through.
> Have you considered enrolling in a good school's Computer Science curriculum?
I went to undergrad & had already picked up most of the material by being an avid self learner, by being just bloody fascinated & interested as heck in computers.
There's a lot of very capable coworkers I've had. They can pull off some amazing works. But it's still pretty rare for me to feel like I really have a lot to learn from others. Like the author, I try to be super receptive and open. I don't have quite such a concern about a BS buffer, but it's definitely also a part of my experience too; I have had plenty of yarns. And I feel like I've been so lucky to work in really great places! There's so many people trapped in far more confounding & further-out-of-touch environments.
I've never heard anyone come close to describing what is also a somewhat real struggle I too face. It's easy to write this off, to take the very worst words as ammunition to disregard this post, to walk away. I don't think there are that many suffering, that this is that big of a problem (because not a lot of people have full fledged membership, have the stripes & experience to deserve to call themselves lonely at the top, high tech gothic). But there are some High Tech Gothics, there are some wired to the 9's people enduring a much less wired & connected world about them that often doesn't get it. There are some valid misfits. I'm glad someone wrote it. These words are valuable. Thank you for your consideration.
I think a lot of the difficulty & turmoil feels fairly unspoken of. Programmer seem to suffer alone, rarely fitting well into their environments & situations. The difficulties are varied & deep. Rarely are good opportunities to stake in available; often it feels like the business's top priority is anti-tech, is safe, predictable objectives: it's only challenge to us is to try to be less ambitious, to go faster. We watch some peers get raised up but often it feels unjustified or arbitrary, while what few hard labors & deeper efforts there are go unrecognized, not glossy for notice. We eclipse our positions quickly, & there feels like no where to go, & precious little reality about.
And we don't write down or share hard parts, hurtful parts. The disassociation feels uniquely our own (but it's not); we're feel trapped in our own jungles, jungles of code & corporations. My guess is the whole experience would be a lot less alienating if more folks did similar to this post, could discuss out loud their difficulties & the tensions of the environment.