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Comment by pnathan | Hacker News Reader

Something that bothers me is the feeling of expectation that software engineers (hackers) are supposed to be tech-heads without looking outside at the business, when really, the business pays the bills. Programming is my job and my hobby, but there's a big world out there where programming is only embedded into the general landscape, not the dominant thing.

Is it not okay to go home at 5 and focus on other things beside your work?

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In my experience, much of the time when a company says they're looking for people who are "excited" and "enthusiastic" about the job, it's because they want to pay less money, and think that if they find someone "excited" that they'll be more likely to get away with it. If it's coming from technical people who want to hire other technical people, they may not be thinking that, but you can bet that's how the manager types view it.

Another way to put it is that they want to get more value, whether the company pays under market or well over. All other things being equal, you wouldn't hire the person who's more excited and enthusiastic about programming?

Honestly, if when describing the way you spend perhaps the majority of your waking hours, you have to put excited and enthusiastic in finger-quotes... then I'd suggest a career change.

... to what?

Not everyone has an obvious way to make money doing what excites them. The most exciting thing I do most days is climbing, but even the best climbers barely make money.

I don't mind programming... I certainly don't dread it, and occasionally I particularly enjoy a problem I'm working on. But I wouldn't say I walk to work each day "excited and enthusiastic."

Sorry, getting to this late. The best climbers may barely make money, but I think it's fair to guess that they're excited and enthusiastic about climbing. That's my point. Most people want to hire the best that they're able to.. and there's a high correlation between being really great at something, and loving it.

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