Hacker News Reader

Comment by Fire-Dragon-DoL | Hacker News Reader

I hear this argument and I should point out that it can hurt people saying something like that. I understand where you are coming from and I disagree strongly with your statement.

Around age 12 I discovered software development and became my greatest passion. It helped me escape MMORPG addiction and being happy (have a family, buy a home, pursue my hobbies).

If I lost my job I would be sad, no doubt, but I would still be me, a passionate software developer. If you told me I wouldn't be able to write code anymore because of some illness, I would be in a very bad spot, way worse than if I lost my job.

My profession is part of my identity in a strong way, my job is business (although I do love the place I work at).

View on HN

I started programming in 6th grade in assembly on Apple //e in 1986.

By the time o graduated from college in 1996, I programmed as a hobbyist in assembly on four architectures - 65C02, 68K, PPC and x86.

The last time I programmed as a hobbyist was 1996.

For the next 15 years my hobby was teaching fitness classes, running and lifting weights.

I got married in 2012 and became a father to a 9 and 14 year old.

When the youngest graduated in 2020 and a year after Covid lifted, my wife and flew across the US from October 2022 to October 2023 visiting over a dozen cities while I worked remotely,

Software development supports my passions.

Congrats! If it was impossible for you to go back as a software developer, would you resume software development as a hobby?

Absolutely not.

I would spend more time in the gym and go back to teaching fitness classes and do personal training.

I would learn a couple of foreign languages.

My wife and I sold everything we owned and bought a unit in a condotel (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/condotel.asp) it is our legal official “home”.

From 10/2022 - 10/2023 we traveled around the US taking one way flights and rented our place out.

We would do more international traveling. I was limited to traveling mostly in the US since I had to fly to client’s sites, restrictions on logging in outside of the country for some GovCloud work and time zones.

It sounds like you are deeply passionate about the art of software in general. I am the same way (and also had an MMORPG addiction lol). Now it turns out people really appreciate and will pay great sums for me performing my hobby for them, which is fantastic for me. For many other people I have met though, they get into software because they hear it's a good career move and provide job opportunities. For these people, I totally get that you can just walk away from software

And parent is right that it’s not ideal to have your eggs put in one basket like this.

You don't get to choose what you are passionate about, so this comment doesn't really help im any way

I should point out that also my eggs are not in one basket. My passion for board games, videogames, my children and my wife cover everything else, but if my job wasn't software development, I would include it in some way in my life

Reply on news.ycombinator.com