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Comment by rfnslyr | Hacker News Reader

It's an absolute luxury to be able to get paid exorbitant amounts and not having to break a sweat. Oh wow I had to parse CSV files for four hours, poor me. What if you had to break your back on a farm 10 hours a day with the constant uncertainty of whether you'll make a dime or survive until next year?

Your job is what you make of it. Bring some awesome music, change your desktop background, install a new theme, read some shit during lunch. It's what you make of it, and you're in a better position than a lot of the people out there!

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I really hate the attitude in the first few sentences. The "your life is better than others so be grateful" idea never really applies, its like saying "your neighbor gets beaten three times a day, so don't complain when you only get beat once!". Just because someone else's life is worse than yours doesn't mean your own is so great. Also, the person breaking their back on a farm might be doing that because they made choices in life which lead them to have a poor future.

As for your job being what you make it, I totally agree. There are lots of ways I have made my work life better recently even when I hate my job (for example I got a keurig) and until you do everything you can in that aspect you can't be sure you won't be happy. When you do all of these and THEN still aren't happy, find a new job.

That's not the same at all. Comparing getting beaten vs getting beaten more is not the same as working in an air conditioned office vs a farm.

To make any job "fun", I always have IRC and messages going so I can talk to people a lot of the time. Keeps the day exciting.

>I always have IRC and messages going so I can talk to people a lot of the time

In a lot of software shops, you are not allowed to chat, use IM or even bring headphones (like here)

You know, I will give you that.

My experience and I would venture to say most of the comments are based on people working in North America (or a similar place).

I would say that likely you work for a company that is either based in India or another similar country. I can definitely see how they would treat software developers like a sweat shop.

And its tough as "change your job" doesn't readily apply.

I'm not sure iSnow is in another part of the world, because there are actually plenty of companies in North America that do not allow programmers to bring headphones or use IM at work.

I could understand the IM part. The headphone one?

I don't dispute what you are saying but that seems to much for a software company to be doing in North America.

I agree, but the majority of programmers are not working at software companies. As many old-timers pointed out to me when starting out, software developers are generally treated better at software companies than other companies that may see them more as a cost center than a profit center.

>I would say that likely you work for a company that is either based in India or another similar country

Actually Germany and the company has its strongest workforce in the US.

Even in India startups are not putting any such restrictions. Right after my graduation I joined a startup where we used to play UNO cards, access facebook, hear songs, play guitar etc. But I guess it is just the opposite in software MNCs like TCS, CTS, Infosys etc.

Actually, look at it from the farm boy's POV. "That guy sits in an air conditioned office all day creating some really cool stuff and he COMPLAINS?!?!" Kinda like the same feeling if you run into some rich brat complaining that he only has 5 yatchs and 2 mansions, etc. I mean i am up for the notion of always striving for improvement in your life, but why the ingratitude? Be grateful AND strive for better. You can still earn another million bucks WITHOUT complaining that you only have one million right now.

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