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Comment by knieveltech | Hacker News Reader

I worked in the trades (carpentry, roofing, ironwork) for years before I switched careers and became a programmer. The biggest adjustment for me was learning not to cringe whenever one of my coworkers goes on a hyper-entitled rant about working conditions or how our codebase and our company is archaic and shitty because we aren't using <insert latest flash in the pan technology here>.

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At the end of the day after I built something with my hands or even dug a pit, I could sit back with a beer and truly let my mind go, content with what I'd done that day.

As a programmer/developer/architect, my mind is never really free from the work I'd done. I always think about how I need to refactor this or that and what is yet to be done tomorrow. Now I drink until I forget the day.

Just a piece of advice for a fellow coder/architect: Try out some meditation of some sort after you get off work, and before you crack open the beer. I have noticed a huge improvement in my ability to relax at night after starting this about 6 months ago. All I really do is 20 minutes of yoga right when I get home, and it has made all the difference. I always love beer, but it just tastes better when my mind is not stuck on whether or not the hotfix I shimmed into the API earlier to have things ready for the big meeting will explode in the middle of the night and trigger a bunch of angry emails.

There are working conditions within software development we can complain about. Starting of with people thinking just because it is not physical labour we can work much longer hours. Yes up to a point we can work a little longer. But if people get sleep deprived then you might as well have free beer instead of sodas in the fridge. Just google "sleep deprivation drunk equivalent" and you will find a bunch research.

Our fridge has free beer and cola, so best of both worlds.

Spend 10 hours in front of an industrial milling machine cranking out identical bars for cable trays, or my personal favourite, the epic 22 hour weekend roofing job in 95 degree heat. Just for laughs imagine your skillset isn't particularly in demand and the reality of your situation is you do this shit day in and day out or you're homeless in a matter of weeks.

Sure, there's stuff that crops up in our industry that royally sucks (game industry crunch time comes to mind), but it's relative, and given the amount of demand in the market for programmers, one could argue voluntary.

Yeah, the decision to apply myself to learn programming was a couple of days in plastic factory. I never wanted to do that work again. Yes sometimes programmers complain like spoiled brats. But I've heard a couple of complaints and have had a couple myself that aren't in the spoiled territory. (and I admit I've complained like a spoiled brat myself a couple times also.)

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