I love writing software, but I think there's something about the psychology of it that is really unnatural.
Not long ago we were just hominids hanging out in small bands, and our psychological sense of worth and reward were tied to our capacity to find and kill something big enough for everyone to eat. Or perhaps to turn that mammoth into shoes and clothes to survive the winter.
I wonder if this system fires the same way when we're coding. The contribution we offer is valued by the market and desperately needed by society but it's very abstract compared to bringing home a fresh mammoth.
We may be solving hard problems for great compensation, but as far as our subconsciousness is concerned we're just sitting at our desks all day long making symbols dance on screen. Its the polar opposite of the lives humans used to lead.
Not that I'd want to turn the clock back. I'm very fond of coding, modern medicine and hot showers. Though I do wonder if mammoth meat was any good...
I think lumping all coding together isn't fair either. When I'm designing and implementing new features, I definitely get a sense of satisfaction. It feels good to solve a difficult problem and the sense of accomplishment is definitely there (at least for me). When I'm dealing with a bug ticket or doing a lot of plumbing with a story, I definitely get far more burned out and don't have the same sense of satisfaction.
There's a ton of diversity in humans. I do honestly believe that software can be just as fulfilling to some people as hunting, gathering, farming, etc that are more "natural" to humans. With that said, I definitely don't think it's for everyone. I can certainly see how people could get very little satisfaction out of programming as a career. To each their own, but I personally wouldn't trade my career in software for anything outside of a "dream" job like being a writer or standup comedian. I'm sure there's people that wouldn't trade their job programming for anything.
Not long ago we were just hominids hanging out in small bands, and our psychological sense of worth and reward were tied to our capacity to find and kill something big enough for everyone to eat. Or perhaps to turn that mammoth into shoes and clothes to survive the winter.
I wonder if this system fires the same way when we're coding. The contribution we offer is valued by the market and desperately needed by society but it's very abstract compared to bringing home a fresh mammoth.
We may be solving hard problems for great compensation, but as far as our subconsciousness is concerned we're just sitting at our desks all day long making symbols dance on screen. Its the polar opposite of the lives humans used to lead.
Not that I'd want to turn the clock back. I'm very fond of coding, modern medicine and hot showers. Though I do wonder if mammoth meat was any good...