|
This place is my solitude from the "9 to 5ers". I come here and meet wonderful people who care about what they do enough to spend ample time researching new methods to do it. They work to help one another, sacrificing their own time to help someone they probably don't even know.
The "9 to 5ers" are the people who are in technology for the money and only the money. They come to work, do only as much as is necessary to get by, and then go home to their palaces where they eat lobster and entertain guests, never giving a thought to what they had done that day and whether they could improve on it. These folks write production code that an intelligent teenager could write after only 1 class. "Why bother trying harder?", they think to themselves, "This'll work and it only took me 40 minutes of cutting and pasting from previously crappy programs that I've cut and pasted. No matter that it does no error checking, and is algorithmically inferior.". I often feel as if I'm the only person who cares in this house of hell's mignons. While my co-workers check their stocks, talk on the phone, bullsh*t, and get paid more for doing it, I stress over system security and performance, troubleshoot broken boxes until my brain hurts, and write perl code to try to automate as much as possible. I need this perl code, without it I would have 5 times as much work.
Part of the reason I know my fellow Sysadmins don't do anything is the simple fact that they're not doing any coding. Anyone who spends any amount of time doing repetitive tasks on a Unix system, knows how to code. It's a matter of survival, code or be worked to death. Perl has truly saved my sanity. Admittedly, I make a lot of this work for myself, I have a strong work ethic, I have initiative, and more than anything, I enjoy technology. I'm not saying that I think about it 24x7, but it's not often too far from my mind, and I like it that way. I have no problem with people who don't always think about their jobs, none at all, I have a problem with people who fake their way through it. I have 4 other people collecting salaries, but not contributing, wouldn't it just be easier to throw the money straight to me? :^)
I'm glad to have met you all and hope very much to continue seeing you here. I'll most probably be here everyday, getting my fix of people who care, and who are in technology because they like it, not only because it pays well.
You're all "Saints" in my book.
|
(jcwren) RE: Oh, this wonderful place
by jcwren (Prior) on Sep 13, 2000 at 21:25 UTC
|
I'm not going to say I disagree with the above, but as far as "9 to 5" programmers, while I don't understand the mindset, I would like to offer this article:
They write the right stuff
This is a little background on the people who write the 400,000+ lines of code that make the Space Shuttle work. They're a "9 to 5" lot. They have no "star" programmers. They don't believe in the chaos theory of programming. They don't write in Perl (*gasp*).
Now, I do have a friend, who is a "9 to 5" programmer. She's an interesting woman, extremely intelligent, graduated highly in her class, makes a damn lot of money hacking Oracle as it relates to PeopleSoft. She only recently got a PC at home, and it's a company laptop, at that. She uses it to check her e-mail, and the weather before her flights (she commutes weekly to Kentucky). She doesn't tinker at home with it, does no educational programming, doesn't surf the net. She's long been a dear friend of mine, but I've never understood this mindset. I'm a total freakin' geek. When I'm not at work playing with PCs, I'm at home playing with PCs, or messing with embedded systems design, electronics, or tearing apart PCs.
How can this be? How can someone who is so capable with what she does have no interest outside of the office in computers? I know I don't understand, and knowing her for 18 years hasn't answered the question.
--Chris
e-mail jcwren | [reply] |
|
|
| [reply] |
|
|
Does this make her less of a programmer than you?
Lots of people have a life outside of their job, or
outside of computing. I know it's a difficult concept
to grasp but they do exist. And those people are no
less interesting or valuable than pure geeks.
The problem is not with people that only work 9 to 5,
it's just with people who have no idea what they are
doing, people who write crappy code and don't care,
programmers who try to preserve their little kingdom,
managers who change their mind every other day, you
know them...
Working 9 to 5 or 7 am to 12 pm has very little impact
on how good a programmer someone is and how easy it is
to work with them.
| [reply] |
|
|
Working 9 to 5 or 7 am to 12 pm has very little impact on how good a programmer someone is and how easy it is to work with them.
I completely agree. i alternate between being a full-time, non-stop, do-anything geeky possible programmer and leaving it all at work so i can have a life that doesn't involve computers. and i still write good, strong OO-perl, learn whatever i can to get the job done, and care ( almost neurotically ) about the quality of my code. but sometimes, people just need a break from it, clear out the mind, and go back to it fresh.
some people just want the cash ( esp. here in Sillycon Valley ), some people like the work, and some people can only do nerdy stuff. it all depends on the individual.
| [reply] |
|
|
jcwren has grasped my post nicely. Some folks are taking my "9 to 5er" title a little more literally than I expected. Thank you jcwren for reiterating what I meant. ++ for you :^)
| [reply] |
|
|
"Lots of people have a life outside of their job, or outside of computing. I know it's a difficult concept to grasp but they do exist. And those people are no less interesting or valuable than pure geeks."
I can definitely see jcwren's and BastardOperator's point. Perhaps it's not the issue of having a life outside of work, but an issue of having *curiosity* outside of work. The end of learning is the beginning of death.
redmist
redmist.dyndns.org
email::redmist
| [reply] |
Oh, right...
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 14, 2000 at 00:52 UTC
|
I'm sorry, I'm finding this a little hard to believe.
You claim these people are unconcerned with algorithms or
error checking... I mean really, what do these people do
all day? Stocks only take so long to check, and you can
only eat so much lobster before you explode. Anyway, you
admit that they have people over for dinner... but what do
they talk about, if not code? Surely they don't just sit
there staring at each other! Ditto for talking on the
phone.
You must realize how implausible all this is. Obviously
these people are secretly spending all their time on
personal projects, writing video games or something. | [reply] |
RE: Oh, this wonderful place
by OzzyOsbourne (Chaplain) on Sep 14, 2000 at 17:22 UTC
|
I work for megahyperglobalmega corporation. They worked me for three years of unpaid OT and bad raises. I spent years saving time and money by improving processes (I actually saved the work of 40 people (80,000hrs/yr) with one process). Then I got my raise of 4% and got wise to the game. They try to work me to death, I try to work as little as possible.
The big question is: How much of your time and effort does the company deserve for your salary? 75%? 80%? 110%? Nights, weekends, and holidays? Time away from your family? In when you have the flu?
I do my best thinking after 5. I create my best programs after 5. I come up with my best ideas after 5. The company doesn't deserve it.
Your best point is that you hate people who fake their way through their jobs. I agree.
Aren't people who fake their way through their jobs called managers?
| [reply] |
RE: Oh, this wonderful place
by runrig (Abbot) on Sep 13, 2000 at 21:52 UTC
|
I would love to tinker at home, but usually I just have enough time to check email & newsgroups before my 1 year old starts screaming from his playpen, so I've got to hold him in my lap while trying to respond to comp.lang.perl.misc w/him trying to add his input to it all...
Its impossible to get any programming done at home, unless I can get the rest of the family packed up to grandma's for awhile, last time I almost got something done :)
Update: 7 years later, and I don't even check newsgroups any more :-) | [reply] |
|
|
