Software as a profession sucks, a rant.

[tbs-Gb/NUjX2UK8 at public.gmane.org (theBlueSage)]

> What does BLU think?
> 
For the most part I would agree. However there are a few beacons of hope
in the dark miasma that is production-line programming. For example,
there are companies like this (granted not many of them, but the fact
that even this one exists gives me hope for the years to come) :

http://www.fogcreek.com/About.html 

I would also echo DR's comments, and say from experience that working
for a much smaller startup gives me the chance to work on 'cool' things.
The price you tend to pay for this is financial, and I see it breaking
down like this :

Big Company == Higher Wages == Boring work/slave mentality.

Small company == Smaller wages == Interesting innovative work


What I have also found is that there is no algorithm for
stability/longevity, and in fact I think given the current climate that
the smaller companies are more likely to last.

I currently work for a startup (13 employees), and in the last month
have build 3 MySQL CLusters; one 5 machine production beast, one 'total
localhost' test box, and now a single beefy machine hosting five virtual
machines (vmware-server) running a cluster network. It has been
extremely challenging, thought provoking, frustrating, '3am wakeup with
solution from a dream' invoking, and highly rewarding. I had never done
much like that before, but with limited resources, and a 'give it a go'
CEO, we ended up with a fantastic solution to a huge production problem
we were facing. 
If I had been working in a large company, I know we'd still be in
committee about choosing the right solution, and even if I had offered
it up I'd lose to the committee member who went to see the Patriots in a
Box seat, courtesy of the guys at Oracle, regardless of whether Oracle
was the right solution or not.

Downside, my salary is less than I would get elsewhere, likely by a good
25% - 50%, but my stress level is low, 'hate-my-job'ness is almost nil,
I am learning huge amounts on someone else's dime, it is fun, and my tie
is gathering dust at the bottom of my closet, along with my blue shirts
and khaki pants.

And for the record, I will be 44 in December, and have programmed all
but 3 years of my professional life. The glory days of the late 80's and
late 90's are gone. It is up to us programmers to define ourselves, I am
not blue collar or white collar, I am no-collar, My life is worth more
than a fat miserable salary, I choose fun over dollars, (when the margin
is livable), life is too short to spend every working day hating what I
do and living for a (short) weekend full of chores.


Richard

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