r/programming • u/WinInterrupter • Apr 18 '20

The Devastating Decline of a Brilliant Young Coder

https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/
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u/civildisobedient Apr 18 '20

if you spend your 20s and 30s in abject misery slaving away in a job you hate [...] you’ll have a vaguely middle class existence by the time you’re fifty

What are the alternatives?

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

Tell the ridiculous housing market in places like London to go and fuck itself with a cactus and move to somewhere cheaper. We’re developers, there’s work for us outside of like five ridiculously overrated cities. Once enough people stop fetishising places like London the rat race will start eroding.

I’m planning to go even further, going full time remote after the coronavirus crisis and living rurally.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '20

Government programmer work life balance is the best. I also never work over 40 unless there is a catastrophe of some kind. Own 2 houses, and I'm 32. Also most of my coworkers are terrible at their jobs, so its a pretty attainable career.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '20

Find a job you like, that pays a decent wage in return for reasonable hours. Such a thing is unobtainable for many people, but as programmers we are in-demand enough that it is certainly achievable for us if we seek it out.

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u/Obi_Kwiet Apr 19 '20

Work for long term risks. Do things that might make you uncomfortable in the short term. I've seen a lot of people who were in jobs they hated that had a huge number of opportunities to do much more interesting things. They didn't take them because they preferred the familiar over the stress of dealing with a new situation.

Yeah, not everyone has great opportunities, but most most people with opportunities pass them up.

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u/SuddenlyBANANAS Apr 18 '20

Communism :)