Comment by bruce511

3 years ago

>> If you have the privilege to choose what game to play, I recommend picking not by the rewards of the game – but based on how you like the rules of the game.

It's kinda both though isn't it? Sure we all want to play the game with the "right rules", but at the same time I also care deeply about the rewards - I want time with the family, I don't want to worry about money every night, and so on.

But I agree, rules first. You can live on less money, but bad jobs destroy the soul.

I would add this. Wherever you end up, understand that there are rules. They may not be intuitive. They may not be logical. But they exist. Don't assume. If you don't like the rules, or can't do the rules, change the game - you're not going to change the rules (and fighting to do so is exhausting.)

For reference, I've spent my whole career building boring Crud apps in a language you've never heard of. It's not sexy, but it's given me a great life - more than I would have hoped for.

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bruce511

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endymi0n  3 years ago

You both have a point. For my own career I found the advice of Oliver Burkeman helpful, who put it in a very apt and actionable sentence:

> When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness.

The good part is that there‘s still a lot of jobs out there who both enlarge you and make good money. They‘re just harder to find.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/sep/04/oliver-...

klabb3  3 years ago

> It's kinda both though isn't it?

You spotted my intentional hyperbole :) I wanted to draw attention to it because it’s underrated, but you’re totally right that it’s always a compromise.

> Wherever you end up, understand that there are rules.

Absolutely. And not only social, but inherent rules in the domain you’re working. For instance, math research has more discontinuous progress than building crud apps.

bqmjjx0kac  3 years ago

> For reference, I've spent my whole career building boring Crud apps in a language you've never heard of.

Well now I have to guess. ColdFusion?

  • kodah  3 years ago

    I feel like a lot of programmers on here have probably heard of ColdFusion. Allaire (and Macromedia after they bought them) built one of the best IDEs back in the day. It was a strong competitor to Komodo.