Why I hate Software Development?

Why do I hate Software Development? ... Simply put its complete lack of passion. Irrespective of Microsoft's bull, there is no passion in software, there is rarely any in the entire I.T. industry and why should there be? It is not an artistic endeavour - regardless of what some who develop software would have you believe.

Frankly the more I learn about developing software (the process[es]) the less I like and the more removed from real human existence it becomes.

Can I develop software? Yes. Can I fix computers? Yes. Can I follow all the bull processes surrounding the two? Perhaps. Is it something I want to spend the next 40+years of my life doing...

Note: This is a thread I'll likely regret making AM tomorrow so there it is...

There is more passion in software development than alot of other fields!  You just have to work with the right people in the right place with the right type of management to be completely content about what you do in the software world.  Otherwise it just sucks cause you will realize everyone around you is a complete moron and they all deserve to be terminated!

What is the real human existence that its removed so far from?

You talk about artistic endeavors, but art for old masters was a lengthy process and it would take months to finish a painting--and they had to buy and select, and often create their own pigments to do so--then they had to create the painting layer by layer over a period of time. Before that they would do numerous sketches planning it out. Ok, so modern art has removed all of these steps, but you won't be a modern artist without reading and writing papers on critical theory.

If you develop software, come up with ideas and create a design, you are doing something like any craft, which requires tedious work in between. Some of this work you can also find pleasure in, I'm sure some programmers like finding solutions to design problems or algorithms they're thinking about, just like artists liked exploring ideas with sketches and playing around with grinding pigments. In fact, often its the enjoyment of this tedium that goes into an act of creativity. And like an art, to create meaningful software you have to be aware of other people and real human existence.

I was considering majoring in computer science in college--there was some expectation that I was going to, because I was good at programming and design and sometimes did it as a hobby. I decided not to, my major is philosophy.

But there are some programming projects I'm still interested in completing--because I think they are worthwhile and I want them to be finished. I also draw, and write, and do other things. Coding isn't really any less human than any other practice. Creating a piece of software isn't necessarily less worthwhile, and if an act is worth something, you can expect passion behind it.

I didn't want to go into software development primarily because I had other overriding interests--but I also knew that most of a job in software development would be working on projects I didn't care about, because of the way the industry is, and working as a laborer in some team under some boss without any real direction over the product myself. There are some software development projects you can care about, and that you can direct yourself. Hopefully I'll finish some of the ones I started a while ago.

When I was programming as a hobby I was doing it mostly in RAD languages like VB, even though I knew C++, because I was more interested in the product and not the tedium of coding. But I realize how important some of that is, and if I start up on some of my projects again I'll do it the other way. In truth, still, many common programs are very easy to build from a coding perspective--and the hard part is the design.

I do think Microsoft's slogan is dopey. Not because necessarily no developers at Microsoft have passion--but because the slogan could be used for any company, and because its a PR department created slogan--and the PR department putting words in the mouths of the software developers and saying they have "passion" is a bit lame and patronizing and phony. Most of the touchy-feeling corporate slogans--and Microsoft is fond of them---are really dopey. I wish they would pick a more simple, direct slogan, and stop trying to be cool or human or whatever they're trying to be.

I'm relatively passionate about developing software, myself.  Its fun to me.  I enjoy writing code.  I enjoy thinking about software architecture.  Maybe I'm insane.

As long as I am at a company that gets rid of a lot of the BS politics or whatever, I'll be fine.

I have to agree with you Manip, although I have never worked in a software development environment, I find developing certain software tedious. I think that’s why I am so interested in computer game development. Ok, so coding is coding no matter whether you're writing code for a business app, or a game; but I have much more interest and enjoyment making games. I have to be more creative, more open to new conventions, which results in me being much more satisfied with my results.

Maybe you're looking for passion in the wrong place. Maybe it's not to be found externally.

I find it's rather easy to be passionate about software develpment when my software runs inside a Dodge Nitro.

What kind of software have you been writting? Software is everywhere in our lives, you don't have to be stuck writting software for lame old PCs.

Manip, yeah, i know the feeling... And there are so many situations make me hate software development. In my particular case, i work in outsourcing for a big telecomunicattions company (we do custom-sized software). I have to lead a small development group and to comunicate with the customer leader. I hate him, because our engineering and geniuosity effort never is recognized because he "don't see the forest...."(complete the sentence...)

In the other hand, i hate that the 70% of my productive time is oriented to fill forms "in the name of the quality". Yeah, quality is very important, but...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Well, enough of complaints....

You know what is the real problem? Money. Software is getting away from art because it is intended to fill someone's pocket.

Kind Regards

H

PD: Sorry for my english, i'm not a native english speaker......[6]

DoomBringer wrote:

I'm relatively passionate about developing software, myself.  Its fun to me.  I enjoy writing code.  I enjoy thinking about software architecture.  Maybe I'm insane.

Not  insane... very sane you are...yes.


For me the passion lies in the code itself... not so much in the tricks of the UI (most of my code has no UI) or anything truly tangible to a customer....

I write a lot of services and some console apps too... most of which have little to no UI (closest I often come is the Usage() output for /? and /help). So the passion lies in measurables like performance. When I know I have written very performant code and investigated methods to increase performance in code then I get satisfaction.

When my most recent service parsed well over 30K+ records from text files dropped in a watchdirectory(20+ with an average of 1500+ records per file and not EDI data and varying formats)  and commited them all to the DB in just over 1 minute (including decision code to determine the target DB etc) I felt I had written my code well... its those types of enjoyment that I do it for.... that little happy dance of triumph (if you aren't doing happy dances when things just fall together you are missing out)

DoomBringer wrote:

As long as I am at a company that gets rid of a lot of the BS politics or whatever, I'll be fine.

Good luck with that.

Manip wrote:

Why do I hate Software Development? ... Simply put its complete lack of passion. Irrespective of Microsoft's bull, there is no passion in software, there is rarely any in the entire I.T. industry and why should there be? It is not an artistic endeavour - regardless of what some who develop software would have you believe.

It's hard to maintain your passion for your job, no matter what that job is. For some it's harder than others -- I lost my passion for research before I'd even finished my PhD, and I lost my passion for programming a few years after I started, but I'm like that.  Its a personality flaw.

If you want passion, find something you are passionate about and start your own company to do it.  Then you can control the bullsh*t to a certain degree.  That's the passion-killer -- having to do things the way someone else wants them done and not the way that you think is best.

</jaded> </cynical>

Herbie

Choose your attitude Manip.

The development process has not evolved anywhere near as fast as other aspects of the I.T. industry.

Depending on whether you are a 'glass half full' or 'glass half empty' kind of guy the above fact is either a curse or an opportunity.

So thats the first thing to decide. Now the second ...

Do you want an easy life or do you like a challenge?

The next thing to consider is ...

How much money do you want to earn?

Nothing in life is free. The more challenge and/or responsibility the likelihood is that you will earn more money.

So ask yourself a few basic questions that will help ...

What are your goals? Holidays, girls/boys, car, house, cat/dog, new computer, Xbox 360, get fit, have big muscles

What do you want to achieve? 100K p.a., King of the world, Beach-bum, burger-flipper.

What motivates you?  Money, sex, power, being more inteligent than your peers.

Make a list and be honest with yourself.

The first step in understanding what you want from life is to understand yourself.

If you want we can talk about this off-line, I'm really quite good at this stuff.

Have to agree with Sabot here.

What do you want out of life? Let me tell you there are few jobs that have "passion" involved. This whole "passion" thing ticks me off - its a totaly overused word. Most people who claim to be passionate are just fooling themselves in to working too hard.

Let me tell you this though - if you have done a crap job, you appreciate development. I spent a year typing coupons in to a computer. Twenty coupons an hour. 8 hours a day. 7 days a week. Type, flip, type, flip. I would not go back to that if they paid me more than I earn developing.

At least with this job you have to engage your brain - and for that I am thankful.

If you want passionate become a nurse, or work oversees for a charity or somthing. Chances are it will become routine, dull and boring after a while.

If you want a job like most people have, then passion is somthing you are going to have achieve on your own time.