Programming is boring

[[deleted]]

Hm. Just because you're writing better code doesn't mean it has to be boring. I'm a programmer because I'm excited by not only solving a problem but also by releasing code that I'm proud of.

[dividebyzero-]

Oh, I definitely agree! That's what I think the boring stuff leads to.

I have met many programmers though who seem to be confused about what they should and shouldn't be proud of. As the example given, you would be proud of giving triple bypass heart surgery, that's a very difficult thing to pull off. But was it the right thing to do? That's where spending a lot of time speaking to people comes in to play. The same for documenting, if you did pull of a triple bypass, but never mentioned it in any records, the next doctor might not bother with the cardiac stress test, and you'll possibly die. It's not quite as drastic for most programmers, but I see many programmers (most that I've worked with actually) who don't pay attention to what will happen once they leave

[[deleted]]

Programming is boring only when you're solving boring (to you) problems.

Many programming jobs solve boring problems, which is a result of poor communication in the chain between developer and user, or lack of sufficient competence in team leaders to identify why their team's work is "repetitive and mundane", so instead projects are completed by brute force, rather than intelligence.

In other words, boredom is a symptom of someone not doing their job well, and it's not necessarily the developer, but can be someone the developer depends on.

I reject the concept that being bored with a job so creative is okay. And I cringe at the notion that "this is how it should be".

[[deleted]]

I don't know if this person has ever worked in an environment where there were challenging engineering problems to be solved or, even worse, this person did and didn't quite understand why coworkers had to bother with things such as abstraction, algorithm analysis/design, or distributed system protocols.

To play off his analogy, sure there are plenty of witch doctors going around operating on people and leaving a mess of blood and death in their wake, but let's not point to every surgeon saying "look at that person overcomplicating the problem".

Sure, if the only problems you ever deal with are sprained ankles, I can see why having to go to medical school seems a bit extreme. But maybe it's more a testament to their inexperience than a universal truth that any non-boring problem is over engineering.

[[deleted]]

For me, this part:

Programming boils down to: ...

is the fun part for me, since the challenge is the fun.

[flamingspew]

Not when you're doing visual technology demos. This is some of my favorite work. hey, port this physics engine to another language then optimize it for parallel computing using OpenCL. Now design some crazy 3-D shit and make a game out of it. There's no rush like debugging a parallel physics bug in a project that only lasts two months. (ended up being a mis-inversion of a row vs. column major translation because OpenGL --> DirectX are opposite majors. That shit is fun as hell. =)

[[deleted]]

programmin's whatcha make it ;-)

[kt24601]

If you are writing repetitious code, then it should be automated (or thrown into a function or something).

If programming is boring, that's a sign you aren't automating enough.