bitops

That said, I don't think he has to stay stuck in this mentality. And, there are many benefits to being "just a software engineer". Much of it depends on your attitude towards life and what you're expecting and/or hoping to get out of it.

First, it's important to recognize that as we get older, we'll eventually have to confront the fact that not all of our dreams and ambitions will come true. If you look at the number of thought leaders in the industry in ratio to the total number of programmers, very few make it to the top 1%. I don't think it's a zero-sum thing, it's more that at a certain point, people give up and decide to do something else. OP may be one of those people who decides that because reality didn't match his expectations, he's just going to give up. On the other hand, he could decide to push himself and his understanding of what it means to program to a new level. And then he might see new opportunities in his current job that he hadn't noticed before. I know that this can sound hopelessly fanciful and idealistic, but it really is true and quite possible; I speak from my own experience here.

Second, one of the most awesome things about programming - regardless of the type you're doing - is that it helps improve your mind. Since I've been in the tech industry, I've found that my thinking tends to be cleaner, more rigorous, and more realistic (though not always, of course). I have an easier time understanding difficult topics than I used to and I also find the process of learning easier than in the past. For that reason alone programming is a worthwhile pursuit. Who doesn't like their mind to work better?

Finally, OP has some growing to do and should try to realize that his current predicament has much to do with his attitude and little to do with his actual job. As other posters have noted, this problem exists in every creative industry. You were excited about the pure fun of it when you were younger, and now you feel mugged by reality as it were. Part of this could relate to our model of education which sometimes makes it seem as if academia is much preferable to actual private industry work. Like they said in Ghostbusters - "they expect results in the private sector!"

My advice to OP would be to try and balance his current work responsibilities with something fun outside of work, something that gets his juices flowing. Learning to bring a sense of play into your really helps, otherwise yes...the sense of drudgery can kill you. So the trick is to learn to stay positive. Sounds like a tall order but it's definitely doable.

This is me at my most idealistic. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Iceworm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_crash

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6381218

Guys, if we keep trying, eventually it will happen. It takes courage as a man to say you're against sexism and misogyny, there are so many easy outs provided by our culture and community.

So that's one employee you don't have to hire. I was on a team of 4 that, among other responsibilities, managed several TeamCity instances, all of them pretty large.

Generally speaking, once it was up and running, it was pretty low overhead and easy to automate. So I think it really is worth thinking hard about the cost before people dive in and roll their own solutions.

And there's always the argument of: instead of building your own, why not work to improve an existing OSS solution?

The truth is that you need all parts of the business to succeed, working well together.

That said, I think there are stages in the progression. In the beginning, you can't sell anything if you don't have a product. But once you have a reasonably good product, you need good marketing and sales to have people become aware of it.

I worked closely with the marketing department in my last job and it definitely made me see how big an impact a good team can have. They did a lot of creative work to sell the product.

For myself, I've noticed that after getting healthier, just one cup of coffee a day keeps me plenty productive. I might have a cup of tea in the afternoon. But it's a far cry from my previous 3-cups-a-day habit.

I don't think that has to be true - you just need to find something else that unwinds you. I think alcohol is easy because, hey, you drink it and it does its thing. With other practices (exercise/meditation/etc) you have to put in some up-front work to see the benefits. But I believe you can do anything in 4 to 6 weeks with consistent effort.

Generally speaking, I think practicing martial arts is a good thing for technical people to do. It gets you out of your head and into a feeling space. And, there are many interesting parallels between the learning process in martial arts and in programming.

I think this is the key insight from the article. I went through a stressful period where I used alcohol to wind down quickly. But in reality it just made things worse because it numbed me up to the real reasons why I was stressed out. Sometimes though, we don't want to look at the deeper issues (emotional/psychological) for why we are unhappy, and booze provides some quick and effective relief.

I've recently gotten much healthier and it's amazing to experience that the old adage about "making a lifestyle change" really is the core of it. All the different parts of your life have to hang together for the positive switch to happen. If you think of exercise and diet as a way to "pay down the debt" you'll never get out from under whatever is holding you down.

Also, for all its ills, Windows is not a bad platform for most lay users. Yes, of course we've all been bitten by it, but if all you need to do is normal office work, it's not bad.

There are tons and tons of things that overlap with programming in terms of creative focus. Writing, painting, etc. are all great.

I'd also recommend finding a way to spend time outside. Our brains get a little square sometime from sitting inside all day looking at the screen. I've had a lot of creative ideas while hiking or sitting by the ocean (when it's not crowded).

If you give yourself a lot of space and maybe try something new and different (kayaking, mountain biking, running, painting, music, whatever) an inspiration will come to you. You've obviously gained a lot of experience and are ready for something new. But you have to give yourself a healthy amount of room for the real creative energy to return.

Good luck!

One option could be to seek out education on the topic? I'm thinking of in-house seminars where speakers are invited to address the topic and provide coaching, particularly for executives. Of course, that assumes that the executives are interested and recognize the issue in the first place.

It may not be your intention, but I get the sense that you feel this is unreasonable?

As a thought experiment, consider what you'd say if we were having this discussion around racism. Do you consider it unfair for black people (or any non-white racial group) to expect society to change due the discrimination they've experienced?

Imagine we have an office staffed exclusively by white people. Then imagine a black person joins. After a while, they hear a racist comment, not overtly racist, but insensitive and potentially hurtful. If the black person complains about this comment, would we feel it okay to say "oh come on, you're just overly sensitive"?

I do find it important that work be a place where I feel respected and safe. Eliminating sexism and gender discrimination in the workplace is part of that effort.

For example, many people on HN care about privacy and government intrusion. They don't need to be convinced as to why it's important to speak up about the NSA and the US treatment of Edward Snowden. People who care feel it's a personal imperative, so they do something about it.

I personally have the time and the inclination. Because it's something I care about. Maybe you don't care about it, that's your personal feeling, so you won't take the time. But I'm sure that there are other things in your life that you care about, and you do invest time in those things.

It's absolutely fine not to care about every social cause out there. I don't think we can expect everyone to care about everything. Just pick those things which matter most to you and work to do something about them.

As for a movement, there are a few out there that I'm aware of - in particular I am a big fan of the work of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP).