Reading Programming

Way too often lately I find myself sitting and staring at the screen asking what the hell is going on there. Somehow it feels like I'm no longer able to see casual relations, things are way too often getting more complex than I can follow it. I need three or four attempts from scratch to understand existing structures, cause along the way of digging in the dirt I'm losing concentration. Its scary, am I getting too old for this job?

If you think of it, being a programmer is somewhat different than being a carpenter or a painter. Of course experience is also a key factor, but experience in the IT sector is extremely short-lived. Usually, in most jobs, you're actually living on your experience. the more you get the better you are. And the older you get the more respect you earn for the years you've spent in your business, almost inevitably. But with programming things you've done 10 years ago dont matter to anyone, in fact they're as useless as anything can be, probably they're even hindering to be able to adjust to new techniques and styles. The business is too fast to rely on things you've done yesterday.

One thing is for sure, with getting older you're losing your curiosity. And isn't that one of the driving forces that make a reasonable programmer? When I remember the times I came home from work just to sit down again and do the same things I did during the day just for the sake of knowing how it works... I'm changed. Today I'm looking forward to come home and relax, dont think of anything work related, no more inner voice, that wants to know more about any given problem...

And how will it be in 10 years from now? Who will employ someone too old to hold his cup without spilling the tea? I'm burnt out, job-wise, and looking into the future makes a damned bad feeling. I need an idea, a change, something to be able to get old with, and thats not programming I'm afraid.

After decades of construction my website is finally up an running: www.kkds.de

I am a programmer myself, and while I may not have hit that milemarker, I can perhaps provide a couple of minor suggestions that could help you.

I have found that I am very curious to do programming when I am not doing it. As strange as it sounds, I find myself longing to do it only when it isn't required of me on a daily basis. Exaggerate this feeling times 10, and I suppose you find yourself almost hating the profession day by day.

Maybe what you need is a vacation. Spend some time away from programming, and you might find yourself longing to program things again. It's perfectly healthy to grow tired of something that you've done for a long time. It is like eating tuna fish sandwiches every day for lunch for 20 years. It can become old rather quickly, even if at least at one point, tuna fish sandwiches were your favorite.

As for the complexity thing, don't feel bad. It's complicated for me as well. It seems everytime we make tools to allow for programming to make more sense, it is used to create an even more versatile and complicated language. I'm still waiting for the day in which there will be programmers talented enough to do bit-wise programming like the old days and be thorough with it enough to put any other programmer to shame.

If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done

Maybe what you need is a vacation. Spend some time away from programming, and you might find yourself longing to program things again. It's perfectly healthy to grow tired of something that you've done for a long time. It is like eating tuna fish sandwiches every day for lunch for 20 years. It can become old rather quickly, even if at least at one point, tuna fish sandwiches were your favorite

A full vacation isn't always required. It is possible to just simply grab a secondary passtime (such as helping out at a local volunteer group) and regain interest in doing programming. (It can also help reduce side effects from excessive programming, such as cell-shaded dreams.)

There's only a need for a full vacation if you don't like doing programming for a small amount of time.

I'm fresh out of college, and I'm just starting to be a "real" programmer. My mind is already blown from working out here in the real world.

I find myself sitting and staring at the screen asking what the hell is going on there. Somehow it feels like I'm no longer able to see casual relations, things are way too often getting more complex than I can follow it.

I find myself doing that all the time. I have to sit down and write out (using paper) what is going on, and where I need to go, and then focus on the small details of the large job.

In school I had friends who could just sit down and write an entire 400 level lab off the top of thier heads in an hour.

But out here in the real world, we need to write ourselves guide maps, pictures, flow charts, whatever. Issues out here are too complex. We just make them look simple in the end - the same way a figure skater makes all those crazy spins look easy. That's what makes it beautiful.

Both my boss and my fellow developer at work write without any sort of guide maps (and they never comment!). But when I'm done using my guide, my code is easier to read, easier to understand, and easier to maintain than thier's.

I also find it helps to do something completely different than work for lunch. Otherwise I hate my job in the afternoon.

...I guess lunch is the adult version of recess. :)

Please contiune to vote AND post.

I think a lot of energy and brain power when programming gets sapped by stuff that really doesn't have to do directly with coding. Like dealing with bad documentation, uncommented code, looking up obscure syntax and language features, etc.

Maybe it's time to reconsider the language you're using? I've heard a lot of people remark that Python, "made programming fun again."

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."