Work should be fun too, not just personal projects. I've noticed that over the last 10 years, the tech world has seemed to lose this idea. I blame this on the large tech companies who seem to take the best people and put them in an adult prison. Granted a prison with good food and soft chairs.
Even startups seem to be less fun. It seems the VC world foments a narrow window of thought with a lot of copy cat startups doing the same thing. Fads, lots of fads.
I use C++ for every new project because I know if I need to build something myself, I can do it. Using frameworks all the time sucks because frameworks never work the way you want. Especially if it deals with the core of the project.
If you can build it yourself, then do it, otherwise use a framework. And if you can build it yourself, C++ is a great tool because it can do everything and doesn't get in your way in all the important ways. Meaning, I can express my mental model directly in C++, where a language like Rust might complain I'm doing an unsafe thing. Sometimes I think in pointers damned and pointers are a great thing!
Lets bring fun back! Not just in our personal lives, but work too!
OK. Who pays for you having fun? How is your "but I am having fun optimizing this" help your boss pay the bills after a deadline is getting closer?
People like you baffle me to no end and make me feel I've lived in a parallel universe my entire life -- when I read a comment like yours. How in the everliving frak have you people survived?
Maybe they are hired to resolve complex issues beyond the FAQ of a framework, because they know how the underpinnings of the framework work. Many frameworks and libraries are built in C++. Without curiosity and sense of adventure, what are you? Another clone of framework x?
Making software is more than coding. It's about both solving and finding problems. In my experience, boring people make uninteresting products and lack imagination to solve the hard ones. Having fun is crucial for creativity and loosening the mind to now what you "should do" but what you "could do".
You get paid to solve problems not write software, and having fun is critical to solving problems. If you are bored, stressed, and frustrated, what makes you think your mind would be in a good place to solve problems?
I am blaming the companies, not the workers. It's not your responsibility to make sure you have the environment to do your job well. That's the job of the company. There are a lot of bad companies out there and that's my point. They don't care what you feel and whether you have fun and that's to their detriment and yours.
It might be to their detriment, but I suffered much more than I could detect that they suffered so I am keeping a reserved judgement on that one. But even if you are 100% correct (a real possibility) then it still doesn't matter much; I suffered and I still do.
Environment and even geographical area count. A lot. Even if I worked remotely for the last 14 years. Turns out USA companies really don't want people outside of USA, especially recently.
Yes, despite what outsiders think, programming is a tough gig. Even in the US, if you look at wages, they have been stagnant since the dot com bubble collapsed if you account for inflation. People are overworked and as recently shown, job security is not really there. Outside the US it's often worse.
I still suffer, to this day. Gets more and more difficult as you age.
Hopefully I wisened up and I think I started doing the right steps but it's like blowing against the wind; ultimately you'll succeed but... yeah, nevermind. Don't want to complain. I can muscle through it. Not like I have any other meaningful choice either. It's a victory or death situation (not literally but almost).
Thanks for your sympathy. <3
Hope I didn't come across as too much of an arse. I am simply way too jaded and burned out.
If I couldn't have fun at work (of this exact nature) - I'd quit, I'd be bored, my brain would be constantly itching.
These activities are no more a waste of time than reading up on a topic or doing a tutorial or anything that furthers your skillset. A boss that objects to that wouldn't last long with me.
There are options between "freezing to death" and "brainlessly working on other people's ideas while suffering inside". I've personally quit jobs paying more than double of my current salary, because I felt I'm wasting my life on boring, repetitive work just to make someone else rich.
Even startups seem to be less fun. It seems the VC world foments a narrow window of thought with a lot of copy cat startups doing the same thing. Fads, lots of fads.
I use C++ for every new project because I know if I need to build something myself, I can do it. Using frameworks all the time sucks because frameworks never work the way you want. Especially if it deals with the core of the project.
If you can build it yourself, then do it, otherwise use a framework. And if you can build it yourself, C++ is a great tool because it can do everything and doesn't get in your way in all the important ways. Meaning, I can express my mental model directly in C++, where a language like Rust might complain I'm doing an unsafe thing. Sometimes I think in pointers damned and pointers are a great thing!
Lets bring fun back! Not just in our personal lives, but work too!