The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Man, late 20's huh? When I graduated in 2006 my starting pay as a programmer for the company I interned with was $65,000. I moved out, paid $1200 in rent to live 5 minutes from the office, and had more money than I thought I could ever spend. I was super confident, wading into code bases and fixing difficult to find memory leaks, or converting a small C++ code base for an ArcGIS extension into C# because that's what they converted the SDK to primarily support going forward.
In 2006.
Looking at the industry in 2025, making $45,000 and being lukewarm on the actual task of programming, I'd do trades, hands down. I mean, myself, right now, with 20 years experience, making what I make, no way. Though even still, if my industry exploded enough, it's a thing I'd consider, but it would be a downgrade. But it doesn't sound like that path is open to you. Don't worry about what vices other tradesmen end up developing. Plenty of software guys have self destructive habits too. Just look at WallStreetBets.
RE: Family, never say never. Just, plan as though you might. Don't go full hedonist and spend every penny you earn, or wreck your health
How did you get to this point? If you don't mind I'd love to know
I'm at a dead end in my CS career and have been contemplating going back to school to actually become a good programmer. I'm smart enough but find programming itself quite boring. Not sure I have the work ethic. Having a good idea of how much work it would take would be really helpful to me.
Do you already have a bachelor's degree in CS?
I have not found that the CS bachelor's degree syllabus is particularly useful for becoming a good programmer, much less becoming a good software engineer.
I think the best way to become a better engineer is to find a good engineer and work with them and learn from them. At least, that is what I have always been able to do, and that is what I have found helped me the most. If you are the best engineer around, it's time to find a new role.
The job market right now is not good, and while I don't think it's a permanent downturn, it's not easy to move around. If you have connections, leverage them.
I dropped out of college to get a software development job in crypto. I don't have a bachelor's.
I'd love to find a good engineer mentor--everywhere I've worked, I've been the only one doing anything similar to what I do. But so far I haven't been able to pass interviews at the larger crypto companies, which are getting quite competitive, and don't have any lateral connections to take advantage of. So I'm stuck in that regard unless I can figure out something that really makes me stand out.
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I fucking love programming, and noodle around in random unprofessional bullshit all the time.
But i spent my childhood obsessed with computers. I also did Computer Engineering with a software focus versus straight comp sci. I felt it gave me a better perspective of how computers actually work.
What's been good for my confidence has been contributing to a smattering of open source projects I used, but which had bugs that annoyed me. Emulators, open source bios, etc. Jumping into foreign code bases is great for experience.
From where I sit, the industry is scary. My little corner in my small government contractor company is fine. But I do wonder if the ladder got pulled up behind me. Some of it is hardcore culture war material, so I have to leave it at that.
Yeah this is what I was worried about. I don't really like programming--maybe partially because I'm not great at it yet. I enjoy LeetCode but in practice putting things together is just drudgery. It makes me wonder if I should instead go into something which other people find less interesting, but I find equally or more interesting, like law.
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