

Programming is terrible; so learn to enjoy it - barake
https://walledcity.com/supermighty/programming-is-terrible-so-learn-to-enjoy-it

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was_hellbanned
I think programming is great, it's people that are terrible.

People write horrible APIs and document them poorly (ugh, Microsoft's SetupAPI
put me into burnout mode last year).

People make demands of the programmer but kick and scream about clearly
documenting those demands (specifications).

People don't appreciate and thank the programmer for his hard work. Managers
and owners are suspicious and resent the programmer for not being grateful
simply to receive a paycheck.

Other programmers think the programmer is an idiot for asking a question,
thinking that every other programmer must know everything _I_ know.

Yeah, it's been my experience that people make programming awful. If you can
surround yourself with good people and the products of good people, you'll
probably be a lot happier. I can't advise on how to find that nirvana,
unfortunately.

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kphild
However deep in shit they are, people can find "beauty" in it. It is a defence
mechanism. But why not see things as they really are?

~~~
maxander
Neither "beauty" nor "shittiness" are part of how things objectively are, but
rather things we project onto the world by how we relate to it. Why not, when
given the choice, project the former?

~~~
justinpombrio
"...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

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aperture
Love the article. I'm a university student, bored with the lab and into coding
SSRS reports as a job. Luckily, I enjoy my work, constantly fighting the SQL
queries and arranging the datasets in ever complex fashions the client needs,
or decide they want to change drastically.

I found though that my enjoyment in code is I like the challenges I face, not
how I got there. I have tools in front of me, that may be good or may be bad,
but it doesn't matter. Using these tools, learning some tricks, or asking
(even helping) others is what I find enjoyable. I enjoy the code because I
challenge myself. A client will give me a new task, but ultimately it's me who
has accepted it. Make the best of it.

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rheide
Programming can be art, but only extremely rarely is work programming also art
programming. Even when you have the best of tools at your disposal, even when
you're working with the best people and the most reasonable clients, you're
still solving business requirements, not freeflowing into a design that just
jumped into your mind a few seconds ago in a flash of inspiration. Solving
business requirements should not, cannot be art. It should be robust and
maintainable and boring. If you keep art programming and business programming
separate then you'll inevitably find that one or the other does not agree with
you.

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hcarvalhoalves
Just a small remark about the analogy with Wabi-Sabi:

"I came to know that programming (websites in particular) was not about
creating an end product, a final perfect form. It is a journey of discovery
and solution finding. I embraced Wabi-sabi; the idea of the imperfection and
incompleteness."

It's actually very hard to achieve Wabi-Sabi in craft - it takes skill and
observation to make it look genuine.

So it's not imperfect in the sense of "let's wing it"; but more about
imperfection being the ultimate aesthetic because that's the nature of things.

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vojant
Programming is only a tool to create something. If the thing that we are
working on is shitty - then yes, programming is terrible. These texts are
related to the web programing which usually is horrible.

~~~
CmonDev
> _" I have even come to see the beauty in the ugly that is PHP."_

I recommend stopping immediately and going through a 6 month of therapeutic
Scala/F#-only development.

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seanconaty
Just because it's related and it's one of my favorites, Another rant about
"real world" software developement: [http://stilldrinking.org/programming-
sucks](http://stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks)

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nevster
Leave the world better than you found it. Amongst the madness of silly
business requirements and broken APIs, there are always opportunities for your
code to stand out as a small piece of beauty to your fellow developers.

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CmonDev
After reading and based on my experience: " _Web_ programming is terrible; so
learn to avoid it. Focus on a nice server-side language (not PHP)."

