
How do programmers cope with the triviality of it all? - godelshalt
Let&#x27;s face it, most of us don&#x27;t work on cancer treatments, cutting edge machine learning, or NP-problems every day or even once a year.<p>Is it just me, or do others sometimes feel like they are just moving data from here to there, buttons from there to here, colors from this to that, extra fields in services, oh a neat opportunity for caching, and so on...? And then there&#x27;s just work we make for ourselves, maybe to do something interesting for once like switch to some new framework, switch up to a functional programming style, join some religious coding cult over here, then switch to over there, google &quot;how to do X in Y language&#x2F;framework&quot; and so on again.<p>It has left me wondering, are we all just McEngineers serving up soft-serve and fast-food for fat executives and fickle users? Sure, we can make this polynomial busy-work interesting, but after awhile doesn&#x27;t it get old and do you find yourself just copying and pasting from SO to get on with it? How do you cope with this, or do you reject it for some reason?
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nostrademons
How do cancer researchers and machine-learning engineers cope with the
triviality of it all?

(My brother-in-law works in cancer research. Most of his daily job consists of
drawing blood samples, growing cell lines, killing mice, and managing lab
techs. He has had one paper published in _Nature_ [1], which, if you read the
abstract, will make your eyes glaze over. I work in machine-learning. My daily
job consists of labeling training data, debugging ETL code, and looking at
relevancy scores and figuring out where I went wrong.)

I think it helps to realize that this is the human condition - big
developments are built out of little developments, and often aren't recognized
as such until years after the foundations are laid. Usually, when we think of
big prestigious work, it's because of an information distortion in _our_
brains, which aren't equipped to track the minutiae of all the little steps it
took to build something we notice, and so only latch onto the thing as a whole
and whatever names we can attach to it.

If you're bored at work, quit! Start working on some hobby projects where
you're doing what you want to be doing, and then look for people that might
have money and be willing to pay you for it. But basically all important work
consists of 90% drudgery; you have to enjoy the drudgery and believe enough in
the whole that it makes it worthwhile.

[1]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00493-9](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00493-9)

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grageth
You either need to get out more or maybe re-evaluate if software development
is for you.

I might just be lucky but I've never really gone more than 3 months where I'm
not creating something new birthed from some idea of my own or someone else.

Personally, I love my career choice because I believe I get to create from
nothing almost daily. Do I sometimes string together something I've used
before? Sure. Are there times I get bored? Sure. But I find that's usually a
state of mind and get over it pretty quick, or find some side project to feed
my creative and problem-solving side while "going through the motions" that
bring in the paycheck.

The way you phrase your statement reminds me of an interview I had with a guy
that was constantly quitting jobs because he "Wasn't making a real difference
and that's what he wanted in a job". That's a pretty big ask, and if you
really feel that way start an organization that will do that. Or better yet.
Keep moving that data, those buttons and tweaking those colors, earning money
and then contribute to the causes you care about. Because I'm damn sure you'll
be earning at least 20% more doing what you're doing now than you would be
working for that non-profit. Take that extra cash and some of your free time
and donate it.

To be a bit brutal, stop bitching. Life is what you make of it, either find
the joy in what you do or go find something else that brings you joy. But
don't belittle what people are doing. One of the people out there doing entry-
level menial work is building the skills they need to one day build something
that will benefit mankind.

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FroshKiller
Time is precious. The tasks I work on, no matter how trivial they seem to me
personally, will save time in aggregate for all my users and the staff that
supports them. I'm humbled by the trust they place in me to shift a widget,
because they judged it would help them make better use of their time, and they
believe I can help them achieve that.

As far as we know, we're alone in the universe. Programs are for people. We're
counting on each other. To me, that's enough. Vent about a nuisance, fret
about unanticipated consequences, but don't lose sight of that essential truth
of programming.

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jssupreme
As long as the paychecks keep cashing, I'll make those CRUD apps.

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coldtea
> _It has left me wondering, are we all just McEngineers serving up soft-serve
> and fast-food for fat executives and fickle users?_

Yes.

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krapp
You shouldn't have been downvoted, you're right. Most programming work is the
software equivalent of assembling fast food according to spec, and maybe
occasionally having to dump out the grease trap.

