
Someday, You Won’t Want to Code for a Living - mooreds
https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2019/07/01/someday-you-wont-want-to-code-for-a-living/
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chrisbennet
I still love coding. I suspect its because I work on fun projects and I have
lot of autonomy.

I described what work is like for me in an interview once:

"You know how if you throw a tennis ball for a golden retrieve he'll go fetch
it and bring it back? If you aren't familiar with golden retrievers, you'd
think 'he'll get sick of this in a while'. The thing is, they don't. I'm like
that with coding!" [coding since 1985]

~~~
mooreds
That's awesome. I have a former colleague who is like that too. He'd been
coding for years when I met him and is still coding now. I know a few other
folks like that, but also know many other folks who've stepped away from day
to day coding.

Anyway, different strokes for different folks :).

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sova
Could someone elaborate on what the author means by "leverage?"

~~~
mooreds
Author here. I say leverage when I mean ability to influence or cause change
in an organization or the world.

Here's another post I wrote about leverage, with some concrete examples:
[http://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/2497](http://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/2497)

~~~
sova
So if the idea is to "maximize leverage," would you say that influencing one
person's life profoundly and unalterably would be more leverage-bearing than
influencing many lives shallowly? To me this question gets very interesting
when we start looking into what sort of leverage is best and what sort of
leverage to prioritize.

~~~
mooreds
Great question! I can't answer that for you.

First, it's hard to know what kind of influence you have on people. I think
back on my life to interactions that I still remember and sometimes when I
mention them to the other participants, they don't remember them at all.

Second, I think that the answer to this question:

> would you say that influencing one person's life profoundly and unalterably
> would be more leverage-bearing than influencing many lives shallowly

is "it depends". Depends on what your overall goals are and what you desire.

Think of it this way, to put it in a solely career context.

Would it be better to help and guide one new developer through the years of
their career, making sure they achieved all they could?

Or would it be better to write a book or blog (like the one this post was
from) which lightly influenced many more people.

I guess when I put it that way, in this context, I chose the latter.

But when I think of my kiddos, I chose the former.

Sorry, no great answers, but awesome point!

