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despair.com is one of the really great places on the net - highly recommended. Every year I buy their calendars with the new selection of demotivators.
Unfortunately for the rest of you, a couple of my favorites are on the retired list. Among them, "Loneliness. If you find yourself struggli9ng with loneliness, your're not alone. And yet your are alone. So very alone" - with this picture of the very lonely tree on a snowy hill. Loneliness[^]
Or, "Individuality, Always remember that your are unique. Just like everbody else" - where the 'photo' makes a subtle twist: It shows a handful of snow crystals, but only those who are observant will notice that all the snow crystals have five arms! Individuality[^]
The despair.com photos are excellent. The wisdom is great, and usually it carries far more truth than the more common "motivators" do. The parody is far better than the original.
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The first lines of code I wrote were in Basic on a Texas Instruments TI99-4A; we then were in 1983, and I was 10.
But I only code seriously since 10 years now; I've merely known only .NET languages (a litlle bit of VB6, but I quit it quickly).
Edit: I forgot to mention that I studied Prolog during the last year before graduation. I remember we had a project, a nice program that allowed us to check every fact about greek deities genealogy.
From this language, I forgot almost everything, though.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't.
"I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
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Ah, the TI99-4A. Not a bad little machine as I recall. A bit different to all the others. Did you have the speech synthesizer that plugged into the side? That was cool.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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No, unfortunately I didn't.
I did have the Extended Basic cartridge, though.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate humankind in two distinct categories, and those who don't.
"I have two hobbies: breasts." DSK
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Started as a senior in high school in '68, then got a summer job with the traffic court in Chicago. I've been programming full time since then, except for a (roughly) 2 year break to be a blacksmith. Unfortunately, while I'm a decent smith, I'm terrifyingly bad as a salesman. I look forward to retiring in perhaps 4 years; probably will continue doing some programming and working part time in my wife's piano store.
One advantage of my longevity is that I can call everyone else in my department 'young whippersnapper' and get away with it - because it's true. 
According to my calculations, I should be able to retire about 5 years after I die.
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_WinBase_ wrote: I still often put in 80+ hour weeks to meet deadlines
Something tells me that regardless of your productivity, the deadlines aren't going to change. The guy who is making the planning should be fired, without any further discussion.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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_WinBase_ wrote: and have a tad more fun over and above being some sort of 'manager'
That of course depends entirely on you. A comedian can make a lot of money but if you absolutely refuse to get on a stage it isn't going to be much fun. A good sales person can make much more than a good developer but if you are going to be miserable doing that then it doesn't matter.
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I've been programming since 1980, professionally since 1988.
Your use of coding is interesting since that's the part I enjoy the most--the actual implementation. Dealing with management and the process-of-the-day is the hardest part of the job.
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Been coding since 82 but never professionally. I love coding but could never be able to handle the stress of deadlines and constantly changing requirements. And besides, I would rather be farming.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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PJ Arends wrote: And besides, I would rather be farming.
Amen!
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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PJ Arends wrote: could never be able to handle the stress of deadlines and constantly changing requirements
I think most people can't which is why it's important to find a job where there are no impossible deadlines and you have the freedom to create systems in a manner that allows for changing requirements.
I am lucky to work in a situation where I get to set the deadlines with my clients and I help draw up the requirements. That said there are times when I have done a lot of work for a request and the user never makes use of what I have created - after the cussing and gnashing of teeth I do however eventually realise that even those projects that are shelved have enabled me to learn something new.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Deadline: an arbitrary promise one makes when the labor itself will be delegated to someone else (and putting the burden of meeting it on the same person oc.)
Unless I'm doing what I have done before (which DRY forbids) it'll be hard to say when it is done.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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PJ Arends wrote: never professionally
  No kidding ? And I thought you were one of the many great professionals out there !
What are you doing for a living then, if I may ask ?
And who is that super cute lil'girl in your bio ?
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Farming. Milked cows in my past life, now I raise chickens.
And that is my daughter.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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PJ Arends wrote: Farming. Milked cows in my past life, now I raise chickens.
I'm sure I have a book on C++ written by you hiding somewhere under my desk. Wouldn't that be considered professional programming?
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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That would be considered amazing as I have never written a book.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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PJ Arends wrote: That would be considered amazing as I have never written a book.
I'm now going to have to dig the book out and have a look at it. Positive it was written by someone here on CP (before CP existed) and for some reason your name sprang to mind last night.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I know there are a bunch of book authors here. Nish Sivakumar and Tom Archer come to mind immediately. So do Christopher Duncan and Sacha Barber. I am sure there are many more.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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I started coding proper in 1983 when I got my first computer a 48K ZX Spectrum.
I wrote my first database engine which was able to save all of 12 records due to the lack of memory.
I now work as a developer and know what you mean about being a 'manager' - I have always been a 'technician' wanting to do the work myself rather than telling others how to do it.
My professional career started in 1990 when I cut my teeth as a COBOL programmer.
Also 80+ hour weeks sounds a bit much.
Having said that in a sense I am working most of the time as I am frequently thinking of how to solve issues when I am not working at the computer.
However I could never work 80 hours flat out. I find my 45 minute lunchtime walk is one of my most productive times when I am away from the computer thinking of how to solve particularly knotty problems.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
modified 17-Jun-14 16:33pm.
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Well compared to the others (and you) I'v just started.
But still I had moments (the past 6 months) where I truly didn't like my job, but that's because I was doing more support / project management than programming (If I wrote 10 lines of code in the past 6 months not including this week, it's a lot).
But then I get a project in winforms / wpf and I start to enjoy it again.
Hell I even started to enjoy doing MVC (untill it all went down hell and the whole support / project management thing came up)
I'v had a few jobs in my professional life (not all programming but most) and I'v learned one thing, no matter what job you do or company you work for their will always be something that bugs you. All you can do is try to limit the amount of things that bug you.
Anyway my 2 cents (not worth that much compared to the experienced old guys around here). 
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I've been coding since early 2010 (so more or less five years). I love it at 25, and hope I still love it at 52 
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As I posted just last week, I've been at the same company (sort of) for 36 years.[^]
However, I had two summer jobs before that where I:
worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) programming data analysis for the Viking Mars Orbiter, and then
did Operating System (TOPS-10/Tops-20) support at Digital Equipment Corp.
A positive attitude may not solve every problem, but it will annoy enough people to be worth the effort.
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With 25 years of earning a living by coding I'm about ready to hang it up, as I didn't start coding till my mid 30s that make me an official old fart. The only time I would work 80hrs in a week is if it was self imposed and I agree with others that your PM needs to be sacked if you need to regularly work those sort of hours to meed deadlines.
After 10 year in the same, very lucrative, contract it is finally coming to an end and I am dammed if I can figure out what to do next. I enjoy coding and mentoring others but with the demise of Silverlight I have lost my web expertise and MVC is a dog so it will be either WPF or retire or a complete change.
I think I fancy being a small tour bus driver in one of the Oz wine regions.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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_WinBase_ wrote: I've been writing & supporting code for commercial and bespoke (mainly business) systems since 1978 on many different platforms and languages, and 36 years later I still love it, still do it for a living
Me too - coding professionally since Jan 1978.
I went through the project management stuff, became CIO, didn't enjoy it so went back to development.
In the meantime I qualified as a teacher (IT and Science) & would give my left nut to be able to stop working for the man and teach full time - but getting a full time teaching job in Australia is all but impossible unless you are a) willing to relocate to woop-woop or b) just graduating from Uni.
Was actually offered a 6 month teaching contract recently, and just had to turn it down, because I can't afford to gamble on getting work at Xmas time - and can't afford to just not work.
The passion I had tends to die when I am working for a company I don't'feel' for.
If I was braver, I'd give it up and teach, and work outside school hours developing my own stuff - but I'm not a gambling man!
Hopefully I can find a job, ideally with a small company, developing interesting software, where I can learn new things and enjoy the passion again... (I'm waiting for the phone call now!)
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