Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Oh my. Someone complaining that he has to program in a language different than his favorite language to make a living.

Most human beings have to work extremely hard to earn food for the day.

I'm genuinely shocked by such a "spoiled child" attitude.




Not sure why you were voted down, but I tried to get you back up. This guy says: "I need money, only way of getting it is doing Java, C# or PHP".

So he's basically whining instead of doing something about it. Why hasn't he started a profitable Haskell project? Or why doesn't he learn Ruby or Python, which are at least far better than Java? "Spoiled child" is exactly correct. If you really want to use a niche language, you can hope, but not expect that the world will give you a job programming it. Create your own, profitable opportunity. Otherwise, get used to being a starving artist.


"So he's basically whining instead of doing something about it."

Why is asking for ideas "whining"? Is complaining about such a post also whining?

If talking about it on mailing lists is all that happens, then that's a problem. But asking for some ideas to see what options are out there? He'd be foolish not to.


Get over yourself.

Someone on a Haskell mailing list is asking other Haskell programmers if there is a way they know of that he can do what makes him happy.

Yes, happiness is not at the same place on the hierarchy of needs as 'food', but that hardly means you shouldn't strive for it.


It's not just the language, it is everything that Java entails (speaking for myself, not the OP). It entails lots and lots of wasted time.

The wasted time is what gets to me. I have met lots of people who don't mind, as long as the pay is OK. I am not one of them (or maybe they never paid enough).


I'm not sure you realize the luck you have.


Some would find this horrifying. In fact, I've crawled in dead fish slime for a paycheck and I would rather be productive in reality.


Honestly, the things people will do on a webcam to make a buck...


It was in Alaska in the hold of a tender boat.


I consider myself lucky for not having to work in a coal mine or something like that. Is that what you mean?

Although I have actually heard stories about coal miners who are happy, so maybe it is just my cultural bias talking.


You should consider yourself lucky for working on things you like.

You love programming and work as a programmer, isn't that great? Oh sorry, it's not the language you like and you cannot use your favorite editor and you actually have to come to the office and make the customer happy.

Seriously.


Where did I say that I get to work on stuff I like? I think you confuse me with somebody else.

And actually, I recently realized that maybe I am not really a programmer. I like to build stuff, but I don't like programming just for programming's sake. So I guess that makes me 'not a programmer'.

I do like some programming for programming's sake, for example puzzles from coding competitions. But it's not as if you just have to put some lines of code in front of me to edit, and I am happy.


There are people with far worse jobs (if they have jobs at all), but the solution certainly isn't to shut up. A better solution is to spend a little of your time educating yourself and aiding others with their (and your) problems.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: