[jarsin]

What i always tell people if you find yourself naturally drawn to it then you will eventually find some level of success. If your in for just the money then you will not stick with it and it probably won't happen.

Same is true for just about most things in life.

This guy found he was naturally drawn to it. End of story.

[coroxout]

I'm going to disagree from the opposite end of the spectrum as the two replies already disagreeing.

I wanted to program computers from when I was a kid and my dad showed me how to draw coloured circles on the screen. And now, I have a job in tech, part support, part coding.

But the thing is, I'm not very good at the coding part. I'm also quite lazy and hate practising things I'm not very good at, so I don't put in the work to get better.

Meanwhile I've seen coworkers come and go and maybe been a bit scornful of them because they seem to be only in it for the money, or they don't know things "everyone should know", maybe they don't even seem to want to ("pfft, what kind of boring loser would even care about that stuff"). But, they've been much better coders than me: they've picked stuff up faster, they've put in more work, they've gone on to new, better-paid, more interesting jobs. And well done them.

(It's a good, encouraging story for beginners who are drawn to it though, I agree with that part.)

[udkl]

In a sense, you just described the beginning of a passion.

[ice109]

people say this a lot but it's pretty hollow. if you're smart enough you can do it even if you don't like it. anecdotally I'm a fairly good dev (full stack, know several languages, several projects under my belt) and I hate it. the day I move from technical to management will be the greatest day of my life.

[ryandrake]

Careful what you wish for. Management is often the same shit, different sandwich. I agree, however that you can be good at something you don’t necessarily have a burning passion for. That’s why they call it “compensation”–it’s there to compensate you for the time you’d rather be doing something else.

[jarsin]

I honestly have never worked with anyone in software like that. I think you are a lot more rare than you know at least when it comes to software dev. But I do know other industries are filled with smart people that hate it and somehow stuck with it only for the money. For example attorneys...

[Trundle]

I don't think you'd know if you'd worked with someone who is just in it for the money. If they're coding just for the money then it stands to reason that they'd also be willing to pretend to like coding just for the money as well.

[ice109]

coincidentally enough i considered law school before i considered my ms in cs :)

[Klockan]

A manager tries to create reliable processes using flaky components with zero test coverage and lying metrics, I don't envy their job.

Btw, it irks me that you don't capitalize the first letter of your sentences but still properly capitalize "I".

[ice109]

>Btw, it irks me that you don't capitalize the first letter of your sentences but still properly capitalize "I".

blame my phone.

[cjalmeida]

My experience: been in both roles. Mgmt is not bad, but after a few years in it, I consider my current career as freelance contractor dev to be way less stressful.

[just4themoney]

Totally untrue.

I'm just in it for the money. I've achieved success, I'm really good at my job and I'm still going strong almost 20 years later. Wouldn't do it if it didn't pay the bills.