[bmj]

This article assumes that every developer works for an SV-style start-up that requires 80 hour weeks building trivial things. I work in the medical industry, rarely work more than 40 hours a week, take six weeks of vacation a year, and can generally feel okay about my output actually helping people lead better lives.

Of course, yes, sometimes I do a lot of BS things at my job. However, as another comment has already noted, there are few jobs that include some sort of BS at some point. That is why it is called "work."

[fileeditview]

I really don't think it's about doing some "BS" or annoying things at work.

It's about creating products(in this case software) that are utterly useless to the world. That maybe even make the world a worse place over the long run.

It's about products that nobody would miss if they wouldn't exist.

It's about the 1000th clone of some app that offers some wannabe feature plus social networking.

The problem is not software alone.. our world is full of shit products no one really needs. But in software you don't need to cut down trees or mine ore.

You just have endless resources.. which increases the crap output by a lot.

EDIT: Oh and I'm sure not every software dev job is useless/boring/..

[sreenadh]

> But in software you don't need to cut down trees or mine ore.

Lets not forget the dictators with child soldiers that use forced labour to mine the rare earth materials & the factories with nets to catch the workers that attempt suicide, which are a part of making computers & mobiles that is vital for software development. Also, where our old devices & batteries end up. Softwares do rack up a huge carbon foot-print.

[touristtam]

> EDIT: Oh and I'm sure not every software dev job is useless/boring/..

No but re implementing the same bit of logic for the hell of it, although it might be satisfying for one, is pretty silly in the long term.

[eberkund]

The article explicitly says that she is talking about a typical 40 hour work week.

"Sorry, you can’t exercise to make up for sitting or standing at one place for 40 hours a week.

Also I’d like to have kids myself. I respect people who want to do the 40-hour-work-week and kids, but I can’t imagine doing that myself."

[firstplacelast]

As someone that used to work in healthcare and left after my company was bought out by a multi-national pharma, if you’re contributing to the American healthcare system you are likely doing extremely evil things everyday if you account for opportunity cost.

Sorry, raise our bar. There’s no way to “do good” in the American healthcare system unless you are attempting to break it down and re-make it.