[johan_larson]

I've been coding for 37 years now, counting what I did in childhood. I can remember getting a real charge out of doing it. It was a real thrill to be able to tell the machine what to do and see things happen on the screen.

But I don't feel that thrill any more. I know I can build things; I've done so many times before. And frankly, figuring out how to fit new functionality into messy legacy systems isn't much fun. Occasionally, when I manage something very clever, I feel a glimmer of the old thrill of creation, but that's a rare thing.

These days, I'd prefer to do higher-level design and leadership work.

[rawfan]

The fun thing is to modernize the legacy systems while the're being used in production. It's challening, rewarding and - in the end - cost-effective.