It's hard to realize this, I thought that this fate would overtake me a little later, when I would be at least 30+ and I would be some kind of cool developer in a well-known company, but I'm 26 and I'm in the NoName office.
For a long time I tried to understand why everything is exactly the way it seems to be a puzzle. I want to speak out. Usually, the purpose of my posts is to tell you what rake I stepped on to save the reader, but apparently not this time.
Digging in myself, I determined for myself 2 main reasons for what is happening:
- lack of magic;
- the presence of a conveyor.
Lack of magic
I started to get involved in programming a long time ago: from the 7th grade, when I discovered robotics. Then everything seemed magic: before the coveted writing of Hello World at Bascom , you still had to get there, having survived the wiring and etching of the boards. And evenings could go to find out that you did not tinker the MK or the crooked track was soldered.
Further - more, the walls collapsed one after another:
- awareness of how you can create a full-fledged website using a single page template and content from a database;
- understanding of how the parser walks and types old;
- understanding the development process for cell phones;
- development of box products;
- figuring out how the game engine works;
- etc.
There are many of these events, but I clearly remember each of them and under what circumstances they occurred, because this was an indescribable joy and delight from understanding how everything works. I think many people understand what I mean - these emotions cannot be confused with anything.
But over time, the magic gradually began to evaporate: every time you look at the next site, mobile or desktop, you see how it works and you know how it works. What technology is used, template, programming language , GUI, wrapper, algorithm or lib. It is clear that from case to case, understanding is somewhere more and somewhere less, but it does not matter. It is important that there is a general awareness of the system and its blocks, and implementation is just tools.
Increasingly, I began to catch myself thinking that I was not interested in implementing what I know exactly how it works. I can stay awake at night, thinking how to solve this or that problem, but as soon as I understand with the help of what tools and technologies it is solved, how the answer is decomposed, then it is no longer interesting.
Just some unhealthy dependence on knowledge and new technologies.
The presence of the conveyor
As soon as I graduated from university, I went into a full 40 hours a week. Before that, I either freelanced or worked part-time (24 hours at best). And then I begin to understand that something is not right, that everything I love about programming turns into work at the machine.
I was very lucky with the place of work: I do not make the notorious mobile drochilny, I do not drive jason, I do not develop the next document-turnover system. The projects use different technologies, mechanics and hardware. Our opinion is considered and can directly affect the final product. But you still have to typeset a button from time to time or cut a boring everyday feature because your users need it.
This is how it works: it is impossible to develop something unique all the time.
Attempts to exit
Ohh ... that I just haven't tried: pet- projects, hackathons, articles on Habr, mentoring, DevOpsing , managerial and administrative tasks, but the outcome is always the same: the absence of magic and the presence of a pipeline.
Of all of the above, hackathons hit me the most, but there are pitfalls there. In the future, I plan to cover this topic in detail from my bell tower.
Instead of a conclusion
I know I'm not the only one. I've seen guys who occupy top positions in large companies, but at the same time saw the molds or are disappointed that they saw the Legacy product code, which is used by millions every day, and it is so terrible that a student would have done better.
Sometimes, I ask myself the question: why can't I rejoice like others? Why are there those who wave at the camera to the customer once a day, drive
But the answer is simple: I came for the sake of magic as a child.