Programming

Corporate dev here, I was sitting at my desk today and started to reflect on the last 6-12 months , on how little code I actually wrote,.

Basically most days today involve tending to security scans and complaince bs, updating tls libraries , patching node packages , producing weekly Ci/Cd pipelines and dealing with cloud upgrades and vendor changes.

The amount of babysitting these cloud apps need is staggering, I'm beginning to feel the whole OpEx vs. Capex cloud cost benefit was a big con..Plus management's push to integrate AI , even though the apps I work don't really have any obvious benefits with gen AI....

I've been at this for a 20+ years and finally no longer have any interest in improving "my product" like I did when i started. Yeah I understand it's a paycheck but I think the current dev landscape is just one big grind, with not a lot of latitude for devs to offer insights or be creative in development term. Back when I started devs had a lot more time and latitude to focus on developing the app/system, implementing novel and practical code and responding quickly to user requests... But today it's just , patch, build , release and repeat, no doubt lots of that has to do with complexity of modern cloud architectures .....

Is anyone else feeling like this?

No, it's not "too late" to get into game dev.

No, the indie scene is not "dead", "dying" or "ailing".

No, you don't have to sell your house, quit your job, or whatever the hell else.

Just...fucking stop and listen to reason. Look, let me preface this: Part of this is me just being emotionally charged because I see so many aspiring devs be it fresh starts or what have you in all these various discords and even here worried to death over if they are making the right call or not, because any search on youtube naturally leads the algorithm into the more higher performing types of videos regarding indie game dev. These videos tend to be extremely negative, or gratuitously optimistic.

This shit is predatory for a reason, because it works.

I need ya'll to understand what the game (pun intended) here is for these youtube channels: For many, it's a side hustle, or a main hustle, and it's how they keep the lights on. They need your engagement, and negative emotions and feeding into that shit is extremely profitable. It's easy to listen to a 20-30 minute video on a laundry list of reasons to not do something. Human beings are, by their nature, risk averse, and it's just as easy to engage with content that can help strengthen a reason to NOT do something over a reason TO do something.

and the same can be said for the extreme opposite side of the spectrum, where you promise millions upon millions of dollars and success if you simply just mimic the exact same circumstances the dev is referring to.

But practically every time, at least 90% or even possibly higher, if you were suckered in to watch these more negative videos, the dev usually straightens up after a certain time threshold cause they needed your attention juuust long enough, then they drop the bombshell that it isn't "all" doom and gloom thus solidifying that it was all bullshit to begin with.

Do not confuse what I am saying here, as to not engage with youtube content. Some is very valuable. Post mortems are usually fantastic intel opportunities, and consumption of those can provide some incredible insight on what went wrong, and how you can weaponize that knowledge to not fall in similar traps. You have industry professionals who have long been in the game who give their experiences, free. Go watch a GDC video. Go watch a documentary that talks about how a team went about making a game. Do shit like that. Quit watching these "indie" devs who "got it all figured out" because they don't. They are playing a different game than you.

Again, to re-emphasize: Don't fall prey to shit the likes of Thomas Brush says (he's the one who comes up a LOT in these examples). I see it so often and people keep getting suckered in by all this stuff. These youtuber devs are not your friends, you are a means to keep the lights on, and they will do what they can to ensure that happens on a regular basis.

It's why you will see them flip flop their stance over and over again, sometimes in the same week. Sometimes in the same DAY. They are not honest actors, their advice is weaponizing uncertainty and ignorance for the sake of getting you into their course, or into whatever pay vessel they need you to be in. It's fucked, absolutely fucked.

Use your resources and peers to LEARN, not to validate your own fears and worries. If you look for that, you will find it. That is all.

Can anyone explain the huge push on every level for people to embrace AI?

Most people struggle with predictive text on their phone and now the next big thing is Co-Pilot on laptops.

Do people really want to have more AI or is having Google at your fingertips not enough?

Someone recently recommended writing my story here. So here it is. (If you know who I am, please don’t reveal my identity. Send a message if you want to clarify)

I recently passed a net worth of 2 million dollars excluding my houses in India and the US. I graduated from a Tier 3 university (2010-14). I am 31.

I am from a lower middle-class family and all my school life was a pretty bad student averaging around 50% to 60% and just enough to pass classes. Many times I remember even failing in 1 subject in the term exams.

I will write my journey here. I am not posting from my real reddit account because that username can be searched quite easily to find me.

1. My class 10th and 12th CBSE results were good enough. In general, I was never a good student and I was not good at anything. Not studies, not sports, nothing. I knew my life was going to be pretty average. On top of that, teachers were pretty biased towards sudents who were good in studies so confidence tanked all my school life. I was convinced I was good for nothing. It was so bad that I had no dreams of my own but everytime I saw something nice on TV, I used to dream about that for my friends who were good in studies.

2. AIEEE was above 1 lakh and (of course) I had nothing in IITJEE. I got admission into a tier 3 college in West Bengal. Before going to college, my dad told me we didn't have much as a family. So, if I want a good life, I am solely responsible to work hard and get it. So, I was determined to work hard finally in my life when I started college. In my college, there was no one to ask or look up to. Mostly there was a lot of ragging, people having fun doing nothing or just drinking or smoking. I was scared about my future.

3. I was curious about the difference between our college and IITs on why they had companies like Google, FB, etc come to hire and we had Wipro, Infosys, etc. I understood about other branches but CS was just mostly programming, so I was curious. I found a school senior who went to IIIT Hyderabad. He told me that I should go to SPOJ and Codechef and solve problems. That is all I need. I asked him if I could ask when in doubt and he said something which was the biggest mantra of all for me. He said, "If you want to do it, you will figure it out after this on the internet. You don't need me or anyone". So, I followed that. I became a search master.

4. In the start of the second semester, I started coding on Codechef and SPOJ. I used python primarily(C was too hard for me to self learn) for my programming and spent all day coding. I couldn't think of anything else and was super addicted to coding. When going to class, I wrote some problems down and solved them on paper and used to run to my hostel to code after class. I had no traditional "fun" in college. I remember I wouldn't even spend Rs 1000 in 3 months because I was not interested in anything. Coding became a worship for me. I was in love. Meanwhile, I spent time learning about the industry on Quora. I learned about ACM ICPC, paid summer internships, coding contests, the importance of those rankings etc. I also used to reach out to everyone I could through Quora messages to know about internship opportunities and also just make my network. Eventually at the end of 5th semeseter, I did my first internship at a small startup in Bangalore. Here I learned about startups, equity, working in a team to solve real problems, all nighters, etc. Also, made some great connections. I got paid at the end too.

5. At the end of 6th semester, I did a 2 month summer internship at a company in Delhi. They told they had interviewed 300 applicants and chose just 2 of us. The other guy was from one of India's top colleges. This one paid 40k which was a lot of money for me and my family. Including this and 2 other remote internships and some coding contests, I had earned enough to pay for a semester fee. I was so happy and proud of myself!

6. One more thing I did in college was, I motivated everyone I could to learn programming. I felt like this can change people's life. Students in my college, specially my friends, came from families of small farmers, low paying jobs etc that had very less in life. I could feel that programing could change all that. I opened a Codechef club and did small workshops for juniors. All my friends I motivated, eventually went on to do great in the tech industry in different parts of the world. Needless to say, that also make a lot of money. One of them was my ICPC partner too. We went to the regionals and we used to go to colleges take part in contests. It was so much fun!

7. By the end of college, I had taken part in multiple contests on Hackerearth, Hackerrank etc and got some offers. They ranged from 6 lakh to 8 lakh. That was at least 2 times the best offer in our college placement. I ended up taking the 6 lakh offer. My reason was the person that interviewed me was very nice. I like nice people and spending time with them. Most of my life hours are spent working, I wanted to spend those with nice(and smart) people. I moved to Bangalore as soon as college finished. It was a startup in a small house and it was a remote India office of a US HQ startup. Since I loved coding so much, I worked a lot. I had nothing to do. Of course I had fun on friday night etc but in general I spent a lot of time working and developing anything and everything needed by the company. I didn't really care about money at that time. Never even asked for a raise or anything. The company doubled my salary in the next 2 years while I was there. They were very impressed. I got an opportunity to go to the US office for a visit for 2 months.

8. In US, I was suprised with everything. Drinking water from tap, super nice roads, everyone following traffic rules, electricity all the time. None of that was true for the city I come from in India. I went to see LA, Hollywood, Vegas, SF etc. All the "fun" I sacrificed on in college, I was having all the fun I could now. While in the US, I made friends with the CEO of the company. With all that, I was back to India.

9. The CEO ended up leaving the company and started his own company. Since I really liked working for him. I left and joined him. I moved back home to stay with my parents and started working on the most epic thing of my life. There were 3 people in US and I was the only one in India. I used to work for 18 hours every day. It was a lot of work at the early stages of the company. But because I was with my parents, it was also very nice. I didn't have to worry about food or anything and I could have all my intellectual discussions with my dad to clear my mind.

10. In 2 years, the company showed signs of growing. We were now around 20 people in the company. They applied for my H1B visa and I moved to the US in 2018. My salary was pretty low but I didn't care. I made new friends and started having a lot of fun. Work was not as much anymore. Sometimes, for some project we had all nighters but mostly nothing crazy. Slowly, it became 9 to 5 job. My salary grew, we moved to bigger offices.

Recently, in 2023, the company IPOd on Nasdaq. With my long time in the company, I have acquired a lot of shares which suddenly made my net worth pretty high(and its growing). I was even invited to the Nasdaq building to stand with the founders. My picture was on the Nasdaq building on Time Square. I married my girlfriend from India after doing long distance dating for years. We have a baby and we live in our own house here in the US. We are able to fly business class everytime we go home to India now. I do angel invest from time to time now.

A boy from a small town who was a pretty mediocre in everything with super low self confidence, decided to take a step to change his life and motivate people around him to do the same. I hope my story motivates you to take a step.

(I don't want to say all startups succeed and you will become a millionaire if you work hard. Most startups fail. But, I just want to say that you can work extremely hard and change your life for good. The degree of success will depend on a lot of factors but it will be an upward trajectory for sure.)

Many days ago, when I has just started coding, my dad had said something that had a profound effect on me. He said, "Most people (95%) just go with the flow and follow traditional routes. If you put even a small amount of extra work when compared to them, you will automatically be ahead of 95% of them. The rest of the 5% are the best. You don't need to be better than those 5%. You just need to be better than 95% and that will make sure you have a pretty good job.".

Of course I am ready to be verified by an admin if required.

Hey all, I was wondering something. As someone who lives with anxiety how do some of you manage your anxiety? Doing this job can cause a lot of negative emotions (I assume which is why this subreddit was created so we can blow off some steam and have a laugh).

Hi there,

I‘m a new grad at a T2, got an offer of 55lpa at a startup, but it’s very high risk(not funded yet, bootstrapped) and can shutdown anytime.

Base for startup: 25 lpa (30lpa esops)

Base for MNC: 11 lpa (2 lpa benefits)

Esops are pretty much paper money, so I’m not counting those, the effective comparison is 25 lpa vs 11lpa

Here is the pros and cons of each I see:
Startup:

• double the pay of mnc

• 4hr workday since chill European company

• remote

• vvvvv risky

MNC:

• stable

• insurance benefits

Im inclined towards the startup since it’s remote and only a 4hr work day other than the pay itself obviously, but I might end up jobless in a few months if it gets shut down.

However, if it does get shutdown in a few months I have the backup option of going for masters, but not sure if the gap of 8 months or whatever will affect chances of getting into colleges.

On the other hand, MNC is quite famous and might open more doors down the line(Think Cisco, JPMC, etc).

Would appreciate any advice from more senior folks here!

PS: moonlighting not an option since MNC knows about the other offer. MNC offer is on campus so can’t negotiate either.