Re:Anime is booming, so why are animators living in poverty?
by munificent on Friday February 26, 2021 @01:49PM
(#26278271)
I'm painting an extreme picture for emphasis here, but it is the case that there are a lot of crushingly boring dev jobs. I've done some.
Re:Anime is booming, so why are animators living in poverty?
by phist_mcgee on Friday February 26, 2021 @10:25PM
(#26282320)
Sure, but you're comparing the best of game dev to the worst of software dev. That is an unfair comparison. I work on a crypto exchange app, with hundreds of thousands of users buying and selling crypto. We take user feedback seriously, we iterate hard on performance and stability, and I go home knowing that I make a product people like using.
I think you have a really warped sense of what the average software job is really like.
What about embedded systems designers? What about machine/traffic control systems? What about cutting edge stuff like tik tok's recommendation algorithm (which disregarding the politics, has to be marvelled at for its ability to pair users with content they like)?
There is more out there than just Big 4 corporate paper shuffling to make the suits in head office more money..
> Working in an office that lets you wear chinos on casual Friday versus wearing whatever you like, coming in when you like, and being surrounded by culture and people that resonate with you.
Most dev jobs are the second thing. Most dev shops don't have a dress code. Many have adopted flex time. And further, with covid, a lot are fully remote now. Modern development is nothing like Office Space.
> Working with accountants and lawyers versus artists and sound designers.
You seem to think accountants and lawyers are boring, uninteresting, etc. That's just silly. Just because someone's job is boring, doesn't mean they are. A lot of my co-workers have hobbies in art, music, blowing shit up, etc. Just because they spend their day job combing over the tax code doesn't mean they aren't every bit as fun and interesting as someone who's day job is art.
> Sitting next to folks doing the bare minimum just to get a paycheck versus the comradery of being on a team that really believes in what they're doing.
I find it hard to believe game dev doesn't have the "I'm just here for a paycheck folk" Probably not for long, but again, surprised if that's the case. In anycase, comradery and teamwork exists in a lot of dev shops. Just because you aren't making an orc's head explode doesn't mean you can't get excited about increasing stability, performance, or getting a product that saves a bunch of time and money for the company. There's a lot to celebrate beyond "That looks pretty".
> Writing code that's difficult because it encodes Byzantine legal regulations versus code that's difficult because it uses the latest graphics algorithms to push hardware as much as possible.
Both are puzzles to solve, so why diss the one you don't understand? Further, what makes you think regular dev DOESN'T look to push hardware harder and faster than it previously went? Performance work is universal for development.
This isn't to say there aren't boring dev jobs that pay well. Certainly a large number of jobs are "Make REST API over the database". But even those can have opportunities for growth, learning, and finding coworkers you love to work with.