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Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? by quickthrower2 on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @05:58AM (#33704395)
The constraint that you need to generate value also makes it fun, or at least, rewarding (to the heart)

2 programs. One only gets used by me, the other by 100 people. It is way more fun to write the second. Compensation being equal and all.

Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? by WJW on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @06:34AM (#33704632)
I don't know. I've written programs used by millions in an enterprise-grade code base and the amount of paperwork, poor management, meetings and mandatory HR trainings made the process not much fun at all even if compensation was pretty good. OTOH I really enjoyed the programs used just by me, written in my spare time exactly the way I want even though I didn't get paid at all.
Re:How can you not be romantic about programming? by rob74 on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @08:44AM (#33705662)
I can relate to both: if you can be proud of your work ("I helped build this, and hundreds of people are using it"), that's a good feeling. If however the process is bureaucratic and you feel like a small cog in the machine without any influence on how the project will turn out, then I can understand that it's not a satisfying experience. Depending on the project, you can also have both - on some days you will have the former feeling, on some days the latter.