what Mike said!

“Coding” (i don’t even want to call some things here that) php-foo for advertising-purposes, creating sites that noone really would miss if they weren’t there, isn’t allways fun. It tends more to beeing repetitive and dull.
Doing the same thing with iPhone/Android-Foo isn’t that much better. Still: it pays the rent and food.
Interesting stuff can be done in spare time. (If you got any)

So just call me ‘codemonkey’!

Work is just a place where you go to get new projects when you run out of ideas.

It’s not always like that, as might also be indicated by Jenn’s If you don’t make time to code for fun, you’re killing yourself.

I find it actually hard to find acceptable workplace where you can code “for fun” – mostly they hire you to code “for profit” and that means doing as bad job as a programmer as is acceptable for a product not to fall apart immediately.
Guess that’s an eternal art of compromise we call “engineering”, but I don’t see it half as fun as doing something without these “min time/money” goals as primary, something you do for the awesome end result.
That, and the fact that I’ve yet to see a local employer who’d like the idea of making anything opensource. The only two reactions on such idea that I’ve received was “do it in your own time, and not if we’ll catch you doing that” and outright hostility.

So that leaves work as a necessary, although tolerable, because at least I don’t really hate what I do, chore to support doing what I really like in whatever little spare time it leaves.
And from that perspective, I’d rather not go to work at all, since running out of ideas don’t seem to be even a distinct possibility.

@ Lucas:

TLDR; No, just kidding. Thanks for the link.

@ Shane Simmons:

Well, yes but the nephew with Debian CD route is just a temporary cost saving. Eventually they will have to hire a real sysadmin to un-foobar their environment or eventually it will collapse upon them.

Then there is the other side of the coin: if you are a proactive sysadmin who is really doing his job well then everything works seamlessly and never ever breaks. Eventually your employer will start thinking you are unnecessary. I mean, there were no major malfunctions in years, so there is no point keeping you full time, right?

So they fire you, and they bring in the nephew. Fast forward few months and they go back to you, just this time you can ask for like double the salary.

This actually never happened to me, but I heard more than one story like this from other folks.

I honestly feel Free and Open Source Software is good for the job market. When a company decides to rely on software due to the low software cost, they can either foolishly choose to believe that they can hire a nephew to set up Debian to run it on, and just leave it be because they think Linux is just that reliable, or they can have “gurus” in-house.

How do you feel about this? What is your philosophy? Do you release your code, or do you prefer to keep it closed and proprietary? How do you respond to people such as Rupert? How do you explain this wonderful thing that we have going on with open source to non-programmers?

Answer to all of the above

@ Tormod Haugen:

Ah, ok. Got it. :)

@ StDoodle:

If you willingly wrote code then you are irreversibly contaminated. One of us now. :)

No seriously, I knew kids in college who somehow got roped into taking introductory Java class and would pass it without ever writing a line of code (all projects being borrowed, stolen or “outsourced” to the internet). Some people can’t and won’t write code, ever.

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a non-programmer. Yes, I know – it is sometimes hard to believe, but such creatures still do exist.

Some of us* even read your blaaaaaaaaarg. :P

But perhaps another factor is how we view our work. You see, for most of us what we do is a life long passion.

I think this is the big thing, and not just for those in various programming-related fields. I’ve done CAD at home / after hours for fun.

How do you feel about this? What is your philosophy? Do you release your code, or do you prefer to keep it closed and proprietary?

I have quite a few CAD projects I’d like to “open-source,” but the same thing keeps happening; they get far enough along to no longer be interesting and / or serve their purpose, but never become quite “polished” enough that I want them out there as they are. *Sigh*

How do you respond to people such as Rupert?

I’m so glad CAD monkeys don’t get that the way computer monkeys do. ;)

* Well, of course I’ve written some code simply for fun or because the workplace had no one else capable… but that’s normal, right?

Luke Maciak wrote:

Coding Katas == Algorithms, no?

Yes, and no.

http://thecleancoder.blogspot.com/2010/10/craftsman-62-dark-path.html

@ Dr. Azrael Tod:

I mostly mentioned phone apps because that’s one of the things I haven’t really been working with, but people assume I do, or that I should. :)

@ Mitlik:

WTFPL – the most polite and articulate of licenses. :)

@ Tormod Haugen:

Yeah, I have trouble self motivating too. Although in my case it may just be plain laziness. Sometimes I sit there and go “should I work on that thing I was thinking about lately? Nope, video games.”

@ Shrutarshi Basu:

Yes, it is a way of life. Perhaps we should call it “code-do” instead of “code-fu” then. :P

@ Tormod Haugen:

Coding Katas == Algorithms, no?

Shrutarshi Basu wrote:

Solve useful problems, reinvent the wheel only to learn how it works, do not waste, be as simple as possible but no simpler. Hmm… I should get around to codifying those sometime

Coding Katas :)