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Discussion on: Stop pressuring people into programming

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FJones • Edited

Goes a bit further than that for me, even. Most of what should be my "portfolio projects" (the actual passion projects, really) are small, niche websites sitting mostly unknown on the web. I always consider them R&D or hobby projects moreso than anything I would put on an application in hopes a HR person can tell what tech is underneath.

Meanwhile my Github is mostly just a collection of random scripts, forks I need for my work, or cute little toys that I set to private after a while.

"Maybe I'm getting old", to borrow the phrase, but I just never saw the appeal in being "loud" about things like that. Or making flashy fancy cookie-cutter portfolios (do we really need two dozen ToDo-Webapps in the application pile?). Is it still passion when you're worrying more about social return-on-investment than on the satisfaction of building something?

And maybe it seems a bit elitist from the last generation of programmers, but the belief that "everyone should learn to code" really translates poorly and leaves us with superficially-trained Rockstar Programmers. They may have a "passion" of sorts, but is it the passion for software development, or is it the passion for entering the fancy tech strata?

To clarify: I don't mean to tell anyone what (not) to do. I just find the evolution somewhat worrying in light of increased burnout and a huge shift in programmer culture. I enjoy my work, and my passion projects, but I steer clear of a lot of collaboration these days purely because it has become such a hypercompetitive, money-and-status-focused field that values expertise very differently from 10-15 years ago.