I love programming but I hate the programming industry
Many programmers say they love writing code but feel alienated by an industry driven by short‑term profit, feature churn, and layers of management that reduce them to ticket‑takers. Commenters argue this is less a problem with programming itself than with corporate incentives and capitalism more broadly, leading to tensions between code quality and speed, meaning and compensation, and hobbyist “art” vs. production work. Suggested escape valves range from indie projects, NGOs, academia, and civic tech to carefully chosen smaller companies, while others advocate accepting work as “just a job” and preserving passion for personal projects.
Scope of the Problem
- Many argue the author dislikes the corporate world and capitalism more than “programming” itself.
- Common theme: companies primarily value short‑term economic impact, not elegance, deep craft, or societal benefit.
- Several note this is not unique to software; most jobs exist to make money for owners, not to provide meaning.
Corporate Incentives vs. Craft
- Widespread view: production speed and feature output trump code quality until technical debt becomes painful.
- Others counter that “code quality vs speed” is a false dichotomy over more than a few weeks; messy systems slow future work.
- Disagreement over “clean code”: some see it as readability and maintainability; others say popular “Clean Code” styles hurt performance and don’t scale.
- MVP culture is criticized: prototypes often ship to production and never get cleaned up.
Types of Employers and Work
- Experiences vary widely: some report bullying into spaghetti code; others describe thoughtful teams, autonomy, and meaningful products.
- Startups are seen both as places where engineers can truly engineer and as equally shallow “ship fast” environments.
- Alternatives mentioned: academia, government, defense, NGOs, civic tech, non‑profits, and non‑software industries (construction, manufacturing) with internal dev teams.
- Tradeoff emphasized: more meaningful/independent roles usually pay significantly less.
Alienation, Capitalism, and “Meaning”
- Multiple comments frame the author’s complaints in terms of alienation and Marxist critiques of capitalism, even if not named as such.
- Some argue you shouldn’t expect deep personal meaning from corporate work; find meaning in hobbies or side projects.
- Others insist it’s reasonable to want work to address real human needs rather than “bullshit metrics.”
Process, Roles, and Hiring
- Scrum, heavy process, and proliferating roles (PMs, scrum masters) are blamed for reducing engineer agency and adding “imposters.”
- Hiring practices (especially LeetCode‑style interviews) are widely disliked and seen as disconnected from real work.
Coping Strategies and Paths Out
- Suggestions include: going indie (e.g., small games), joining small or niche companies, negotiating more autonomy, or explicitly separating “day‑job code” from “artistic code.”
- Several stress managing expectations, doing “good enough” work, avoiding over‑investment in corporate outcomes, and being ready to move on.