Can someone explain why I went to college if this is my life

[TofuBandita]

You know I fantasize about people like the Las Vegas shooter, Ted Kaczynski or the hikkomokori, who can just say I don't want to part of the system. I don't want to be part of this system anymore.

Dude, how can you just so casually toss out something like this? Take responsibility for the frustration in your own life, rather than fantasising about lashing out at innocent lives - people who are all facing the struggles of life in some form.

If you don't want to be part of the system, how about you take a step into finding out what you do want. There's plenty of people out there living life on their own terms - it just comes with sacrifices. It sounds like you're not prepared to sacrifice your life doing your current job. Be brave and do something to change it.

[Deleted]

1.) Look into a trade, electrician / pipe fitter / plumber / whatever. You're active all day doing different stuff at different places. And you're still making pretty damn good money.

majority of people today think too highly of themselves and look down on manual labor jobs like that. also being electrician requires some pretty hard education (at least where i'm from)

[Charge me Doctor]

You know I fantasize about people like the Las Vegas shooter, Ted Kaczynski or the hikkomokori, who can just say I don't want to part of the system. I don't want to be part of this system anymore.

It's your life and your choice to live this life. If you don't enjoy that - get out of your safe bubble and change something

[Independent voter]

OP, you've created a "Hell on Earth" for yourself meaning you can switch jobs, whatever, but nothing will change and you'll continue to suffer the rest of your life.

Find something that gives your life meaning.

And you sound a little autistic, I would have that checked out. Seriously a session with a therapist could be the best money you ever spent.

[Zafire]

This is my "dream" job.

Forty hours a week
4 to 5 days a week. 10 hour shifts don't bother me
Pays at least $5 over minimum wage

That's it. Seriously -.-; It's so fucking simple but so unlikely. I've never had anything like this. I could pay all my bills and save about $250/month minimum while still having plenty to splurge with.

The job I just quit 6 weeks ago tried to make us all work 60 hours a week minimum and wanted to mandate 7 day weeks (was 50 hours/6 days a week). I have found I just don't like working that much. Kudos to those that do. I quit for reasons beyond what I mentioned, but feeling like I spent too much time at work was a driving factor.

[God Save The King]

I am also a programmer. You should try to find a job at a company like mine.

Wake up: 5:30am (my own choice)
Morning routine until 6:30
Arrive at work at 6:45.
Emails, meetings, calls, review, coding, etc, until around 11
Lunch 11:30-12:30
Code until about 3pm
Arrive at gym around 3:15
Gym until 4:30
Go home, dinner, gaming, reading, writing [Insert Hobby Here] until 9.
Wind down until around 9:30
Sleep

Fridays are half days (except for the 3 weeks before the semi-annual release), so at 11:30 I go home.

Office is closed from (roughly) Dec. 23 to January 3rd.

25 days PTO/year baseline, going up 1.5 days annually until capping at 40 (10 years).
Minimum 3% raise and 10% bonus, annually. (I got 8%/15% first year and 10%/20% second year).

Catered lunches every day.

------

Sounds like your company is running you into the ground, or you're not capable to handle the work in a timely fashion. Or they require crazy hours. If it's the former, I recommend searching for a new job. If it's the latter, I recommend shoring up your weaknesses, and maybe taking a different approach to programming. I personally went through https://teachyourselfcs.com/ over the first 1.5 years of my career, and it helped immensely. Also websites like pluralsight will help train you in necessary skills, and some coding challenge websites can help you think on your toes, and make you much quicker at determining edge cases, use cases, testing, and developing elegant, fast solutions.

My final tip, which is quite long term, is to save as much as you possibly can. I, personally, save & invest 80% of my income. 12% goes to housing, 4% to food, and the rest to entertainment/hobbies/etc. Ignoring inflation (which basic investing will do for you), every year I work I can live for 4 years. I knock this down to 2.5, simply because of incidental expenses, new car, etc. So if I work until I'm 50 (28 years), I should be able to afford, with no supplemental income, to live comfortably for 70 more years. I doubt I'll live that long, so I plan on a nice, early retirement between 40-50, probably going into light teaching or writing to supplement my income at that point. If you hate the slog, like I do, this is the best I've come up with to get out ASAP. I've known (as in read about) people who've retired as early as 30, living extraordinarily cheaply in some corner of the world, growing and hunting their food when they can.

[Deleted]

So basically every single adult with a job?

You might want to take a vacation and talk to a professional about your fantasies. This professional might even be a a cop just to be sure.

[Doomchicken]

You know I fantasize about people like the Las Vegas shooter, Ted Kaczynski or the hikkomokori, who can just say I don't want to part of the system. I don't want to be part of this system anymore.

Oooooooooookay then *backs away slowly*

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Welcome to the real world jackass, it's like that for all of us.

[LiiLoSNK]

This has nothing to do with being a programmer. This is you getting a full time job and being shockingly under prepared for adulthood.

Chances are you're a pussy, but in the event that you do try to go on a vegas style killing spree because you don't know how to spend your nights/weekends, do everyone a favor and unleash your arsenal on the moon. I don't care about the tides or animals that hunt by moonlight so blowing that space rock up doesn't bother me in the slightest.

[Emeraldon]

I work as an engineer and graphics artist and my work schedule is pretty much like this;

Wake up - 05:30-06:00
Work out - 05:45-06:30 / 06:15-07:00

Work - 08:00 - 16:00 (Working, coffee breaks, reddit, walking breaks, pooping breaks)

Home again - 16:30

Having a life - 16:30 - 23:00

Weekends - Having a life.


I work 40 hours a week regularly, where some weeks with deadlines or other things requiring me to sometimes work up to 70. That's fine.

If your work constantly requires you to not have time for anything besides work, you will be miserable - or at least the chances of that are very high. You sound miserable, OP. Find a new job and see a psychiatrist. Saying you don't want to "be a part of the system" and sympathizing with mass murderers in the same sentence is crazy.

[Pejo]

Ignoring his last paragraph, I found a job that fits the flexibility I need.

Wake up between 7 and 8.
Eat breakfast while watching an anime
Elliptical for 35 min or go to work depending on day
Lunch at 11:30
Work from 12:15-3
Head home and pick up groceries
Start dinner and talk to wife
Work from home in between dinner steps
Eat dinner at 6
Work until 8
Game from 8-10:30 with wife
Repeat.

[tankbug]

What is a programmer's life like?

The never-ending circle.

Wake up at 6 am or 5:30 - Christ, why? I get up at 8-ish.
Drinking one glasses water - I prefer to have a cup of tea and watch the news
Brush teeth
Go to work - Or work from home if I want privacy
Breakfast
Working…
Coffee break! Walking break! - is it common to have a walking break? I tend to take my cup of tea over to colleagues and have a chat if I want to think about something else
Working…
Launch 12 am - also a good opportunity to talk to coworkers, which might be good for you if you find your job to be meaningless.
Working…
Coffee break! Walking break!
Working…
Go to home
Launch dinner - into orbit? I'm sorry, I just thought it was a funny way to put it. But hey, dinner is fun, right?
Coffee and walking!
Reading book (it must be!) or reading internet article - why? are you saying it's work related?
Shower and Brush teeth - isn't it better to shower before work?
Sleep 12 am or 1 am - so you spent like 6 hours to read and make ready for bed? Why don't you mix it up with other things?

and circle is continuous…

This is not my dreams

I know there are a lot of programmers that post on these forums. Is that what life is like for you? How do you cope?

You know I fantasize about people like the Las Vegas shooter, Ted Kaczynski or the hikkomokori, who can just say I don't want to part of the system. I don't want to be part of this system anymore.

You're free to do whatever you want, except maybe not kill 59 random people. You're responsible to give your life meaning. I don't know why you feel more trapped with a high education and what should be a job that pays well, with good hours and a lot of freedom regarding when you put those hours in, than you would if you had nothing.

[LiiLoSNK]

Ignoring his last paragraph, I found a job that fits the flexibility I need.

Wake up between 7 and 8.
Eat breakfast while watching an anime
Elliptical for 35 min or go to work depending on day
Lunch at 11:30
Work from 12:15-3
Head home and pick up groceries
Start dinner and talk to wife
Work from home in between dinner steps
Eat dinner at 6
Work until 8
Game from 8-10:30 with wife
Repeat.

The weird thing (at least at the university I went to) is that taking a CS major program pretty much forces you into a $20/hr part time that spends less time working than your schedule off the bat. I think think he's just a lonely guy who doesn't know how to spend his time. It's not a job thing, it's a poor time management thing combined with even poorer social skills.

[Gaidax]

As also x-posted on Quora:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-prog...z-1?srid=ugThS

What is a programmer's life like?

The never-ending circle.

Wake up at 6 am or 5:30
Drinking one glasses water
Brush teeth
Go to work
Breakfast
Working…
Coffee break! Walking break!
Working…
Launch 12 am
Working…
Coffee break! Walking break!
Working…
Go to home
Launch dinner
Coffee and walking!
Reading book (it must be!) or reading internet article
Shower and Brush teeth
Sleep 12 am or 1 am

and circle is continuous…

This is not my dreams

I know there are a lot of programmers that post on these forums. Is that what life is like for you? How do you cope?

You know I fantasize about people like the Las Vegas shooter, Ted Kaczynski or the hikkomokori, who can just say I don't want to part of the system. I don't want to be part of this system anymore.

That's your problem, if you are not capable of anything else but being corporate code monkey working by the clock, it's on you.

[ramjb]

And you sound a little autistic, I would have that checked out.

How do you know if I'm autistic?

[Elim Garak]

What do you want to do in your life?

[arandomuser]

the idea is that would be a temporary lifestyle, since IT workers brag about their 6 figures i imagine i would take only a few years to save up a large amount to quit working for a substantial time, you have it easier then almost everyone else in the 1st world let alone the 3rd world and yet you contemplate killing people in a psychotic rage because your living condition is so bad? pathetic indeed, if everyone else has it, just quit your job and live on food stamps and welfare, i mean the majority are just living the life according to you

[Deleted]

That last sentence was a twist and a half.

Fuck the system, sure - but what has an audience of country music fans ever done to you, personally?

[Gaidax]

Well it's up to OP to work towards changing the situation, skilled professionals work on their terms and basically are free to do whatever as long as they deliver. If one goes by path of least resistance, then that's all he gets - working for some bigass company as a rank and file employee, clock in/clock out and living out his tiny comfort zone. Upside is stability, downside - threads like this.

Solution is not to shoot people, but to actively look for a way to improve the situation through your own skill and mettle. Also, not marrying to specific workplace helps, especially after college, that's when you should switch workplace every year and a half or so actively improving your skill, CV and your conditions, until you find something you really like or make your own.

Shooting people is what dumb fucks do, because they can't do any better anymore.


And yes, you will still have to sit down and work, that's how it is, but fuck you won't be waking up at 6AM in the morning. That shit is unheard of if you have any sort of real skill and not just some pretty sheet of paper inside a frame.