Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!ucbvax!LOYVAX.BITNET!PGOETZ
From: PGOETZ@LOYVAX.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Is it worth it?
Message-ID: <8903080648.aa02724@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 7 Mar 89 22:41:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 44


        I have a question for all of the hackers out there - the folks who
have dedicated years to playing with the machine, learning its ins and outs,
reading & writing code for fun &/or profit.
        Do you think the computer takes more than it gives?  That is, after
years of dedication, was it worth it?  Does the understanding, accomplishment,
peer approval, job skills, money, etc., outweigh the frustration, lost
time, unrewarded effort on unused programs, rejections by publishers, nerd
image, lost social opportunities, alienation from the computer ignorant, etc?
        This entails discussion of what you would consider success in
programming, i.e. distributing a program under a major label, having a monthly
column in a major magazine, being a nationally respected programmer / computer
scientist, making more than $50,000 a year, whatever.
        Are those programmers who get the rewards they deserve in the majority
or the minority?  I'm thinking mainly of the freelancer who sits at home
writing what he wants to write, not the VAX programmer who writes inventory
routines for Ford.  What does he want, & what are his chances of getting it?
Does it depend on skill, dedication, connections, or just luck?
        I know of a lot of people who just haven't gotten what they deserve.
Dave Lyons made no money from Davex.  Bob Sander-Cederlof poured his soul into
Apple Assembly Line for years, and displayed small-RAM programming genius, yet
couldn't get enough subscribers to sustain profitable publication.  There's
also that guy who wrote the Apple version of Defender and was prevented from
selling it by Atari (a great program, if you've seen it).  Or remember the kid
who wrote the Apple ][ emulator for the Atari, but was deterred from selling
it by Atari, which was working on its own emulator?  (They told him that their
monetary resources would more than compensate for any lack of moral or legal
grounds in case of a lawsuit.)  And many programmers (including myself) have
written programs in-house which after much work were killed by company
politics, or by marketing, or for economic reasons.  Even if you're paid,
it hurts when no one ever uses your program.
        I was lured into computer programming at least partly by the media's
Horatio Alger presentation of programming.  Programming masters were bound to
sell thousands of copies of their programs to grateful users if they just put
in the effort, eventually founding their own companies and being interviewed
in Softalk.  Well, it just ain't so.  After 11 years, I'm a bit disillusioned.
Programming seems a harsh mistress who promises more than she delivers.
Any opinions?  If you don't want to reply to the list, write directly.

Phil Goetz
PGOETZ@LOYVAX.bitnet
4023 Huckleberry Row
Ellicott City, MD 21043
(301) 532-8240