… as are my coding days in general. Since September, I’ve returned to grad school.
The decision wasn’t one I made lightly. And with the economic slump, I often wonder if I’ve made a smart choice in taking a 400% pay cut, only to return to teaching and writing my dissertation. In good times, the job prospects for my field were poor; in bad times, they may be practically non-existent.
So why do it? I miss having the kind of intellectual stimulation centered upon social impact. Application programming is challenging and fun, but I no longer find it as fulfilling as I once did or as others do. Increasingly, it is a thankless job where the headaches tend to outweigh personal growth and learning. In the past year, the best gig I had involved smart architecturally-minded people and a strong project lead. And that was pretty nice, though I still felt something missing. The worst gig involved passive aggressive people who mostly feigned their knowledge. It’s interesting that since I left that job, my replacement (a “CTO” who asked for double the salary) did many of the things I recommended, including a complete overhaul of the codebase. Oh well, I guess they needed to hear it from someone other than me.
So this post is a good-bye of sorts. I may still blog occasionally here about technology when the mood strikes. And I have an idea for a project I’d like to do once my time frees up, one that is more about today’s “culture of technology” than about coding.
Thanks to everyone for reading.