… 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.
Your work will long be appreciated by me!