I spent the last 6 months working on a feature. Found out 2 weeks before release that it was being postponed.
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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I dont care if the feature I've worked on gets canceled. The lost work is management's problem, not mine; I still get paid the same.
That's how I always felt about it. As long as I get paid, I don't care what they do with the software.
👆 This. In my experience, I’ve seen a lot of developers get upset about “their code” not being used, time wasted, or someone else changing the code after the fact. Who cares? Once you commit that code, it’s no longer your code. It’s the company’s code. Your paycheck will reflect the same amount of money regardless — and if it doesn’t, you may want to find a better employer. 😅
Your paycheck will reflect the same amount of money regardless — and if it doesn’t, you may want to find a better employer. 😅
bruh, the scenario you're describing is meant to be "code shipped = bonus pay" not "code not shipped = less pay"
Both of those things are effectively exactly the same though
not really.
One guarantees you X, and you can earn +y, scaleable to (not really) infinity
the other starts you at x and you lose -y until you reach zero (not really, minimum wage)
When I’m at some corpo writing corpo crap, I don’t really care because I already got paid.
It took me so long to get this mentality down
I still take enjoyment from writing code well but I no longer give a shit what happens to it once it's done
Prob half my projects were just my manager deciding we needed something on a whim and then never using it
It affected me a lot more in the beginning because I wanted the feel useful. It does feel good to see people use stuff you made, whether it's code or a physical object.
But it's happened to me enough times by now that I don't even care anymore lol. Like you said, as long as I get paid. I try to get my fulfillment from projects outside of work now.
And we'll get laid off anyways either it's useful or not.
I don't care unless I'm drinking the Kool aid and actually really wanted the feature. If it's not something I personally use: who cares? Bit of a bummer that feels like it was all for nothing, but ultimately I still got paid for that time and effort, which is all I'm really going for anyways.
If I get to learn something then that’s a bonus.
Yeah but then you don't get a promotion because you didn't have an impact... I'm sorry, impact is not in my job description.
Maybe I dont want a promotion? I just wanna write code and get paid. Please dont give me more responsibilities.
If it’s just hours, that’s fine. I’ve spent months on a system before that ultimately got scrapped. When I was at Google, they accidentally had two teams working on basically the same project. The other team, with about 40 engineers, having worked on it for about a year, had their project scrapped. My team was meant to do the same work, with about 23 engineers. So if you’re ever wondering why Hangouts Chat launched kinda half baked, that’s why.
Yeah I've had that one happen. Big team, more than a year of work, thousands of hours, over 1500 of my own hours. Internal presentation to the team at the customer end, they loved it and couldn't wait for actual launch day. We were all so proud and everyone was happy.
Alas that day never came, the customer went bankrupt due to one of the investors pulling out. Nothing to do with us, just some bean counter did the math and decided they were better off letting the company fold.
I spoke to one of the people at the customer we had worked with throughout the project. She was devastated it was all for nothing and she lost her job as a result. By the time a new investor came around to pick up the pieces, she had found a new job. Spoke to the former ceo of the customer, he had a new job for a couple of days a week at the company that bought up the remainders. He fought to get the project going again, but the new company is very non IT focused, oldskool. So they vetoed it. I later found out one of the project leads was consulted and he had pretty much killed any chance. I always disliked that dude, but he got a pretty good deal out of it or so I'm told.
That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
Is that why they’re cracking down on ad blockers so hard? So they can keep paying for wasted time?
Critical mistake #1: caring about work more than it pays.
Hours? I would give up a week of lunch for them to only cancel stuff that I needed hours to code. My personal record is over a year.
If they cancel it I don't need to support it
Maybe I should keep it a hobby and not pursue a career. That kind of shit would mess with me. I tend to pour my heart and soul into my programming.
the people who pour their heart and soul are the people they want. i'm the kind that they don't want: software engineers that have been doing IT/operations for so long that we understand & accept "good enough" and don't give a rat's ass if they don't implement something we've been working on; so long as we continue to get paid.
they search for people like you in the hopes of avoiding people like me because mind sets like mine are both more common and more difficult to manipulate.
to be clear: they'll still shit on you like they do to anyone else, but know that you're the kind of people that they want and, if you can figure out how to leverage that for yourself, you'll be doing very well.
Listen to this wisdom. I used to be a heart and soul person and it burned me out real bad. I left a smaller startup at a point where I was handling several projects at the same time and I felt guilty about dumping all of it on my coworkers. I thought I was vital to the company but I was quickly forgotten and replaced. I don't know why I ever cared so much. It was software I'd never use in my own life and it wasn't important to the people who did.
Save the passion for your personal projects and try to find something low stress to pay the bills
Nah, the money makes up for it. I give code, I get money. The rest is up to management.
My first job I spent 3 years working on a variety of projects that never shipped. It was frustrating at the time, but the experience was good for me. Now I have fun writing code and working with my teammates and if my code doesn't ship, well it's not as bad as not having anything ship for 3 years.
This is why I quit design for programming lol
Me maintaining an old codebase and implementing features for months before boss shows up one day and says the 60 remote workers have been working on an identical project which will be the one we actually use. Bruh wtf
At least you just gained about two years worth of re-engineering work to get the outsourced system working.
They were in-house but the local dev team were not working with them. Work force in that country was cheaper so i just got fired shortly after :)
Yes the three years of re-engineering work
It worse when you and your team spend months on something and then management pivots, uses it in ways it was never intended, and then complains when there has to be another project to "fix" it.
It's so hard to eat this soup with this fork you gave me why the hell did you put so many holes in it?!
Man, I had recently spent a lot of time designing advertisement stuff around an established brand identity, that was pretty much going for a classy/luxury aesthetic. So I was basing all my designs around that identity. Made lots of variations, took many hours perfecting it.
Then was told they didn't like it. They wanted something entirely different that "screamed" budget and flashy colors and shapes.
Got it just perfect on the second attempt after being briefed properly, but it did really hurt when my first attempt was shot down so easily.
Become a bad programmer and be thankful you won't have to further maintain your code instead!
"Granny does your dog bite?" "No child, no."
proceeds to get bitten
"Granny, wtf?" "Well, you're not a child anymore."