Jul 19, 2023·edited Jul 20, 2023Liked by Ryan Fleury
First of all, I just want to say I love your writing. It's always so thought-provoking, and it just flat out amazes me how well-spoken you are at your age. I wasn't writing anything near that level back then.
I agree with your points in broad strokes. I have also noticed more of a willingness for the Handmade community to avoid taking a strong stance in an effort to appeal to a wider audience of programmers.
It's funny you mention collecting a paycheck as a programmer. I did that for years before I discovered Handmade Hero, and so far as I can recall, watching Handmade Hero made me feel a very strong disaffection with the jobs I previously held (not that I wasn't already feeling disaffected, but Casey's rants gave words to a frustration I felt but didn't understand).
Once I built my own game engine and started making software the handmade way, I wasn't able to last as an iOS developer. All of it was wrong. Everyone I interacted with on a daily basis had no idea what they were talking about, and everything I did at my job became some form of politics to appease the object oriented people in charge of the project.
I kept taking sabbaticals for a year, going back to it, quitting again. Finally, my spouse had enough of it, and we discussed permanently ending my affiliation with my mobile app contracting gigs. That happened last November.
I can't tell you how much more psychologically whole I feel now that I am no longer collecting a paycheck to make bad software. I am still a part of the problem (I hold stocks that make money from companies that make bad software), but at least I can spend my days working on projects I care about, and make no compromises there.
I think knowing is half the battle here. Once you know there is a better way, and you care, you experience cognitive dissonance and become psychologically unsettled until you right the wrong. At least that was my experience. It's very difficult to live a lie.
First of all, I just want to say I love your writing. It's always so thought-provoking, and it just flat out amazes me how well-spoken you are at your age. I wasn't writing anything near that level back then.
I agree with your points in broad strokes. I have also noticed more of a willingness for the Handmade community to avoid taking a strong stance in an effort to appeal to a wider audience of programmers.
It's funny you mention collecting a paycheck as a programmer. I did that for years before I discovered Handmade Hero, and so far as I can recall, watching Handmade Hero made me feel a very strong disaffection with the jobs I previously held (not that I wasn't already feeling disaffected, but Casey's rants gave words to a frustration I felt but didn't understand).
Once I built my own game engine and started making software the handmade way, I wasn't able to last as an iOS developer. All of it was wrong. Everyone I interacted with on a daily basis had no idea what they were talking about, and everything I did at my job became some form of politics to appease the object oriented people in charge of the project.
I kept taking sabbaticals for a year, going back to it, quitting again. Finally, my spouse had enough of it, and we discussed permanently ending my affiliation with my mobile app contracting gigs. That happened last November.
I can't tell you how much more psychologically whole I feel now that I am no longer collecting a paycheck to make bad software. I am still a part of the problem (I hold stocks that make money from companies that make bad software), but at least I can spend my days working on projects I care about, and make no compromises there.
I think knowing is half the battle here. Once you know there is a better way, and you care, you experience cognitive dissonance and become psychologically unsettled until you right the wrong. At least that was my experience. It's very difficult to live a lie.