We’re very lucky

I recently completed the process of looking for a new job.  I’ve got a couple weeks until I start my new venture, but at least the job search process is over.  As I thought about this new opportunity over the weekend, I was struck with something: software developers (and related fields) are very lucky.

I’m not talking about our salary or our benefits.  Although that is quite often better than the “average worker.”  No, we’re lucky because we can get bored.  What am I talking about?  How can being bored be considered “lucky”?  First of all, I hate being bored.  I’d much rather be overworked than bored.  That’s been my MO for just about my entire career.

What got me thinking was, one reason I was looking for a new job was there was very little new work being done at my new job.  There were new features and new implementations, but there was very little new WORK.  I felt like I was writing the same code for the past year or so.  Apart from what I’ve learned on my own time, there wasn’t any new technologies to use etc.  So I started looking for a new job.  I found a place that I think will let me expand my knowledge and learn some new technologies.

That’s when it struck me.  I know a lot of people who aren’t excited by their work at all. I know people that have been doing the same job for 20 – 30 years.  And it’s not that they hate their job.  They like their job.  But it is literally the exact same thing they were doing 30 years ago. These are intelligent, creative, able beings who have been driving a truck, or dispatching trucks etc for the past 30 years.  That’s when it hit me, I’m fortunate that I can not only desire, but expect to be intellectually challenged by my work.

Additionally, the software field is so vast and changing that there will always be areas I can move to that I haven’t mastered yet.