My life with 12 programmers, 2 rooms and one 21st-century dream (2016)
I know the author wised up and moved on, but I would rather work construction for the rest of my life than be a programmer and live like this.<p>I worked for a startup for a couple of years that really got it right.  The CTO really wanted a certain lead developer as his first hire (they had previously worked together) and the lead dev said (paraphrased, of course) "Nope.  Not interested in working more than 40 hours per week.  Not interested in startup culture.  Not interested in grueling deadlines. I like taking long breaks in the middle of the day to go for a run.  I come in early, and I get home to my family early."<p>They gave in to every one of his demands and from my understanding, in the 3 or 4 years since he took the job, devs have only worked longer than a 40 hour week maybe 5 times total.<p>That dev team has consistently deployed great feature after another at an incredible rate.  I have since moved on but I don't think I'll ever find a place that respected their workers like they did.<p>I don't have a point to that story, no takeaways, no morals, no snappy advice or anything.  But paired with my current not as good job, and this article from my worst nightmares, it's made me a bit nostalgic for that wonderful time in my life where I worked for a great place that trusted that happy employees are good employees.