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Across ~10 jobs or so, mostly as a employee of 5-100 person companies, sometimes as a consultant, sometimes as a freelancer, but always with a comfy paycheck compared to any other career, and never as taxing (mental and physical) as the physical labor I did before I was a programmer, and that some of my peers are still doing.

Of course, there is always exceptions, like programmers who need to hike to volcanos to setup sensors and what not, but generally, programmers have one of the most comfortable jobs on the planet today. If you're a programmer, I think it should come relatively easy to acknowledge this.


> never as taxing (mental and physical) as the physical labor I did before I was a programmer

I find it... very strange that you think software development is less mentally taxing than physical labor.

Software engineering just comes really easily to my brain, somehow. Most of these days is spent designing, architecturing and managing various things, it takes time, but in the end of the day I don't feel like "Ugh I just wanna sleep and die" probably ever. Maybe when we've spent 10+ hours trying to bring back a platform after production downtime, but a regular day? My brain is as fine as ever when I come back home.

Contrast that with working as a out-call nurse, which isn't just physically taxing as you need to actually use your body multiple times per day for various things, but people (especially when you visit them in their homes, seemingly) can be really mean, weird and just draining on you. Not to mention when people get seriously hurt, and you need to be strong when they're screaming of pain, and finally when people die, even strangers, just is really taxing no matter what methods you use for trying to come back from that.

It's just really hard for me to complain about software development and how taxing it can be, when my life experience put me through so much before I even got to be a professional developer.

Have you done physical labour? I find it odd you think physical labor cannot be as mentally taxing. Having done some myself, I agree with GP.
I've never done anything like road/construction work. But I've done restaurant work, being on my feet for 8+ hours per day... and mentally, it just doesn't compare to software development.

- After a long day of physical labor, I come home and don't want to move.

- After a long day of software development, I come home and don't want to think.

Comfortable and easy, but satisfying? I don't think so. I've had jobs that were objectively worse that I enjoyed more and that were better for my mental health.
Sure, it's mostly comfy and well-paid. But like with physical labor, there are jobs/projects that are easy and not as taxing, and jobs that are harder and more taxing (in this case mentally).
Yes, you'll end up in situations where peers/bosses/clients aren't the most pleasant, but compare that to any customer facing job, you'll quickly be able to shed those moments as countless people face those seldom situations on a daily basis. You can give it a try, work in a call center for a month, and you'll acquire more stress during that month than even the worst managed software project.
When I was younger, I worked doing sales and customer service at a mall. Mostly approaching people and trying to pitch a product. Didn't pay well, was very easy to get into and do, but I don't enjoy that kind of work (and many people don't enjoy programming and would actually hate it) and it was temporary anyway. I still feel like that was much easier, but more boring.
That sounds ideal! I used to be a field roboticist where we would program and deploy robots to Greenland and Antarctica. IMO the fieldwork helped balance the desk work pretty well and was incredibly enjoyable.

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