zlacker

I’ve been a year deep into my first job out of tech. There is a never ending slew of problems where being able to code, specially now with AI, means you have wizard-like powers to help your coworkers.

My codebase is full of one-offs that slowly but surely converge towards cohesive/well-defined/reusable capabilities based on ‘real’ needs.

I’m now starting to pitch consulting to a niche to see what sticks. If the dynamic from the office holds (as I help them, capabilities compound) then I’ll eventually find something to call ‘a product’.

>>jrvare+(OP)
Can I ask what do you do now?

>>jrvare+(OP)
That made me remember that one time many years ago, when I had a friend who literally called me a wizard.. He was working as a shift manager at a call center, and one of his most difficult tasks he kept ranting about was scheduling employees, who were not the most consistent bunch, and had varied skillset, yet he had to meet very strict support availability requirements.

He kept ranting about what a b*tch of a problem that was, every time we went out drinking, and one day, something got into me, and thought there must be some software that can help with this.

Surely there was, and I set up a server with an online web UI where every employee could put in when they were able to work, and the software figured out how to assign timeslots to cover requirements.

I thought it was a nice exercise for me in learning to admininster a linux server, but when I showed it to my friend, he looked me in the eye and told me I a saved him a day of work every week, and called me a wizard :D

It occured to me, how naturally part of the programming profession is to make things in fixed amounts of time, that turn difficult and time consuming tasks a human needed to do into something that essentially just happens on its own.