Re: Rewards of Service

[Arunbear]

Doesn't the true value of your work lie in what you learned while doing it? Developing such skills is certainly beneficial from a career point of view, so does not seem like time wasted.

[Voronich]

I'd quibble with that, though perhaps merely in semantics.

The value of your work is what the work achieves. Does it serve a useful purpose in and of itself?

Past that, there's something to be said for enrichment and accrued positive experience contributing to the total net benefit.

[Xiong]

You make a good point; thank you. Self-education (as opposed to helping others to learn) is not to be scorned. But if I do nothing but improve my skills, never employing them usefully, then I'd file this under self-amusement.

I have already had an engineering career. While I was paid well I did not feel I was paid for doing good work; rather, I was pressured to do poor work and commit fraud against our customers. I no longer have any interest in engineering for pay, therefore none in making myself attractive to potential clients. My motivator today is a desire to be useful.

I would do a disservice to the aspiring young engineer if I did not admit that free software projects are an excellent route to a fatter portfolio.

[aartist]

There are many ways to serve and get rewards apart from your job / engineering / programming.

[Xiong]

Oh, I agree; but I'm not sure what point you're making.

For good or ill, I spent some years as a hardware dog. I find that some, though not all, of my experience transfers to software engineering; I've always had a sideline in software; and it has appeared from time to time that I may have talent in engineering. So having perhaps the ability, I think to put it to use. Hence my participation here, in other forums, and on CPAN.

Like most people, I have other skills I can put to work for the common good. The major motivation of this essay is that I'm seriously wondering if my time might not be better spent thus. In my soul I'm absolutely certain that my Perl is excellent and belongs at the top of everyone's list. But a man's capacity for self-deception is unlimited.