Discussion Do programmers have a right to commit suicide?

[Emily123]

I am also a software developer . I love coding but I hate companies that I am working fpr them . Unfortunately there is an awful cultur in Australian workplaces and I am really sick of working here . It is one of the reasons that I am thinking of CTB . I am sick of working on the rubbish codes . Dealing with scrum master/ product owner , etc . Dealing with unhealthy culture in companies . If I was able to move to another country or find a good job , it was less likely to CTB

 

[TheGoodGuy]

There are actually 6 people on this forum who think that just because of her proffession she doesn´t have the right to choice whether to live or die, I suppose these same people don´t think celebrities are allowed to ctb just because of their status despite they might be suffering.

 

[joshe]

I hated every single job i ever had

Sometimes it's a bigger issue than your career

Sometimes, the Long Dark is the only thing that satisfies that itch

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

Aaron Swartz and Jonathan James are the only ones that come to my mind.

 

[NorthernStar]

Of course software devs have the right to suicide - maybe even more so. Consider the dev who puts in their heart and soul into a project, only to have it possibly become vaporware after years of work. Consider the tenuous timeline of "Duke Nukem Forever" or "Team Fortress 2".

Imagine the developer who inherits a spaghetti mess of code with poor naming conventions and hardly any commenting.

Think of the developer who must eternally "shave a yak" (look it up - I am constantly doing this) just to get any progress made.

Consider the Triangle of Software Development - the points ( fast, cheap, and good ) refer to what your software project can be BUT you can only ever choose TWO of them.

The programmer is often overworked and tries to bang out a functional MVP to demo for the stakeholders and never gets the opportunity to iterate and clean up or fix any bugs because the next sprint has already started AND we have technical debt to resolve in the backlog and then here comes a designer douchebag like me giving you a bunch of mockups without any documentation or redlining and expecting pixel perfect perfection but THEN you're supposed to make all that shit come to life when the CTO comes by and tells you to "to work your magic" and assumes you're Harry Fucking Potter because that's how he thinks Python works, you know.

*whew*

By the time you manage to get your head above water, it's Happy Hour with your colleagues and you just want to drink yourself into a stupor, punch everyone who has ever believed that Ruby on Rails could scale for a company about to go IPO, and go home to crash in your bed - only to have insomnia because you can't get that one bug out of your head and the solution will finally come to you at 3 am after your 5th straight hour of playing Terraria. Or Borderlands 3.

It's no coincidence that Agile software development has a "post mortem" at the end of every cycle.

No true developer goes into the job for just the money. It's an art, it's a challenge, it's a passion. And it's way more complicated and soul-crushing than it looks on the surface.

And being a female in tech is isolating and frustrating beyond despair. The neckbeard/brogrammer/Silicon Valley culture is awful and overtly hostile to women.

My heart goes out to you, OP. I've often said I'd be a cattle rancher if I could get paid the same amount. I'd still be dealing with loads of bullshit but at least I'd get some fresh air.

Don't let the bastards grind you down.

 

[SpottedPanda]

I would have felt more compelled to answer differently if it was do parents have a right, or even do lottery winners have a right.

I guess the assumption is that programming is a good career, but I can't think of anything that'd depress me more than working in code, and pouring through analytical data. I could totally appreciate why you'd be down on life.

I'm sure we have a lot of variation here, in income, opportunity, and physical health. But I'd have to conclude that even the ones I'd have to think about, lottery winners and parents, would have the right to exit, if that was the only option

 

[NorthernStar]

It seems like this kind of dissonance is fairly common. Married miserable people want to be single. Single miserable people wanting a SO. Wanting freedom from a demanding job vs wanting to feel like they contribute something. It's natural to envy someone who is in a position we think we could make work while we are stuck in hell.

I used to fantasize about being the manager of the lentils section at Whole Foods when I worked in the defense industry. Hated every minute of it.

 

[DoNotLet2]

guys I want to become a programmer someday maybe. Why are you saying it's a bad job?

 

[Incorrigible77777]

I voted for 'Yes', but the only thing I'm worrying about is the huge shock brought to my teammates, my managers around once I'm gone. They're friendly people. They're nice and innocent. Whether I'll receive great bonus or promotion or not, at least I'm really grateful to my managers for being hired into this company at this age. My CTB is simply about my personal affairs rather than something I suffer from the company, which is totally different from the case where the Facebook software engineer Chen Qin CTB-ed due to unfair treatment suffered from his leaders or the 13 workers at Foxconn CTB-ed due to great pressure under work many years ago. Misfortunes occur to me throughout my life and especially throughout the past year. But I don't wish to leverage these pains too much to people around me... We're currently working on a huge microservices project which is scheduled to be released at the end of the year. And I'll be the scrum master of the team at my scheduled CTB date. I'm worried about the shock to everyone's mood which will in turn bring down the progress of project and everything else...Maybe I'm too nice so that I have those angel-like thoughts. And that's the only thing I need to overcome, before I really go (I plan to CTB this coming October).

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

Question is: why not? Every human being should have a right to ctb

 

[Realityisawful]

Anyone should....