The issue isn't losing my job. Many of us could deal with that by simply finding another similar job in the same (coding) industry. The issue is losing the entire industry.

That thing you spent years becoming good at? Getting paid lots of money for? Oh, we killed it. Start over and pick something else. You probably won't be paid well, if you can even find anything, because you're starting from ground zero and competing with all the other people flooding the job market. Oh, and yes, it'll require massive life adjustment on your part. Good luck!

The author isn't bashing on "hobbies" and is not even bashing on "vanity activities". S/he is merely challenging us to acknowledge them for what they are. Stop kidding yourself.

If you churn credit cards (for example) and are one of the 10% that can make it truly profitable, then good for you. The other 90% are probably kidding themselves. Same for the other examples. The author is encouraging a self-sanity check. Are you in the 10% or the 90%, and wherever you land, are you okay with that? If not, you may want to reevaluate, pick something else, or make peace with it. It's better than kidding yourself.

I don't have to be the best writer in the world. I just want to be better than THAT guy.

I would go a step further. People kid themselves all the time. Even being brutally honest, I might say I would pay for something and bail at the last step, changing my mind. It's kinda like if you write a book and ask your friend to read it and they say "sure, I will!" and they never do.

In general though, I don't have the energy for it, especially throwing a wife, kids, pets, house upkeep, etc into the mix. Life gets in the way, and that's okay, because that's sort of the point - your life is supposed to come first.

- another Ben

I'd like to point out that a mature/legacy codebase contains every example listed under the "smell" section of the article, sometimes even within the same file. This creates a great deal of complexity to unwind beyond the mere coding of it all.

Your writing (particularly the hidden notes) is fantastic. Loved it!

Maybe I got burned out by goal-setting and productivity talk. It also might be some remnants of some mild depression I had lately. I guess I just don't like feeling pressured to constantly improve, otherwise I'm not "living 100%" like I should be.

So when I read things like this, it grates my nerves: >> "In this process though you will become a better human being. You will get better at living. You will have less pain down the road. Your path will be smoother."

It suggests the inverse: that if you're not improving, you're less of a human being. I'm not sure if the author meant it that way, but that's definitely the way I took it.