HN user
Here's a funny little word in Greek: ψαμμακόσιοι (psammakósioi). It literally means 'sand-hundred', from ψάμμος 'sand' with the suffix for 'a hundred' attached. As you might have guessed, it conveys a huge uncountable sum.
Location: Eastern Time
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Ruby, Python, JavaScript, Java
Resume/CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JrWVV_nTfXyQPdqdjxyJv7rY...
Email: sandy.vanderbleek@gmail.com
I'm available for $10/hr currently. I have over a decade of experience, it's a good deal.
Can't afford to quit, thanks though. Work or die.
I struggle with this. After years of studying OO and design patterns in Ruby and JavaScript I was having troubling building complex asynchronous systems and stumbled into Go. I saw the value of types for managing that complexity and the runtime for supporting asynchronous primitives, but internally was very limited by the lack of generics for things like collections and higher order control flow for things like error handling.
Eventually I arrived at Haskell after strongly considering Clojure, and I'm very happy about what I've learned and my new way of approaching programming complexity. Unfortunately there is nowhere else to go from here since I can't find employment as a Haskell programmer. OCaml, F#, Scala, Elixir, and Elm all feel like a step back. Now I'm a Java programmer and quite miserable. I feel hampered by the language nearly everyday in terms of how easily I can express my thoughts in code. Haskell isn't perfect but is the best fit for my mathematical mindset.
I am trying to lead by example. I help host my city's Haskell meetup and contribute to a Haskell reading group. The path is lonely, my co-workers poke fun at me, and don't care to put in any effort to understand what I have to say. I love teaching and explaining things but there is zero interest because the machine keeps moving. Not many at the office even enjoy Java but are resigned to do it for our large pool of enterprise clients. All in all each work day is a void I put 8 hours into, which is fine, compared to most working conditions; it causes no suffering beyond the lacuna.
I'm past the stage of trying to convince other programmers anything. I recognize many are happy with their tools. I yearn for that happiness and don't seek to spread my misery. I offer my time to those who are interested and want to learn more.
Anyway, this article nails it, Haskell has advantages but they aren't enough to change things without the infrastructure the author is building. I look forward to being an early adapter of Unision and continue to remain hopeful for the future despite the long odds.