Sep-15-2017, 11:20 PM
I haven't followed this thread closely, so forgive my briefness in light of the volume here:
Not all hope is lost for writing, though things are in flux. I'm reading something by someone who has a Patreon where they're getting ~$2,800/month from patrons (link). Not that it's typical, but it happens.
I'm a professional software engineer with four years experience in industry, eleven of experience if you include before I went to school for it. I was very afraid of ruining my hobby, but a Linux user group quelled that fear. Now, I definitely find that I wish I were doing more of what I want to do, instead of what others are telling me to, but it's not so bad. And it's better than the alternative - anything else.
I know game programming is a different industry, and I've heard it's harder. But if you do land on, "I enjoy programming" don't worry too much about your pessimistic instructor. Get an internship as quickly as possible, give things a try for yourself. If you don't like it after an internship or two then you know. Otherwise, you're operating on a lot of uncertainty.
Also - I work in silicon valley, which colors my view of things. I know that a lot of places exist that do software begrudgingly, and they're not fun to be an engineer at. But at least where I am, there's plenty of opportunity to avoid that.
Not all hope is lost for writing, though things are in flux. I'm reading something by someone who has a Patreon where they're getting ~$2,800/month from patrons (link). Not that it's typical, but it happens.
I'm a professional software engineer with four years experience in industry, eleven of experience if you include before I went to school for it. I was very afraid of ruining my hobby, but a Linux user group quelled that fear. Now, I definitely find that I wish I were doing more of what I want to do, instead of what others are telling me to, but it's not so bad. And it's better than the alternative - anything else.
I know game programming is a different industry, and I've heard it's harder. But if you do land on, "I enjoy programming" don't worry too much about your pessimistic instructor. Get an internship as quickly as possible, give things a try for yourself. If you don't like it after an internship or two then you know. Otherwise, you're operating on a lot of uncertainty.
Also - I work in silicon valley, which colors my view of things. I know that a lot of places exist that do software begrudgingly, and they're not fun to be an engineer at. But at least where I am, there's plenty of opportunity to avoid that.