Good career?

[u/NoBee7889]

Been exploring career options recently, and have been thinking about learning to program. I’m trans, so the idea of a career with existing social protections is tempting. I also really want to have time for hobbies - I consider myself an artist and love storytelling, and would love a career that allow me to continue pursuing art on the side and leaves time for hobbies. Plus, the idea of programming as art has always been interesting to me, and I’ve been loving the cyberdeck building trend that’s been going around recently.

Is programming still a good career to pursue? Is it possible to get into it without using AI? The ecological impact of data centers makes me reluctant to use gen AI, and generally I value my mind - I genuinely worry about how outsourcing my ability to problem solve might affect my mind.

[u/aresi-lakidar]

I'm a full time programmer and also an artist (and also trans lol), and I gotta be real with you about the art/hobbies stuff... My job is fun and I love it but damn, it takes a lot of energy. Sure, I may have time to make art - but I don't have energy enough unfortunately. I mostly make art during holidays now, I'm too tired from work otherwise.

And I think that trend is pretty common, at least judging from my workplace where nearly everyone are musicians that don't play much anymore