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A Profile of Coders
Zito writes "'The stereotypical programmer is a shy young man who works in a darkened room, intensely concentrating on magical incantations that coax the computer to do his bidding. He can concentrate 12-16 hours at a time, often working through the night to realize his artistic vision. He subsists on pizza and Twinkies,'
Steve McConnell writes for gamasutra about profiles of software developers. "
These things really piss me off. Many of us don't fit this profile at all. I know alot of geeks, myself included, who have a life, a steady relationship, have hobbies outside of their computer, and many friends. Yes, I like to play on my computer, but I'm also into sports, I go to football games, I play pickup games, I go to the gym. Can't they figure out that many of us are actually well rounded people?
Sounds a lot like the premeds at my college.
But seriously folks, if we want a REAL profile of "J. Random Hacker" (Programmer), we should look at the Jargon file, Appendix B. It's got about the best description there is.
-Chris
I remember those days. Wake up around 2pm, code until 4am, stopping only to order a pizza or go take a piss. Burning up cubes of Dew every day with the refrigerator set to Siberian Mode to cool it faster.
Now I'm a network engineer. Same hours, same pizza, same dew consumption, but sometimes I have to go kick a switch or replug a router. *sigh*
"To err is human, to forgive is simply not my policy." --root
I wish, my attention span is only...
Wait. What was I writing about?
We have to devote our hearts and souls to the trade in order to learn how to write good code.
The logical, non judgemental nature of computers tends to be a friendlier environment for shy folks who cannot figure out the whimsical, inconsistent and often childish and pointless rules of 'social skills'. In a world where Tommy Lee can beat Pamela Lee to a pulp and still remain a popular star, maybe computers are the only darned things that make any real sense.
I find it rather hypocritical that anyone can stand around laughing at a geek programmer's "lack of social skills". He's not the one hiding in the trunk of a car trying to evade police after murdering his girlfriend. (That would be you, Rae Carruth.) The devastating consequences of the excesses of those socially skilled 'alpha male' types make headline news all the time.
The image of this dashing Don Juan who can code up a clean version of Netscape overnight while weightlifting his way to tomorrow's Mister Universe competition while knowing all the slick lines that make the chicks swoon, is a myth. You put someone like that into a real honest to god developer's job and he'll be flat out crushed by the kind of tasks that the four-eyed geeks drink up like orange juice.
I've seen it happen on my job too many times. The witty funny dashing fellow gets his head handed to him time after time by the fat guy down the hall who spends half a day cleaning up the first guy's code with bug fixes and speed enhancements and then finally getting him fired for being a (relatively) crappy programmer.
Heh, this should really piss the moderators off...lol.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
16 hours a day? On a light day maybe, pizza and twinkies? Well burgers and caffine is more like it. But more or less this is pretty much correct. These days I'm a little more sane, the all nighters are only when necisary and I've even be seen outside during the day (shock!).
The issue I have is why is this seen as so bad! Football fans doing nothing but drink beer and talk about football, many music fan's are the same, the list goes on. This language is a hangover from the dark years of geekdom. What needs to be understood about us is that we live for the challenge, it's a way of life.
All these posts about sterotypeing are mundane, there is nothing wrong with being like this, and there is nothing wrong with not being like this it's a choice, it's what you enjoy and want.
Axiom #1: Steve McConnell is the author of (among other things) "Code Complete" where he advocates good engineering practices for software developers. In that book he specifically debunks the myth that "real programmers stay up all night coding and eating cold pizza".
Axiom #2: The quote taken from the story says "stereotypical programmer".
Axiom #3: The full story seems to be unavailable (/. effect?).
Axiom #4: Many posts on slashdot are already using the quote as fodder both for and against the notion that "programmers are misfits". Lemma 1: Putting Axioms 1 and 2 together we can conclude that this story will be a further debunking of the "Real Programmers are Social Misfits" myth.
Lemma 2: Axiom #3 and #4 allow us to conclude that the quote is the sole source of fodder.
Conclusion: Lemma 1 and 2 show us that maybe we should read the article before responding.
---
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
Well, lessee, let's profile geeks. How do we know they are geeks? Take the steretype: male programmers, low social skills, spend 16+ hours plugged into the computer, sleep till noon, code till dawn, caffeine is a basic food group, etc. etc. Pick the people that match the stereotype and now profile them. Surprise! It turns out that geeks tend to be male programmers, low social skills, spend 16+ hours..... etc.
;) are lawyers. Not all lawyers, though -- not litigation lawyers and not small-office lawyers. But corporate lawyers working for big law firms tend to be very very smart people, and very geeky as well. Tax people are the geekiest, by the way.
I'll define a geek as a person who can think cleanly and can deal with very complicated systems. If you start from this point, the profiles are probably going to look very different. For example, in my limited experience, the best and smartest geeks (besides, the Slashdot crowd, of course
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Ignoring the fact that your post was most likely an attempt at trolling, you are correct, in a way.
Unfortunately, the kind of person you're talking about (and I've known a few of that type) often has difficulty in communicating with other people on anything other than a technical level, meaning that they get jack shit in the way of promotions, etc., in any medium-to-large corporate structure. They're usually best at coding alone or in a small team, limiting their usefulness in a larger organization.
Of course, not many geeks really give a shit about corporate thinking...
Being a sysadmin involves a different kind of madness than being a coder.
My day consists of repeatedly being bothered. Seems like the coders' day consists of working on a project, which would probably be easier to get wrapped up in.
-nme!
PS--Know your Sysadmin! http://www.stokely.com/lighter.side/sysadm.field.
In the end, you have to ask yourself what the costs have been and what you have gained. Do you want to have a family to support you in your old age? Sure it's great to make things work, and accomplishemnts are a source of pride. The endless persuit of someone else's proffit just plain sucks. Don't get sucked into something that seems rewarding without really knowing what you want. The only way to know is to try it out. What's the use of developing cool code or anything else if you die single at age 50? Leaving behind a wife and kids is not to fun either.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
My best schedule (I was doing this about 2 years ago while telecommuting) goes something like this:
- 10 am - wake. Breakfast while reading email. Think about today's hacking plans while showering.
- 11 am - start hacking.
- 3 pm - break. Play with dogs, hit heavy bag, do kata, talk a walk, whatever.
- 4 pm - hack
- 7 pm - dinner. Then Go Out And Play.
- Midnight - come home. Hack.
- 2 am - go to sleep.
This is what makes me healthy, happy, and productive, and I wish I could be getting paid to follow it now. Your mileage may vary.Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
- ...dashing Don Juan who can code up a clean version of Netscape overnight while weightlifting his way to tomorrow's Mister Universe competition while knowing all the slick lines that make the chicks swoon, [will] be flat out crushed by the kind of tasks that the four-eyed geeks drink up like orange juice.
It's a shame you feel you can't be witty. It's a shame you don't have the confidence to talk charmingly to MOTAS. It's a shame that you are intimidated by exersize activities. It's a shame that you seem to feel that being overweight is an unsolvable condition that isolates one from society.The witty funny dashing fellow gets his head handed to him time after time by the fat guy down the hall...
A few years ago, I worked with a guy, Tom, who developed a stellar C++ object library for doing 3D rendering. He is one of the smartest people I've met (and this includes the likes of Stallman, Chomsky and Minsky); he has a PhD. He is a very good looking and in great shape (3rd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do). He has a gorgeous wife (also PhD/Black Belt etc.) and managed his development schedule succefully enough to be a great father to his two precocious daughters.
One could resent a guy like that. Instead, I realize that the differences between Tom and me are due to different choices we've made. I never pursued an advanced degree. I've stayed single. I quit Tae Kwon Do when I got a brown belt. It must be great to be Tom, but obviously I don't want to be him -- or I probably would be.
You feel that you are a great coder. That's wonderful. Now go ahead and be the witty, dashing fellow, too, because you clearly consider that to be desirable in some way. The only thing really stopping you is the equally visible belief that you can't.
That guy working 16-hour days and subsisting on pizza and twinkies is not necessarily more productive (especially in the long run) than the guy whose leaving at 5:30. Stressing out your employees to the point where they're leaving the field and not just your company is dumb. "Gee, he's irreplacable- let's work him till he quits."
Allow me to paraphrase (and thoroughly mangle) a Zen koan. A student asks his master how long it will take him to achieve enlightenment if he spends an hour a day. The master says "A year".
"And if I spend four hours a day?"
"Ten years."
"And if I spend all my waking hours?"
"Then you will never achieve enlightenment."
To a certain extent, persuits outside of one's major field helps one inside that major field. While this is counterintuitive, it is true. Who can find a true expert in any field who is totally dedicated to that field?
--The basis of all love is respect
One of the things I hate about the world is stereotyping. Everybody and their sister seems to think people fit into catagories, like kiddie blocks, we're supposed to fit into square pegs. This is not true, especially not anymore.
Firstly, the image that "Computers == Geeks || Nerds || Dorks" does not apply anymore. Everybody is on the internet, and everybody has (or to the very least) wants a computer. All that crap you see in the movies of jocks beating up on computer dorks saying 'Go watch your star trek and play with your computer dork' just isn't true, and most likely, that same jock will be making fun of the same person over icq or irc.
Now with the article's point, I have to bite at it for personal reasons. I fit the above description of a coder who sometimes works looooong hours too meet a deadline or just because I'm in the 'mood' for coding whena all my ideas are just coming out one after the other and sleep can wait till later.
Just as an example from something that happened personally, during my first year in university, I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of new people. At one time, one person asked me what I do for work
But what people don't get is that coders and techies don't need to to be skinny, pale, with ugly glasses and bad posture. I'm know I'm not, want an example ? Take Linus Torvalds. I like to think I have good social skills since I have quite a lot of friends, I go clubbing and raving as often as I can. And I love the wimmen : )
And I don't feel as if I'm an exception either. A lot people whom I've met who typically ten or twenty years ago would have nothing to do with computers or networking, or even linux in general are nowadays wanting to learn about that 'stuff'.
People should really stop stereotyping, its just a bad thing and will get you into trouble later on. So the next time you see that jock in high school that bugged you all the time, be carefull cause he might be able to code circles in ASM around ya ; )
One thing I've witnessed with grim regularity, is the exploitation of nerds' work ethic. All those long hours are part of your life, what's your life worth to you? If you have some sort of ownership over what you code (either through equity, or GPL or something)and "coding is life," then fine. Too often, geeks slave away for some kind of "geek pride," while all they are really doing is making the guys with founder-stock insanely rich.
Geeks Unite!