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Realistic Portrayals of Software Programmers?
lwbecker2 asks: "Warren Harrison has written a thought-provoking editorial piece on The Software Developer as Movie Icon. He explores the fact that new entrants to Computer Science curriculum are typically clueless about what 'real' developers actually do. While researching the issue of why this is the case, he determined that some potential CS degree seekers are forming opinions from portrayals in movies and cinema. He describes what he asserts to be inaccurate portrayals of developers in War Games, TRON, and The Net, and asks for input and opinions on 'the impact of the cinema and television on new software developers' expectations, as well as learn of any films that do a better job of portraying our profession...' I am sure Slashdot readers have some input on this, and I am curious if people believe _any_ movie has acurately portrayed software developers?"
... are so obvious here that no one needs to make any. If you do, I might set the building on fire.
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
was pretty accurate.
Most of the software people I know look just like Hugh Jackman, get to hook up with Halle Berry, and routinely do neat secret agent stuff.
Or at least I wish they did. Office Space has the most accurate portrayal of programmers I've ever seen in a movie.
But it was so boring it never got published.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
revenge of the nerds.
Has the film industry portrayed any normal person accurately? No. Normal people are boring.
Computer guys are the ones that hack into computers in a minimum of keystrokes, and say "We're in." And they always develop some evil artificial intelligence that threatens the world, and they can get incredible detail from a blurry photo simply by saying "Enhancing." Everybody knows this stuff.
I don't think the portrayal is inaccurate at all. But then I'm an EE.
...
--sex
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
Office Space is much closer to reality than fiction for programmers, even though they are a sidebar in the story. Most people in programming are not going to be sitting in their own world, and will have to be interactive in an office environment. In most cases, you better get used to the drugery of TPS reports and interacting with people from a wide variety of departments rather than slamming out code.
sig--we don't need no goddamn sig
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
I feel that the movie "Pi" is an accurate portrayal of software developers. After the first couple days of each week, listening to the sales manager tell every potential customer that we can do absolutely anything virtually for free and yesterday, I wish I could drill a hole in my skull too.
Do cop shows accurately depict cops?
Do westerns accurately depict cowboys?
Do war movies accurately depict soldiers?
Does pr0n accurately depict sex?
The list goes on...
The basic problem is that simple stories require simple characters, and generally, we're not talking Jane Austen where computers are involved.
Display a computer programmer that works out, or has a family, etc., that takes time out from the CG and explosions. It also confuses the stupid audience that flocks to the picture...
Having said that, I thought Hugh Jackman's programmer in Swordfish was presented as pretty cool, even the rest of the movie was totally goat.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
It shows programmers working their asses off on some new communications system...
Hollywood doesn't portray anything or anyone accurately, not just programmers, but secret agents, scientists (the most dangerous profession, according to the movies), police officers, psychiatrists, airline pilots, women, and vegetarians as well... even "normal" people are somehow made extra-normal on the screen.
If you look to films and television for career guidance, chances are you wouldn't make a good programmer anyway.
Bob Slydell: If you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Bob Slydell: Great.
Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door--that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh--after that I sorta space out for an hour.
Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
"Teachers leave us kids alone
It doesn't get anymore accurate.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0308808
"A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."
If the mass media has a silly view of programmers, it is too late to change it. When I first saw Jurassic Park, and they had that scene in the outdoor cafe where they start zooming in on the greasy fat unpleasant guy, one phrase was zooming through my mind over and over: "Please God don't let him be the evil computer guy."
Me and God have to have a little talk.
It was a documentary, and it was real people, but what do you want, another Office Space comment?
Actually, a pretty accurate portrayal of a programmer in a movie was in Pump Up the Volume, even though he ran a pirate radio station and wasn't a programmer. He worked out of his parent's basement, was a loner, and had a different on-air personality than in real life.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Most people have some idea of what a cop is. They know what the army does. They can identify a firefighter in uniform nine times out of ten.
Outside of the computer industry, nobody knows what a programmer is. They don't know that there's more to computers than Windows, so why should they know about computers?
One portrayal that annoys my wife and me is the portrayal of people in chemical/microbiological suits. The suits always look good on the actors. My wife works in one (she studies ebola). It's a big blue vinyl bag. Not form-fitting. It tends to make you look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. It's uncomfortable. You have to shout to be heard in them.
So remember, programmers are not the only groups misrepresented. We're probably not the most misrepresented group. Next time you watch a show that includes any real-life profession, ask yourself how close they are to reality. Then complain about programmers being misrepresented.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
just yesterday I did compile a list with all movies on this subject that I know of, with a short rating and a feature list.
>think that shooting nerf guns in the office makes them "cool."
I don't understand. Are you saying that nerf guns aren't cool?
Alright, boys - take away his geek license.
I'm not trying to be redundant or anything here...but the second I saw the newspost, I thought of Officespace and how incredibly clever I was coming up with that name. I was thinking of my +5 "Insightful" score and how after people saw how clever I was and how knowledgable with movies I was, my self-confidence would be boosted and I'd be certain to find a woman. However, after clicking "read more" and discovering that 99.9% of all the posts refer to Officespace in one way or another, I was horribly dissappointed. But..I still wanted to post just to show that I'm still clever even if I wasn't the first one.
The anti-salmon
so you're looking for accurate depictions of software programmers in movies? i hope this helps!
i usually roll out of bed around 11 or noon (up all night clubbin wit da ladies!) and drive to work in my brand new hummer, completely disregarding traffic signals, speed limits and roads in general. assuming there arent any high speed chases with the bad guys on the way, i make it in to work in time for the boss to yell at me again for "violating protocol" again! im such an eXtreme programmer and i do things my way! thats about when the terrorists show up to the building to take my girlfriend hostage, forcing me to have to fight them all with my bare hands and the occasional uzi taken from fallen enemies (everyone else is taken hostage too, so im the only one that can fight). since im so ripped, i can streetfight anyone and win easily! at around 4 or 5 pm i manage to get to the leader and fight him to the death at the top of the building, throwing him off in the process. once i get my woman back, we get it on and then im off to the clubs for the night! but trouble arises at the club......
oh wait, you want honesty? well heres honesty: unless its a comedy, dont make movies about software developers!
Gentlemen...BEHOLD!
-Dr. Weird
Tron wasn't that far off for its day, at that time there were a lot fewer large programming projects and as such a lot fewer teams of developers. It was much more common for a programmer to work by himself or herself than it is today.
Also, while War Games obviously wasn't 100% accurate, it was definitely more realistic than the Net, Hackers and a lot of other movies featuring programmers.
Movies aren't even meant to be 100% accurate, they're meant to be entertaining, it just happens that Firefighting and law enforcement are professions that are more entertaining than computer programming so they have to be changed less. Even those professions aren't portrayed accurately though like the article claimed, firemen spend most of their time waiting for fires, not putting them out and when they do put out fires more often than not they don't actually have to save people. Cops are the same way, they're not usually doing drug busts, catching robbers, using their keen investigative wit, going on high speed car chases, getting in shootouts or anything, most police work is driving around and filing papers.
In every intro level Archaelolgy course I've taken, there is always a comment in the text books on how Archaeology is nothing like the world of Indiana Jones.
Then again, the intro level courses are to weed out people who aren't ready for the rigors of a given dicipline.
Dolemite
Save the World! Use a Quote!
Hollywood glammorizes ANY professional field, not just software developers, etc. I remember the first time I learned that Court cases took longer than a few weeks (I was 15y/o, mind you), because I followed the OJ murder trial. My intake of movie drama had preconditioned me to think all Lawyers were as thoughtful and explosive as Tom Cruise was in A Few Good Men, wailing at Nicholson, "I want the truth!" And then Nicholson responds, "You can't handle the truth!" It's practically never the case.
:p
I was (and still am) quite disappointed. My first assumptions about Law were based on movies, which, if you ask any Lawyer, are dramatized to the point of fiction.
Much is the same with Technology. Anyone who's sat through Hackers will tell you how much of a (bad) joke it really is. The other great example is Swordfish, when Hugh Jackman hacks into a computer system in 60 seconds, at gunpoint, with a woman giving him head. Come on
The point is this: Anyone who wishes to join any professional field should realize that work takes effort. If a movie gives you inspiration and/or a desire to look further into something you find interesting, fantastic. Seek out what you dream and live it. But be prepared to find something a little less idealized, something a bit more down to earth.
All aliens use AppleTalk...
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
My friends (mostly engineers) and I were discussing the success of shows like ER, Law and Order, Ally McBeal, Scrubs, etc. It seems like the popular shows are based on doctors, lawyers, or police work.
"Why not a show about engineers?" someone asked.
"Yeah, we could call it 'CR' - Conference Room! They could show us sitting around at boring meetings, eating doughnuts, writing emails and stuff..."
That's when we realized why there are no shows about engineers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bridge/
:)
This is about engineers, but might be a good taste.
I was also thinking that perhaps placing some web-cams in a computer lab around the deadline for large projects would be interesting. In my software engineering courses, the groups of students working together going back and forth is a great example of what software development ends up being like.
Seriously, people in STS programs should be taking this as a hint, more studies please!
- Sighuh?
Would you rather have the masses read /. to form their stereo types of CS people?
"Computer science is clearly a field for people with enormous anuses, way too much time on their hands, hot grits down their pants, and a homosexual lust for cowboys."
Of course, this isn't too far off the mark from CMU.
Why bother.
Speaking as a Jedi, I have to say, the movie portrayals are quite unrealistic, but frankly, it's the only way to get new members.
I mean, for every trade negotiation that turns into an assassination attempt and daring escape from a battle fortress, there are thousands that are just plain boring; you sit around, listen to proposal and counter-proposal repeated verbatium for hours, until somebody changes something a whit, repeat, for a few weeks, then you break up for consultations.
For every five minutes you get to duel with a Sith Lord, you spend YEARS doing the sword-technique equivalent of sitting at a keyboard, typing 'jjj[space]fff[space]jjj[space]fff[space]'
Anywho, I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but the life of your typical Jedi is NOTHING like those flashy bastards you see in the movies.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I don't.
I enjoy getting paid more because people are a little scared and a little bit intimidated by us. Letting them peek behind the curtain isn't a healthy career move.
Bowie J. Poag
These movies PRECISELY describe what I do all day. Why, right this minute, I'm typing on one of my 8 totally custom made keyboards suspended in the air around me by a complex system of racks and harnesses, while glancing from side to side at the 21 monitors hanging around my control chair (with power swivel), and protecting my neon-lit plexiglass-cased server from being attacked by rogue agents and crackers going after the kernel! I'm regularly stopped by agents in expensive suits and 400 dollar Ray-Bans on the street and threatened about my attempts to bring down the national infrastructure with my super password cracking program that, if released, would allow instant access to every system on the planet. And don't even get me started with my super intense VR room in the back that let's me have hyper-realistic "intimate encounters" with my computer-generated love slave(s).
I think we need to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding our profession and let the world know that we absolutely have the best fucking jobs on the planet.
-Oakbox
Not just answers, the correct questions.
Actually, McAfee helped him out with instructions on how to bypass the old version the aliens were using. The next day, the homeworld got a call from their McAfee sales rep who said, "You see what can happen if you don't keep up to date with your service and upgrade subscription!?"
All I wanted was a rock to wind a piece of string around, and I ended up with the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota
The Hollywood portrayal could be worse, you know. Just imagine if they portrayed debugging like a ST:TNG episode, complete with flashing red alert lights and lots of noises:
Picard: What's our status?
Data: The process is attempting to completely allocate all available memory and CPU cycles.
Worf: Available memory is down to 50%. 40%...
Picard: Suggestions?
Riker: Perform a break. Try to find out what happened.
Picard: Make it so.
Data: Ctrl-C was not successful. Process is still consuming resources.
Worf: 30%, 20%...
Wesley: Captain, this may be due to an incorrect check in the while loop...
Picard: Shut up, Wesley!
Geordi: Captain, we're losing segmentation containment. We've got to dump the core!
Worf: ...10%...
Picard: All hands, this is the Captain! All hands, log out! Repeat, all hands log out!
Kaboom! Blue screen of death.
GMD
watch this
PLEASE don't tell the the truth... the more people think that I'm capable of breaking into top secret databases, alter credit cars statements, revoke driver's licenses, reroute spy satelites to take ultra high-res pictures or Natalie Portman sunbathing, etc. all from a public phone booth with a paperclip, the more likely I'll be able to look cool and suave to the ladies... Don't blow my cover man!
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Office space was a good representation of the office working environment. Stupid bosses who don't do anything. Idiotic tasks specifically designed to waste time. Policies enforced just to annoy you (You forgot the cover sheet on the TPS report). "Friendly" staff evaluations to randomly lay off good staff..
.. well .. boring. I do a lot of nothing, and don't get what I want to do accomplished. Oddly enough, what I want to do, and the company projects, are one in the same.. Read on...
/24's traffic at the router.
Been there, lived through it..
A portrayal of my life would be pretty
Follow me through Sunday evening and Monday..
---- Sunday Evening.
Sunday, 6pm.. Coding new authentication module for Apache..
20 minutes reading (from my personal O'Reilly library, dejanews, and the very few sites that may have clues to what I'm doing).
30 minutes writing.
5 minutes reading work
2 seconds deciding I didn't like parts of it, and deleting 90%
drink a beer.
[lather;rinse;repeat] for the next 8 hours. On the weekend. Like, when I'm not even supppose to be working.
Pager beeps at 2am. One server with 6 months of uptime is unreachable.
Log into server. It's running.
Check httpd processes, they're running.
Try browsing to server, it's unreachable.
30 seconds scratching head.
Kill all httpd processes. Restart web server, check error logs. Starts normally.
Try browsing to server. It's unrecachable.
Reboot server (for spite).
2 minutes drinking beer.
Server's back up, still can't browse to it.
netstat -a -n
Oh look, one IP has 10,000 connections from a university in Russia (212.96.201.28, for those really interested)
verify TCP_SYNCOOKIES enabled. yup.
Check logs. No entries for that IP.
Drop traffic that
Browse to site. It works.
Drink more beer. Go to bed at 3am
---------
Monday morning.
Wake up late.
9am Drag my happy ass into office.
9:20 discussion of what happened, and what we can do to prevent it happening again. I suggest going into used car sales.
10:00 arrive at my desk.
10:01 users start asking for their forgotten Email or FTP passwords.
10:20 start back on authentication module.
10:21 phone call forwarded from support.
10:45 hang up on support call. I hate users.
10:50 start back on authentication module.
10:51 "Urgent" help needed for other people's broken CGI's.
11:45 Finish fixing really shitty CGI's.
11:46 decision: module or smoke.. Choose smoke. Can't find cyanide cigarette, choose cloves instead.
12:00 back to desk with sandwich in hand.
12:00.01 Can you help this guy on line 3?
12:15 get rid of guy on phone. Unwrap sandwidth.
12:16 "My computer has a blue screen, can you help me". Decision: shoot user, or hit reset for them.
12:17->12:30 listen to user cry because they had some important program open, and I lost it. I'm so evil.
12:31 pick up sandwidth
12:31.0001 phone rings. Boss wants to talk about last night. I remind him I sent an Email on it. He asks for his Email password.
12:45 I reach for the sandwich. "important" customer walks in, asking for changes to his site. I point to my sandwich. He says it'll only take a minute.
1:30 {sigh} I look longingly at my lunch. Quickly I scribble on a post it "Comitted Suicide, memorial next week", and put it on my door. Phone stays outside the door too.
1:31 the first bite of my sandwidth.. MMmmmmm.. Almost as good as street meet, with less rodent parts.
1:35 all gone? I'm still hungry.
1:36 begin work on authentication module.
1:37 boss walks in (didn't he read the note?), wants to know why I haven't finished the authentication module.. And then throws another task at me that's more urgent.
3:30 more urgent task done. Back to authentication module.
3:35 parts arrive for servers that we've been waiting for, for 2 weeks. Delegate work. Spend the next half hour explaining how to do 5 minutes work.
4:15 smoke. smoke. smoke. it's oddly quiet. No phones, no users. I wonder if I can bring my laptop down here.
4:30 authentication module. I still haven't written one line yet, but I'm trying..
4:31 Boss comes in screaming, I think one of the networks is slow. Spend the next hour justifying the fact that nothing is slow, enforced with transfer rates and ping times.
5:30 smoke.
5:45 contemplate suicide. Go back to office anyways. Start working on authentication module.
5:50 girlfriend calls. "Why don't you love me, you never spend time with me."
6:20 finish with girlfriend. Take elevator to top floor to find out roof access is locked (smart people).
6:30 go home.
So, today I accomplished exactly *NOTHING*.
That's my typical fuckin' work day.
I've gone as far as to put the phones outside my office door (including cell), put a big note explaining that I'm on an important project and to leave me alone. I then lock and barracade the door. That'll get the boss banging on the door within 5 minutes. {sigh} After asking if I'm ok, and why I did it, he then asks if the project is done..
I tried working from home one day, because there was a project that needed to be completed (the boss wanted it immediately).. The boss insisted that I keep my phone on, in case there were emergencies.. I took 68 calls from the office that day.
I can't win.
I may as well be doing TPS reports with fish flavored cover sheets.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.