Why are so many programmers arrogant? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#11

Post by adn37 » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 1:59 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

Arrogance is about the way they deliver the feedback. For some, diplomacy is hard since they can't understand why others fail to meet their technical/knowledge/... expectations.

At work, I'm surrounded by smart people. They often outsmart me but a common trap they fall into is not doing enough meta thinking. They seem stuck on level 1 of things.

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#12

Post by easyfrag » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 1:59 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #2

Young people with a natural affinity for an in-demand skill often are. A hundred years ago you could have written this about pilots. 500 years about painters (apprentices to the great masters in the Renaissance were notorious for it). As an aside, for every genuine Aspbergers case, there are 10 who simply think they have a god-given right to act like dicks. It's like dyslexics, you can always tell the real ones becau…

I agree with this, I've worked in health care and programmers have nothing on physicians when it comes to arrogance. I don't know any programmers who would coach a physician on the proper way to design a course of treatment...

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#13

Post by mseebach » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:14 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

> For an encore, check 'mathematicians are arrogant', 'physicists are arrogant', 'surgeons are arrogant' and so on.

It took me a while to realize that http://xkcd.com/793/ wasn't about programmers..

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#14

Post by jacquesm » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:14 PM UTC

adn37 wrote: post #11

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

Arrogance is about the way they deliver the feedback. For some, diplomacy is hard since they can't understand why others fail to meet their technical/knowledge/... expectations. At work, I'm surrounded by smart people. They often outsmart me but a common trap they fall into is not doing enough meta thinking. They seem stuck on level 1 of things.

You are describing it as a mere packaging problem but I think it goes deeper than that. I think arrogance is exemplified by being closed-minded, refusing to even consider the other persons point of view.

And once you do that you will almost always moderate your statements, whereas those that think they are structurally in the right do not feel the need to do so, they will treat the rest of the world as though they're slightly stupid children and their tone will reflect that.

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#15

Post by oz » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:17 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

"Anybody that has a job that requires a ton of study and a lot of brain work will tend towards this, it's human, nothing specific about programmers."

Like the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament: "Knowledge puffs up; but charity edifieth"

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#16

Post by yycom » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:18 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

That's the trouble with being brilliant, people think you're arrogant.

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#17

Post by rick_2047 » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:18 PM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #13

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

> For an encore, check 'mathematicians are arrogant', 'physicists are arrogant', 'surgeons are arrogant' and so on. It took me a while to realize that http://xkcd.com/793/ wasn't about programmers..

It took me a while to realize that http://xkcd.com/793/ wasn't about programmers..

Even though it was titled physicists?

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#18

Post by locopati » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:21 PM UTC

yycom wrote: post #16

jacquesm wrote: post #4

They're not really arrogant, they just come off as such. Programmers usually are pretty clever cookies and as a rule are more often right than wrong, even if the subject is not programming, that alone is enough to mark them as arrogant. We also tend to be an opinionated bunch. Some of them compound the problem by no longer considering other people to be occasionally right and them being wrong and do cross the line in…

That's the trouble with being brilliant, people think you're arrogant.

Brilliance in one domain does not equal brilliance in all domains. Often the pride of a programmer regarding his or her work gets carried over into communication with people in other domains, who may be just as brilliant in their own sphere.

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#19

Post by bedris » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:21 PM UTC

Mz wrote: post #5

I'm not really qualified to comment on programmers per se. But I am reminded of a personal anecdote: In my mid-twenties, I had to have minor surgery on my face. My looks were very important to me. I thought I was quite beautiful and this was upsetting to me. I was concerned I would be disfigured but I really had to have the surgery. Trying to make my peace with it, I commented "I guess I can always have cosmetic surg…

"If you done it, it ain’t bragging." -Walt Whitman

Re: Why are so many programmers arrogant?

#20

Post by rick_2047 » Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 2:22 PM UTC

Any person who has rational thoughts in this diplomatic world would seem arrogant to some scale.

Example,

Rational:"The education system in India is seriously broken beyond repair. Anyone who succeeds, succeeds despite the system and not because of the system."

Diplomatic:"The education system of India is not really on the right track, but we have a real flow of potential. This is evident by the number of people that succeed"