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Programming is a Super Power

programmingzen.com

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Re: Programming is a Super Power

#41

Post by jarek »

pjscott wrote: post #40
jarek wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this standard, pretty much anything that doesn't involve trivial desk job paper pushing is a super power. Bricklaying? Check. Welding? Check. Mech eng? Check. Digging ditches? Check. Everyone's special, Dash.

Bricklaying (and construction methods in general) let us build useful, comfortable buildings that protect us from the elements and let us build cities. Agriculture lets us feed our whole population; without modern agriculture we would have mass famine. And while we're on the subject of agriculture, there are some supporting technologies that we shouldn't forget; the Haber-Bosch process, for example, has the power to…

Yeah. And without organizers and managers the complex system is likely to collapse, and without truck drivers and rail workers food can't get to people choose to live. Don't me wrong - I appreciate the complexity of society as much as the next guy, but there's so many people involved that calling everything necessary for people not to starve "super powers" causes the term to completely wash out.

Everyone's special. Which is another way of saying no one is.

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#42

Post by whimsy »

pjscott wrote: post #40
jarek wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this standard, pretty much anything that doesn't involve trivial desk job paper pushing is a super power. Bricklaying? Check. Welding? Check. Mech eng? Check. Digging ditches? Check. Everyone's special, Dash.

Bricklaying (and construction methods in general) let us build useful, comfortable buildings that protect us from the elements and let us build cities. Agriculture lets us feed our whole population; without modern agriculture we would have mass famine. And while we're on the subject of agriculture, there are some supporting technologies that we shouldn't forget; the Haber-Bosch process, for example, has the power to…

Whoosh.

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#43

Post by Natsu »

m0th87 wrote: post #9
qjz wrote: post #3

This week, I'm using my super power to replace a sign-up sheet in a clipboard that once hung on an office door. Is there any menial task I cannot defeat? I am Invincible!

That's along the lines of what most programmers do, and each defeat is chipping away at inefficiency. You're doing your part in the greatest productivity revolution in history :)

> You're doing your part in the greatest productivity revolution in history :)

Yeah, but we still have to deal with the anti-programmers who create negative productivity with their grotty code before we're in the clear :)

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#44

Post by generalk »

acangiano wrote: post #4
tommorris wrote: post #2

It really isn't. Can we please stop the 'superhero' meme? I'm not a superhero. I'm just a person who knows a few programming languages and can hack things together. It's not a great feat: it's just typing bits of logic into a computer. If you can think logically and with a reasonable degree of abstraction, you can do it too! We should be shouting from the rooftop that it's fun and easy and giving children lessons in…

I think that I may not have made my point clear. The point is not that we are superheroes for knowing how to program, but rather than learning to program is so cool that it's like having a super power, for what it enables you to build and do. If you read the article, you'll see that I mention how even "product guys" should learn how to program. In my next post, for example, I'll talk about how to learn programming as…

> The point is not that we are superheroes for knowing how to program, but rather than learning to program is so cool that it's like having a super power, for what it enables you to build and do

Programming isn't a super power. It isn't even like a super power. It's a skill.

It's like any other skill: when you're good at it, it allows you to do things nobody else can do, and you make difficult and challenging tasks look effortless.

I know you say you're standing away from elitism, but things like "even "product guys" should learn how to program" certainly smacks of it. There's no doubt, programming computers is pretty astounding. But so is cold-calling someone and convincing them to give you thousands of dollars for software they may never have heard of. So is building and maintaining the hardware that modern software runs atop.

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#45

Post by fhars »

pjscott wrote: post #40
jarek wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this standard, pretty much anything that doesn't involve trivial desk job paper pushing is a super power. Bricklaying? Check. Welding? Check. Mech eng? Check. Digging ditches? Check. Everyone's special, Dash.

Bricklaying (and construction methods in general) let us build useful, comfortable buildings that protect us from the elements and let us build cities. Agriculture lets us feed our whole population; without modern agriculture we would have mass famine. And while we're on the subject of agriculture, there are some supporting technologies that we shouldn't forget; the Haber-Bosch process, for example, has the power to…

Yeah, but who will then take care of repairing our bicycles?

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#47

Post by jokermatt999 »

jcromartie wrote: post #37
m0th87 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's along the lines of what most programmers do, and each defeat is chipping away at inefficiency. You're doing your part in the greatest productivity revolution in history :)

However I feel like our "productivity revolution" is for naught, when we still end up working ourselves to death and having no free time to show for it. Whatever happened to "computers will make our lives easier?" For whom? When does it pay off? When does the programmer get to rest?

Parkinson's Law? We can get more done, so we find more to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#48

Post by nollidge »

qjz wrote: post #3

This week, I'm using my super power to replace a sign-up sheet in a clipboard that once hung on an office door. Is there any menial task I cannot defeat? I am Invincible!

Everything I've ever programmed was a replacement for an Excel spreadsheet.

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#49

Post by jordanb »

khafra wrote: post #29
jarek wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this standard, pretty much anything that doesn't involve trivial desk job paper pushing is a super power. Bricklaying? Check. Welding? Check. Mech eng? Check. Digging ditches? Check. Everyone's special, Dash.

I see a fairly natural superpower line with welding and mechanical engineering (alongside machining or some rapid prototyping ability) on one side, and bricklaying, ditch digging, etc. on the other side. Bricklayers and ditch diggers don't often think of something cool and then make it happen with those particular skills.

I've been learning to weld (using the TIG process) and it does have that cool mixture of being able to produce amazing, strong physical objects and also being Dark Magick for the average person. The TIG process in particular is a mixture of science and art that makes you feel like a wizard when you start getting good at it.

Watching a professional bricklayer work is pretty mesmerizing. The really good ones achieve this rhythmic action where they seem to manage to quickly and accurately place and set every brick while taking advantage of inertia of the moving bricks to expend the minimum physical energy possible.

I don't think there are any ditchdiggers left in the united states though, only bobcat or backhoe operators.

Re: Programming is a Super Power

#50

Post by tedunangst »

mcav wrote: post #39
jcromartie wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However I feel like our "productivity revolution" is for naught, when we still end up working ourselves to death and having no free time to show for it. Whatever happened to "computers will make our lives easier?" For whom? When does it pay off? When does the programmer get to rest?

Step into the 1970s, and try doing some of these things: - Professional-quality publishing (text, images, printing) - Sending text/images to your friend in another state - Looking up any kind of information (Library trip?) - Buying things that aren't at your local grocer (Mail-order?) Try this experiment: Spend a week doing everything without a computer. How productive are you, compared to before? How often did you f…

Step into the 1970s and not need to do those things. If you had to type stuff on a typewriter, you didn't spend hours picking out a pretty font, you used the one you got: the typewriter font. Nobody cared if your publishing wasn't professional quality, theirs wasn't either. You didn't IM your friends inane updates regarding your current thoughts on whatever Sarah Palin said five minutes ago, you sent them actually interesting letters. For that matter, you didn't have 1000 "friends", you had 10 real friends.

When someone asked "Who was that guy, in that movie? You know, the guy?", you didn't look up imdb.com on your smartphone while everyone watches you type on a tiny screen, you said "dunno" and moved on with your life. You didn't spend ten minutes debating between buying the 4ft or 6ft USB cables and finding the best price online because you didn't need to buy USB cables.

Yeah, things have changed, but progressed? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to go back, but that's more to do with being accustomed to this lifestyle, not because it's particularly better. We do more because we're expected to do more, and we're expected to do more because somebody else started doing more.

"Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."

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