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Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

kalzumeus.com

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Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#71

Post by patio11 »

scottschulthess wrote: post #53

Does anyone else think that this article is in poor form? On the perils of describing yourself as a programmer: If you're hiring someone to provide a specific skill set (programmer) you want them to be good at programming. Would you hire an accountant if they didn't know accounting? Should lawyers not describe themselves as lawyers? Doctors as doctors? On the perils of selling yourself as an expert in a certain techn…

Reprising a comment of mine from earlier: the actual work performed by most lawyers is letter-writing at $X00 an hour. No lawyer describes themselves as a "professional letter-writer" or "professional letter-writer specializing in Mostly Empty Threats."

When "programmer" starts showing up with lawyer and doctor on "high status occupations used as the canonical examples of professional jobs since you were three years old" then programmers should definitely start describing themselves as programmers to anyone who will listen.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#72

Post by LVB »

freemarketteddy wrote: post #22

I think Patrick is missing a niche segment of Hackers who have been making a lot of money in last few years.They are the independent Mobile App Developer(iOS/Android) If you choose this path then you dont even have to start a company,all you need to do is make awesome apps.It might be a little hard to start but in a year you should be making good enough money to go independent and then sky is the limit.It is not only…

I'll just say that based only on reading his post, I'm 100% sure that Patrick wouldn't agree with your career advice.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#73

Post by wallflower »

psykotic wrote: post #11

> If you call yourself a programmer, someone is already working on a way to get you fired. If you work at a place like that, I feel sorry for you. Even the owner of my company lists himself on Twitter and his blog as just Programmer at RAD Game Tools. Besides being the sounding board for us when we have problems and ideas, he still writes more code than most of us can regularly muster.

Coding ability (the 99% not the 1% of elite coders) is a commodity.

"The question used to be: Does it run? That was enough, because software that worked was scarce...

So if it’s not about avoiding fatal bugs, what’s the business of software?

At its heart, you need to imagine (and then execute) a business that just happens to involve a piece of software, because it’s become clear that software alone isn’t the point. There isn’t a supply issue--it’s about demand. The business of software is now marketing (which includes design)."

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/10/the-business...

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#75

Post by sutro »

Back in the day, John Carmack would micro-blog on the finger protocol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol). finger johnc@idsoftware.com got you Carmack's .plan file, a well-written and, for a time, frequently-updated journal of whatever programming challenges he happened to be facing at the time. finger @idsoftware.com got you the id corporate directory, a simple list of about 20 names and titles. The only titles were CEO, designer, and programmer. In a tech world awash, even then, with countless software engineers, senior software engineers, senior members of technical staff, architects, chief architects, CTOs, rock stars, and ninjas, it was always refreshing for me to see Carmack's humble programmer listing.

All of my heroes in the field are programmers.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#76

Post by patio11 »

xpose2000 wrote: post #56

I'm new to the startup game, and most of my hunches that Ive formed over the past 6+ months are proved true by this post. This is insanely good advice in this post, one of which involves modesty and confidence. I'm never going to be modest from here on out and will act like a pompous douche when deemed necessary. I see people act this way ALL the time, and I figured people could see right through their bullshit. Appa…

Restrained, professional confidence will work as well or better as "pompous douche", and it won't compromise your principles.

Picture a heart surgeon. Given an opening like "Wow, you save people's lives all by yourself" he doesn't say "Oh, it's nothing", he says something like "My team saves people lives. It is a privilege to work with them."

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#77

Post by numeromancer »

tricolon wrote: post #48
zasz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose the OP leaves. It's going to be hard for the his former coworkers to maintain the Ruby app.

If the OP did a proper job documenting his work and his former coworkers are competent, it would only be a tiny bit selfish.

And it is not unlikely that there is somebody else looking for an opportunity to put Ruby experience on her resume, and will gladly take on the maintenance. In that case you have created value for your co-workers, too.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#78

Post by theshadow »

randomdata wrote: post #31

On the not calling yourself a programmer part: It may be a local thing, but the term engineer was usurped by government to essentially refer to someone who does things by the book. As such, engineer has come to mean someone who has trouble seeing the bigger picture and won't break some rules to deliver something amazing. Obviously that is not true of many engineers, but the damage to the term is already done (again,…

To be honest I cringe whenever I hear programmers refer to themselves as "engineers". Maybe it's because here in canada engineering is regulated and you are not allowed to call yourself an engineer by law unless you posses an an engineering degree.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#79

Post by daviddaviddavid »

mattdeboard wrote: post #54
daviddaviddavid wrote: post #29

How jaded. Sounds rather like a "Guide to Success in High School" written by the guy that graduated with perfect grades but got his ass kicked every day. Well, not everybody gets their ass kicked every day. I absolutely cringe at the idea of a bright-eyed young programmer becoming prematurely jaded based on somebody else's experiences. "This post aspires to be README.txt for your career as a young engineer." Definite…

Whether or not a thing is true is orthogonal to whether or not you want the thing to be true. I'm a new programmer but not new to business. He hit the nail right on the head for just about any profession (minus to the programming-specific bits).

Saying that the truth of X and the desire that X be true/false are orthogonal is rather like saying that "things just are the way they are".

While this is the case in scientific matters, it's definitely not the case in social matters. There are plenty of things that I and others can do to bring about a business climate that fixes some of the shittiness that the author lays out.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#80

Post by LVB »

I did appreciate the section about programmer skill and not to underestimate yourself too much, simply because it was a feel-good paragraph. By regularly reading a variety of tech blogs and trying to keep up with software goings-on, I've put myself on a drip feed that constantly reinforces: "Holy crap... every programmer out there is developing mind blowing software in languages you've never heard of in the course of a weekend. Meanwhile, you're dribbling out a few dozen lines of C in a day."

Who knows where the truth lies, but for the next few minutes I'll just enjoy the slight buzz from the article.

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