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Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

kalzumeus.com

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Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#81

Post by emmett »

kennywinker wrote: post #10
credo wrote: post #8

>>"Programmer" sounds like "anomalously high-cost peon who types some mumbo-jumbo into some other mumbo-jumbo." If you call yourself a programmer, someone is already working on a way to get you fired. I call myself as a programmer because I enjoy programming and do a lot of programming as part of my job. It is unlikely that I'll get fired because I run the (tiny) company I work for :). and customers seem to like the…

It's a very business oriented article. E.g. "You’re in the business of unemploying people. If you think that is unfair, go back to school and study something that doesn’t matter.)" I for one have created more jobs than I've destroyed in my coding career. By building a business, as you've done, you're going in the opposite direction of this kind of sentiment.

Don't take this the wrong way, but ... really? I find that hard to believe. Pretty much all programming is in the short term unemployment producing, since pretty much all programming is automation. Automating a job means that no one does it anymore, hence one fewer job.

In the long run those people are usually repurposed into productive work, and there are occasional moments where a programmer will create a massive number of jobs (see: whoever implemented adwords, creating an entire industry of professionals to optimize purchasing them). But that's the exception, not the rule.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#82

Post by rickmb »

rewind wrote: post #35

"Want to get trained on Ruby at a .NET shop? Implement a one-off project in Ruby. Bam, you are now a professional Ruby programmer — you coded Ruby and you took money for it. (You laugh? I did this at a Java shop. The one-off Ruby project made the company $30,000. My boss was, predictably, quite happy and never even asked what produced the deliverable.)" Unless an employee actually gets permission to do this, this mak…

Please note, he got to do this working for a boss who "never even asked what produced the deliverable".

This sounds like a very dysfunctional company in the first place.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#83

Post by emmett »

gruseom wrote: post #74

Is this article's claim about Google -- that the programmers closest to Adwords revenue have highest status (edit: and/or pay) -- true? It contradicts what I've heard.

I don't think he said they had the highest status...I think he said they were the best paid. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it's a very different claim.

(I too have heard differently)

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#84

Post by Natsu »

> Perceptive readers will note that 100 does not actually show up on a d100 or rand(100).

It also jumped out at me that the zero case is not handled (it occurs on the rand(100), if not the die).

He's got a great point about learning negotiation skills, too, but I've read a lot of things and feel that what I lack most is actual live practice. I think this is similar to the point about meeting people and shaking their hand and how different that is from meeting some person online.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#85

Post by patio11 »

rickmb wrote: post #82
rewind wrote: post #35

"Want to get trained on Ruby at a .NET shop? Implement a one-off project in Ruby. Bam, you are now a professional Ruby programmer — you coded Ruby and you took money for it. (You laugh? I did this at a Java shop. The one-off Ruby project made the company $30,000. My boss was, predictably, quite happy and never even asked what produced the deliverable.)" Unless an employee actually gets permission to do this, this mak…

Please note, he got to do this working for a boss who "never even asked what produced the deliverable". This sounds like a very dysfunctional company in the first place.

So here's another reason not to call yourself a programmer: it suggests that you are a peon who needs micromanagement. At Japanese megacorps, which are not historically known for huge degrees of flexibility, it is assumed that Software Engineers should be able to tie their own shoelaces without needing to be told what kind of knot to use.

The boss asked for me to produce comprehensible and comprehensive documentation of 100,000 lines of Perl and gave me a two month deadline. I produced what he asked for in two weeks. The production of this involved a Ruby script.

Contra many sibling comments, delivering a higher quality product earlier than the deadline does not typically result in one getting fired, particularly when one makes a habit of making your boss look like an effing genius for managing you so well.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#86

Post by mechanical_fish »

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…

The opposite of "modest" is not, in fact, "pompous douche". There are alternative ways of showing confidence, many of which actually incorporate substantial amounts of humility.

There are better role models, or better coaches. Keep looking. I realize it is hard, because there are a lot of complete poseurs cluttering the landscape, but keep looking.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#87

Post by nickknw »

kamaal wrote: post #43

One of the things that I see among hardworking smart people is they somehow tend to use 'difficult work' as a yardstick to measure 'good work'. Difficult work need not necessarily be good work. Unfortunately if you fall for this, you will end up wasting a lot of time, effort and energy over years and at the end wonder why you are not as rich as someone who does has half the difficult work as you do. 'Good work' or so…

> "One of the things that I see among hardworking smart people is they somehow tend to use 'difficult work' as a yardstick to measure 'good work'. Difficult work need not necessarily be good work. Unfortunately if you fall for this, you will end up wasting a lot of time, effort and energy over years and at the end wonder why you are not as rich as someone who does has half the difficult work as you do."

A connection just went off in my head; this sentiment is echoed in Sirlin's 'Playing to Win' series of posts.

"I’ve never been to a tournament where there was a prize for the winner and another prize for the player who did many difficult moves."

It's good advice. I mean, enjoy solving difficult problems, but it is important to recognize that it can be... self-indulgent sometimes. There certainly exist hard problems that are also good problems, but they are not measured with the same units.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#89

Post by chc »

zasz wrote: post #46
andrewflnr wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming he had a green light on the project itself, and it creates value, I don't see why that would be selfish.

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

Maybe "one-off" means something different where you're from, but I read it as meaning this wasn't an issue.

Re: Don't Call Yourself a Programmer

#90

Post by seancron »

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…

From the article: "Most software is not sold in boxes, available on the Internet, or downloaded from the App Store."

   all you need to do is make awesome apps.
Oh, is that all?

The fact is that it's hard to make awesome apps or awesome anything that also makes people enough money to go entirely independent. Especially if you have a family that you need to support.

And even if you do decide to be an independent mobile app developer, parts of this article still apply to you. Your job isn't to make apps.

For example: "Engineers are hired to create business value, not to program things."

Your job is to save people time/money, entertain them, or make their lives easier by making apps.

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