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How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

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Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#31

Post by [deleted] »

pkghost wrote: post #10
anon1253 wrote: post #7

Okay, I’m going to be a little bit far out there. A lot of this seems to be grounded in the negative. “How to deal with x” how to “do y when z has failed”. Some of it technical and some of it interpersonal. Why have we created this sphere around programming? What makes /this/ profession so different from any other? And my believe is: nothing. It’s not hard. It’s not better. It won’t “eat the world”. Heck it probably…

No other profession has quite the same capacity to transform itself. Like blacksmiths, programmers are capable of building tools that not only change the way they work but enable new kinds of work to be done, often by making previously onerous tasks trivial, and giving the individual a much large potential impact. Unlike blacksmiths, programmers can share their inventions with the entire industry in the blink of an e…

[deleted]

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#32

Post by Retric »

theonemind wrote: post #11
anon1253 wrote: post #7

Okay, I’m going to be a little bit far out there. A lot of this seems to be grounded in the negative. “How to deal with x” how to “do y when z has failed”. Some of it technical and some of it interpersonal. Why have we created this sphere around programming? What makes /this/ profession so different from any other? And my believe is: nothing. It’s not hard. It’s not better. It won’t “eat the world”. Heck it probably…

Eh. Most major centers of power have large computing resources changing how they do things. Wal-Mart, for instance, as a basically non-tech company, leveraged computers for stocking and supply chains and became a culture-chaging retail giant. Computers have made their way into cars, and even toasters. We have high frequency trading (done by computers) majorly affecting markets. I could probably go on like this for a…

Most professions have already changed the world. Air conditioning for example dramacily changed how and where people work and play. Plumbing has dramatically reduced the spread of disease. The older professions are so integral to society it’s hard to thing of a world before agriculture or fishing.

Give it 200 years and programming will probably be thought of as accounting. Well paid and nessisarily, but hardly revolutionary.

PS: Salaries have generally stagnated over the last 10 years suggesting supply and demand are well matched. Their is a lot of stratification, but most programmers make well under six figures.

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#34

Post by postmeta »

Retric wrote: post #32
theonemind wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh. Most major centers of power have large computing resources changing how they do things. Wal-Mart, for instance, as a basically non-tech company, leveraged computers for stocking and supply chains and became a culture-chaging retail giant. Computers have made their way into cars, and even toasters. We have high frequency trading (done by computers) majorly affecting markets. I could probably go on like this for a…

Most professions have already changed the world. Air conditioning for example dramacily changed how and where people work and play. Plumbing has dramatically reduced the spread of disease. The older professions are so integral to society it’s hard to thing of a world before agriculture or fishing. Give it 200 years and programming will probably be thought of as accounting. Well paid and nessisarily, but hardly revolu…

Programming is more a meta-profession, it tries to automate and eliminate the boring or repetitive part of all professions.

I don't think we can ever standardize programming any more than we can standardize humanity's collective goals and ambitions.

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#35

Post by sbov »

enraged_camel wrote: post #24
natalyarostova wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming is generally considered more challenging than most professions, and it has a transformative potential that must other fields don't. It's okay to recognize that, whilst also not having an over-inflated view of yourself or elitist stance. We're also entering a new era of the difference between cutting-edge or transformative engineers, and (the still respectable, but more normal) standard dev. I do some pret…

>>Programming is generally considered more challenging than most professions, and it has a transformative potential that must other fields don't. Or, most other fields have already transformed the world. Programming is in the process of transforming the world. So it looks to us as if it is unique.

Software is roughly the way we take ideas that cannot be made in a physical form and put them out there in the world. The idea that 'software' will some day stop transforming the world is just as weird to me as saying physical matter will some day stop transforming the world.

That said, most of us have pretty plain jobs. And most of what we write isn't that impressive. But still, just like you can invent a completely new gadget (that is likely useless), you will always be able to invent a completely new piece of software (that is likely useless).

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#36

Post by [deleted] »

postmeta wrote: post #34
Retric wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most professions have already changed the world. Air conditioning for example dramacily changed how and where people work and play. Plumbing has dramatically reduced the spread of disease. The older professions are so integral to society it’s hard to thing of a world before agriculture or fishing. Give it 200 years and programming will probably be thought of as accounting. Well paid and nessisarily, but hardly revolu…

Programming is more a meta-profession, it tries to automate and eliminate the boring or repetitive part of all professions. I don't think we can ever standardize programming any more than we can standardize humanity's collective goals and ambitions.

[deleted]

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#37

Post by Retric »

postmeta wrote: post #34
Retric wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most professions have already changed the world. Air conditioning for example dramacily changed how and where people work and play. Plumbing has dramatically reduced the spread of disease. The older professions are so integral to society it’s hard to thing of a world before agriculture or fishing. Give it 200 years and programming will probably be thought of as accounting. Well paid and nessisarily, but hardly revolu…

Programming is more a meta-profession, it tries to automate and eliminate the boring or repetitive part of all professions. I don't think we can ever standardize programming any more than we can standardize humanity's collective goals and ambitions.

High level languages standardized assembly. Tools have increased the amount of knowledge you need to function as a programmer, but they also provide standard solutions to real problems. It’s not like CSS is nessisary for building a website, but it really does both help and replace a lot of custom code.

Plumbers still need to get things to work in your house, but tools and techniques have largely removed guesswork. The end point will be different than accounting, but I feel the trend is clear with knowledge replacing the need for extreme generic problem solving skills.

‘Design Patterns’ are of real though limited value, that’s a meta example of exactly what I am talking about.

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#39

Post by mdpopescu »

anon1253 wrote: post #7

Okay, I’m going to be a little bit far out there. A lot of this seems to be grounded in the negative. “How to deal with x” how to “do y when z has failed”. Some of it technical and some of it interpersonal. Why have we created this sphere around programming? What makes /this/ profession so different from any other? And my believe is: nothing. It’s not hard. It’s not better. It won’t “eat the world”. Heck it probably…

Magic does not change the world? I find that difficult to understand. Using obscure incantations to affect the physical world is pretty much mind-blowing, as far as I'm concerned.

Re: How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002) [pdf]

#40

Post by lottin »

anon1253 wrote: post #7

Okay, I’m going to be a little bit far out there. A lot of this seems to be grounded in the negative. “How to deal with x” how to “do y when z has failed”. Some of it technical and some of it interpersonal. Why have we created this sphere around programming? What makes /this/ profession so different from any other? And my believe is: nothing. It’s not hard. It’s not better. It won’t “eat the world”. Heck it probably…

Speaking as a non-programmer, I find computer programming one of the most difficult things I have ever done. In a sense it's a lot like writing. Sure, everybody can write, but few people can write well. Writing a short computer program is easy, but writing a complex program, in a way that it both works and you (and others) understand it, it's the hardest thing.
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