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A Programmer's Loss of Identity

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Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#91

Post by m463 »

kuboble wrote: post #67

What resonates the most with me in the article is this quote > I was so naïve that I thought progress could only go one direction, because that’s all I’d ever known. As kids growing up in Eastern Europe in the 80s and 90s the world felt like its getting better every year. More peace, fewer borders, more opportunities, better technology. Everything was getting better every year and we took it for granted that this is…

I think many of us take it for granted. I wonder what the view on the ground was in the late 1930's and early 1940's.

Or a more recent time. I think how mechanical engineers felt in silicon valley over the last 40 years as basically 'making and shipping" was all exported to china. I have some mechanical engineer friends whose life got smaller and smaller.

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#92

Post by adrian_b »

kuboble wrote: post #67

What resonates the most with me in the article is this quote > I was so naïve that I thought progress could only go one direction, because that’s all I’d ever known. As kids growing up in Eastern Europe in the 80s and 90s the world felt like its getting better every year. More peace, fewer borders, more opportunities, better technology. Everything was getting better every year and we took it for granted that this is…

Very true.

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#93

Post by aleph_minus_one »

bananaflag wrote: post #81
jbstack wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are they mutually exclusive? Can't you hang out with and chat with other programmers ... about food, hiking, travelling, culture, or relationships? In the same way that lawyers don't have to talk about law, and doctors don't have to talk about medicine when they hang out. When I think about my friendships, it's rare that we ever spend any significant amount of time talking about our work.

I think this is part of why programming as a job never appealed to me (and I never became one). I'd like to do something that is worth doing in the sense that it's worth discussing in your "free" time too. And most programmers feel like the show Severance (yeah I know it's the other way round). To contrast, I have some philosopher friends and they discuss about food (they, unlike me, love cooking shows), travelling,…

> I'd like to do something that is worth doing in the sense that it's worth discussing in your "free" time too. And most programmers feel like the show Severance (yeah I know it's the other way round).

This does not fit my experience. It's rather that many passionate programmers are rather eager to talk about what they do at work (at least if they are allowed to), but the common situation is that what they do at work is barely interesting to people who are not at least somewhat interested in programming topics.

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#94

Post by namrog84 »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #72
christophilus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“I’m a null pointer exception debugger.”

> “I’m a null pointer exception debugger.” NullPointerException is the Java world. In C++, dereferencing a null pointer is rather undefined behaviour.

So it's perfectly fitting the noun for c++ dev is undefined behavior :D

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#95

Post by aleph_minus_one »

cml123 wrote: post #77
big-chungus4 wrote: post #10

I am not sure what the loss is. Not everyone is using AI. No one is forcing you to use AI.

my employer has told me that it's an expectation for me and that if I don't use it i'll be replaced

> my employer has told me that it's an expectation for me and that if I don't use it i'll be replaced

This does not imply that you cannot use the AI "badly". Call it "malicious compliance" if you want ... :-)

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#96

Post by tzumaoli »

This really resonates. I am in the CS academia and I feel like I am losing "friends" who used to share the same values and social identity with me at an unprecedented speed. I wonder if it is possible to gather people like this and regroup our social circles.

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#97

Post by meager_wikis »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #49

I love programming, but the idea of hanging out with and chatting with other programmers as a regular part of my social life leaves me cold. I'm happy to be a part of online conversations about code and hardware and design, but away from the computer ... not really. I'd rather be talking about food, or hiking or travelling or culture or relationships. There have been very few people I've ever met in person that I rea…

Same. I see programming as a way to accomplish some sort of task. When artists hang out, do they spend their time talking about brush strokes or editing techniques? From my experience not really, they talk about the higher up stuff. Themes or storytelling or influences are what they usually talk about. I want to operate on the higher plane.

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#98

Post by netule »

zabzonk wrote: post #41
jacquesm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or literally a part of the self, which is what the OP was getting at I think. And there is plenty of that in the software world. "I'm a Rubyist", "I'm a Pythonista", "A rustacean" and so on. There is plenty of identity ridiculousness. I've been a C programmer but I've also been a basic programmer an assembly language programmer, a PHP programmer, a FORTH programmer and a whole list of others. To me that collapses to…

> "I'm a Rubyist", "I'm a Pythonista", "A rustacean" it suddenly struck me that there has never, AFAIK, a single-word noun for a C++ programmer. not sure what, if anything, this implies.

I think it’s because C++ programmers tend to define themselves by the domain they work in. Game developer, embedded systems engineer, firmware developer, etc.

Re: A Programmer's Loss of Identity

#99

Post by steve1977 »

iberator wrote: post #48
softwaredoug wrote: post #13

> Which is to say that the pleasure I get from programming is mostly about learning the underlying truths about computation and applying what I’ve learned. Always improving the craft. This, to me, is the practice of programming. I guess when you get to a certain age (I'm 45) I stop caring whether something like this has social value. I enjoy it anyways. Wanting to know how things work always brings me back. I don't c…

I lost my job as a programmer and I think it's over for me. No, you will not hack the device drivers in the basement but you're gonna be flipping burgers and out of cash or energy for anything else. Worst thing: you never gonna even be good at flipping burgers without experience or young age... Once you are out of the field, and your money is gone: suddenly you are useless, old trash. No one even wants to employ ex p…

Who's gonna be able to afford burgers?
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