Do you get offended when people think you are a programmer?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=565863

by amichail • 17 years ago

10 32 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Isn't it like people thinking that a novelist is literally a writer? And might be willing to write a novel based on their ideas if they share the profits with him/her?

noodle• 17 years ago

not really. i don't tend to get offended at this by default because most people who say this type of thing just don't know any better.

i might get annoyed if someone was doing it on purpose with the intent to get under my skin or something.

amichail2• 17 years ago

It's not entirely their fault. There are people after all who write code for money. So it's not too much of a stretch to think they might be willing to write code if you share with them any resulting profits.

How many people would be willing to write a novel based on your ideas for money? How many would be willing to write a novel based on your ideas for a share of profits?

EvanK• 17 years ago

Enough of them that they have their own term -- ghostwriters.

gaius• 17 years ago

There's nothing wrong with being a ghostwriter, or a session musician for that matter.

thomasswift• 17 years ago

I get silently offended when people think I'm a computer repairman and that is what I went to school for.

sjs382• 17 years ago

And others get offended when I refute that exact same thing by saying "Nope, I'm not a computer janitor." :)

darkxanthos• 17 years ago

Why would someone get offended by that? Does programmer equate to only codes for $ or something?

amichail2• 17 years ago

Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, it does.

pavel_lishin2• 17 years ago

I don't really understand why that would carry any stigma. I mean, do we hate doctors who are only in the medical field because it pays well?

jpedrosa• 17 years ago

Software developer is a broad term as well. ;-)

And the last bastion of respect, the software engineer is not without its enterprise-ish feel.

Researcher seems cooler, but it's all about feeling good and self-esteem in the end. :-)

What about the designers, web designers, front-end engineers? Does it piss them off being called a programmer every now and then?

lucumo• 17 years ago

No, why would I be? I am a programmer. You can call it a "developer" or words like that, but to me that sounds like title inflation.

nailer2• 17 years ago

I like coder or designer or business guy. 'Programmer' seems a bit formal. What I do is design and code and run a business.

hvs• 17 years ago

Most people outside of the tech industry have no more idea of what I do other than "he works with computers." I've long since given up trying to explain it to them.

chacha102• 17 years ago

It is really too bad. I get the same thing, but it is mostly from people who don't use computers. If they use computers, they can at least get to the fact that I write mumbo jumbo that makes the computer do something.

pavel_lishin2• 17 years ago

I've started telling people I'm a database administrator just to pre-emptively ward off "will you check why my computer is so slow?" questions.

TomOfTTB• 17 years ago

I don't mean this as a dig, honestly I don't, but if you're walking around life getting offended by things as small as that you should probably re-evaluate some things. Getting offended by something, at its root, is just a way to make people feel bad. Either just you (if the person meant to offend you) or you and the other person (if they didn't). Either way, it causes nothing but pain.

That's ok because it's an emotion with purpose in that it drives you to act. I am offended by the conditions in many African countries so I donate to those charities. I am offended by the jokes that person is telling so I don't hang around them anymore.

But if you are getting offended at something like this, where no action can fix it, than you're just causing yourself undue pain.

eli• 17 years ago

No.

mechanical_fish2• 17 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545530

Sometimes "programmer" carries too strong a connotation of "code monkey". I find it best to just avoid places where this is true.

anamax• 17 years ago

> Sometimes "programmer" carries too strong a connotation of "code monkey".

You write that like code monkey is a bad thing.

> I find it best to just avoid places where this is true.

It is good to avoid places that look down on code monkeys.

mechanical_fish2• 17 years ago

Well, sure, okay. I'm quite happy to be called a code monkey by someone who respects what we code monkeys do. ;)

CraigBuchek• 17 years ago

As opposed to what? Developer? As a developer, I don't really see that much of a distinction, or care about it.

mronge• 17 years ago

No. Who cares, there are bigger things to worry about.

anc2020• 17 years ago

I am a programmer and I want to be one. Unlike "web designer", this is the first time I've come across negative feelings to the term "programmer" and I can't really see why (if you want to insult a programmer call them a code monkey).

What title would you prefer over programmer?

Jerdak• 17 years ago

Imperial code magistrate.

jeeringmole• 17 years ago

Hmmm....

Edsger Dijkstra described himself as a "humble programmer" in his Turing lecture (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EW...). Don Knuth categorizes his contributions in three groups: "As a researcher... As a university professor... And as a programmer..." (http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/bio.dvi). Joseph Weizenbaum's New York Times obituary headline called him a "Famed Programmer" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/world/europe/13weizenbaum....). Tony Hoare's description of his work on implementing Algol includes this: "I eventually married Jill, the other programmer who came to work on the same project" (http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/3/21782-an-interview-with... -- ACM access required).

Maybe one day if I work very hard and am very lucky people will think I am a programmer, too.

dkarl• 17 years ago

It sounds like you are inventing ways to put yourself above other people. There is no title that guarantees that you do good work. Ovid was a writer, Tolstoy was a writer, James Joyce was a writer, Thomas Pynchon is a writer, and none of them would be offended to be called a writer, even though there are multitudes of talentless scribblers who have never completed a novel (and many talentless scribblers who have completed novels -- so I'm not sure why "novelist" is any better than "writer.")

So why should you be offended at being called a programmer? There are people ignorant enough to think that "programmer" places an upper bound on your talent and accomplishments, but there are also people ignorant enough to think that writing is an easy task that requires no talent. If you want to impress such people, allow me to suggest that you rely on your clothes and hairstyle and just be vague about what you do for a living. Such people will be even more impressed if they think you do nothing at all.

darwinw• 17 years ago

I call myself code simian all the time. I am beautiful no matter what you say!

alex_c• 17 years ago

Absolutely. If anyone ever refers to me as anything less than a ninja rockstar hacker, I never speak to them again.

nunespascal• 17 years ago

No, I am proud of it.

ganley• 17 years ago

Not at all. I think about the end of The Fountainhead, when Roark's accomplishment is symbolized by the sign that says "Howard Roark: Architect," and I think about what that sign would read for me. I've never come up with anything better than Programmer - better in the sense that it conveys what I do in a way that people understand. Anyone who understands deeply enough to care about the distinction will probably dig deeper anyway.

adelle• 17 years ago

You think "programmer" is bad. Try "Visual Basic Programmer" or "PHP Programmer". That kind of stigma can never be erased.

Do you get offended when people think you are a programmer?

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