4 ms·

Any idea why the expectation of autonomy for professional programmers seems to be so much lower than for professional novelists?

• TheCoelacanth 9y ago
  Because novelists who don't already have a proven track record of producing marketable work are producing the work on their own dime and only get paid after they have already produced a financially successful novel. Programmers have the same option, but most choose a guaranteed paycheck over autonomy.
  • apohn 9y ago
    I also wonder if the autonomy novelists have changes when they get famous. Suddenly the success of the book has a direct impact on sales of future books, movies, toys, games, cartoons, the Disney Rides, etc. When there is more risk there are going to be more people trying to mitigate that risk. I think that's true of software as well. When V1.0 of your software has a large install base, lots of things are going to be put into place to make sure 2.0 doesn't cause your customers to run. That decreases autonomy, especially when some of the "management" is really just political nonsense and ladder climbing.
• psyc 9y ago
  Programming makes managers nervous. Their solution is onerous process that mostly keeps the programmers from programming. Imagine if a plumber had a foreman following him around, and every time he tried to touch the pipes, the foreman cried "No, no, don't touch the pipes. You'll break something." A couple of times, I had managers who were stupendously good programmers. They weren't nervous about programming. They didn't care if we went in there, ripped everything up, and set it right again. Managers who don't code well must feel weird. Their responsible for this fragile thing, but they don't know how it works, or what you're doing to it.