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As perceived by the general public, there is a huge difference: Most people have some idea, however vague, what a doctor or a lawyer actually does, while 'progr

As perceived by the general public, there is a huge difference: Most people have some idea, however vague, what a doctor or a lawyer actually does, while 'programming a computer' is utterly obscure and opaque to a lot of those same people. This keeps surprising me again and again, but apparently any kind of computing device is a black box built on magic, probably to the vast majority out there.

UweSchmidt 7y ago
Not sure if that's true. Legal minutiae and latin diseases are at least as opaque to people as software code, the actual work likely less glamorous than programming.
- world32 7y ago
  Yeah I don't really see law or medicine as any different in this regard. People all have a basic idea of what makes you ill, what various diseases, treatments etc. are. But most people don't understand the intricacies of the endocrine system. People all have a basic understanding of the law, what kind of sentences to expect for what crimes, how court works etc. But most people don't understand <INSERT_COMPLICATED_ASPECT_OF_LAW>. You see where I am going with this.. People all have a basic idea of how the internet works (you connect to the network and data is returned to your computer), the difference between 4G and Wi-fi etc. But most people won't be able to explain the difference between RSA cryptogrpahy and eliptic curve cryptography.
  - UweSchmidt 7y ago
    My original point (which you don't seem to disagree with): It's on Hollywood to fix the misrepresentation of IT workers asap and produce some heroic characters from our field.
Supernaut 7y ago
Very true. When I'm at social occasions and I get asked what I do for a living, the subject will be hurriedly dropped when I reply that I'm a software developer. It amuses me. As you say, the whole concept seems to be so far outside of most people's frame of reference, that they have literally nothing to say on the subject. The lack of intellectual curiosity in the general populace is dismaying to me, but it was ever thus.
- world32 7y ago
  > the whole concept seems to be so far outside of most people's frame of reference What? Are you living in the same world as me? Pretty much every industry apart from manual labour or craftsmanship related work uses software. If you work in an office chances you spend most of your time using software. Then people go home and play on their smartphones which connect to back-end API servers developed by software engineers or stream films of netflix, also developed by software engineers.
  - Supernaut 7y ago
    You completely missed my point. I wasn't suggesting that the average person doesn't utilise software on a day to day basis. I was agreeing with the author of the post above mine, who pointed out that to most people, "any kind of computing device is a black box built on magic". They have absolutely no idea how their devices work, and neither do they care to find out.
    - interfixus 7y ago
      The author of the post above yours absolutely concur. Everybody uses software. Few have even a basic conception of how it works.

UweSchmidt 7y ago

Not sure if that's true. Legal minutiae and latin diseases are at least as opaque to people as software code, the actual work likely less glamorous than programming.

world32 7y ago
Yeah I don't really see law or medicine as any different in this regard. People all have a basic idea of what makes you ill, what various diseases, treatments etc. are. But most people don't understand the intricacies of the endocrine system. People all have a basic understanding of the law, what kind of sentences to expect for what crimes, how court works etc. But most people don't understand <INSERT_COMPLICATED_ASPECT_OF_LAW>. You see where I am going with this.. People all have a basic idea of how the internet works (you connect to the network and data is returned to your computer), the difference between 4G and Wi-fi etc. But most people won't be able to explain the difference between RSA cryptogrpahy and eliptic curve cryptography.
- UweSchmidt 7y ago
  My original point (which you don't seem to disagree with): It's on Hollywood to fix the misrepresentation of IT workers asap and produce some heroic characters from our field.

Supernaut 7y ago

Very true. When I'm at social occasions and I get asked what I do for a living, the subject will be hurriedly dropped when I reply that I'm a software developer. It amuses me. As you say, the whole concept seems to be so far outside of most people's frame of reference, that they have literally nothing to say on the subject. The lack of intellectual curiosity in the general populace is dismaying to me, but it was ever thus.

world32 7y ago
> the whole concept seems to be so far outside of most people's frame of reference What? Are you living in the same world as me? Pretty much every industry apart from manual labour or craftsmanship related work uses software. If you work in an office chances you spend most of your time using software. Then people go home and play on their smartphones which connect to back-end API servers developed by software engineers or stream films of netflix, also developed by software engineers.
- Supernaut 7y ago
  You completely missed my point. I wasn't suggesting that the average person doesn't utilise software on a day to day basis. I was agreeing with the author of the post above mine, who pointed out that to most people, "any kind of computing device is a black box built on magic". They have absolutely no idea how their devices work, and neither do they care to find out.
  - interfixus 7y ago
    The author of the post above yours absolutely concur. Everybody uses software. Few have even a basic conception of how it works.