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What a... strange set of complaints. It's one of those things that is so fascinating to read because I can't understand what he doesn't understand. I get the
by alex_c 16y ago
What a... strange set of complaints. It's one of those things that is so fascinating to read because I can't understand what he doesn't understand.
I get the part about arrogance and looking down on people with less knowledge or skill. There's a certain "macho" aspect to the culture that does bother me.
But I'm baffled by his confusion that people enjoy doing this outside their job. Granted, the passion to create and the enjoyment derived from it isn't shared by everyone, but it's not THAT uncommon - no one bats an eye at artists practicing their craft "in their spare time", or people who enjoy tinkering or building random stuff around the house - again, "in their spare time". It's a craft, and many people who pick up a craft because they enjoy doing it... enjoy doing it.
- jf 16y agoI was fascinated by the article because of how articulate and honest the author was about their thoughts.
- kiba 16y agoMaybe he should switch career.
- dfgdfgdfg 16y agoExactly. He compared it to accounting. This is the most common fallacy I come across day to day. People just don't understand that programming is a creative sport. Not mathematically dry as this blogger percieves. Instead of accountants discussing form 4686, programmers gathering would be more like artists gathering to discuss ideas and make art together over a weekend. People really need to start seeing programming as a creative thing. But then he's just a software engineer.
- svlla 16y agoaccounting can get pretty creative sometimes.
- slightlyoff 16y agoWait, you don't think accounting is a creative sport? Hmmm.
- devdas 16y agoAccounting is more like war than sport. Even if sport is only war with rules.
- krschultz 16y agoIt's definitely not a sport
- bdhe 16y ago> What a... strange set of complaints. It's one of those things that is so fascinating to read because I can't understand what he doesn't understand. Absolutely spot on. I wondered for a moment halfway whether it was meant to be satire. The author mentions: > I would be in lab, trying to complete whatever assignment I was doing, and there would be a bunch of CS majors around, making jokes about programming, talking about esoteric CS topics that I didn’t understand, and just being obnoxious in general. I might have just been very lucky, but I thoroughly enjoyed joking about computer science and discussing perhaps esoteric CS topics when my peers were generally hanging out doing assignments. These discussions really helped me learn more about CS beyond the rigid confines of the course and sometimes discussing these small tips and hacks are incredibly useful later on in life during job interviews.
- ericdschmidt 16y agoI agree, there's certainly nothing wrong with practicing your craft during your free time, especially if you enjoy it. But I appreciate the author's total candor. I find the mainstream "geek" culture unpalatable, myself. Of course that's not the same thing as hacker culture, or CS culture.
- okaramian 16y agoI can definitely understand how he doesn't like jerk hackers. These aren't mutually exclusive though. I know plenty of people that learn something cool (or are working on something cool) and want to show it off (these people are great). A lot of the people that are jerks have weird self confidence issues and tend to want to elevate themselves by looking down on others.