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I felt it more a transgression to tell people I was a programmer (and I still feel uncomfortable with the label “engineer” despite having the title long enough
by eyelidlessness 4y ago
I felt it more a transgression to tell people I was a programmer (and I still feel uncomfortable with the label “engineer” despite having the title long enough to be uncomfortable saying how long). Then again art is what led me to code, I learned how to program first and foremost because the “telling people” was either too limited (no established platforms to publish music) or too tedious (tons of redundant work adding metadata to self hosted published material, then adding it to HTML as well, then updating everything to reflect any new navigation).
More than all of that though, I’ve long felt that programming computers is art. You don’t have to identify with that, but it’s a fundamentally creative pursuit. It’s full of choices and expression and compromise and imperfection. At least from my perspective, anyone who has made something that makes machines do things is qualified to claim the title “artist” if they would like to.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI have avoided saying I am a Software Engineer (except on government forms). Computer Scientist is an outright lie (no degree in CS). Maybe my working class upbringing? I generally tell people I am just a programmer. I think it sounds kind of like plumber which I like.
- eyelidlessness 4y agoYeah I definitely come at this from a working class background. And I don’t even have any pretense of CS, I learned every bit of programming I know from either personal interest or some combination of that and inspiration/pressure among peers.
- Gigachad 4y agoThis is just you. Just about every web shitter calls themselves a senior software engineer.
- eyelidlessness 4y agoThis seems needlessly meanspirited.
- sublinear 4y agoI've met plenty of "webshits" that have a degree in computer science and have been working in it for over a decade along with almost all other layers of software dev short of, say, the linux kernel. At what point are programmers allowed to just be programmers regardless of specialization, lack of it, or education?
- ggm 4y agoIf it's any consolation I am and describe myself as a computer scientist because it's what my 1982 degree was in but I am a notoriously bad programmer and for historical reasons of timing (the year after I graduated my degree qualified for B.Eng status) I am not and cannot call myself an engineer software or otherwise.
- guntherhermann 4y agoSame, from a working class background, can't really call myself "working class" anymore, but the upbringing remains. I refer to myself as a "programmer", and when speaking to people who revere what we do I explain that the majority of programmers are effectively "digital plumbers". I have a CS degree (first class, from a very respected uni) and still wouldn't class myself as a "computer scientist", I reserve that term for those who are doing research in the field
- eternalban 4y ago> the majority of programmers are effectively "digital plumbers". I don't think this is entirely true or accurate. Unless plumbing profession also has the phenomena of plumbers removing hair balls, and other junk, from pipes put in there by other plumbers .. that said, in Brazil, we did get a glimpse of working on a typical large codebase.
- Pentamerous 4y agoI like to say I'm a "Developer", or "Software Developer", and then I can describe further what I do as "creating things" for people to use. I agree 100% with you that programming is art and a vehicle for so much creativity and liberty (think net.art, code poetry, the hundred different ways to make the same function), but even then I feel that programming is just a part of the creation process. So I tend to prefer Developer
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]