I disagree with the three main points that this article expounds (and I find all three arrogant and patronising). The first thing I disagree with is the idea t

I disagree with the three main points that this article expounds (and I find all three arrogant and patronising). The first thing I disagree with is the idea that programmers are not all 'programmers'. My Dad is a civil engineer to everyone except other civil engineers and a guy who drives a truck is a driver as much as a guy who drives a rally car. What's the problem? Every term, especially those of specialised subjects, has both general and specific forms. It is neither insulting nor a gross simplification to describe yourself as a programmer to a non-programmer despite the fact that few of us would refer to ourselves with that exact term when discussing our work with another programmer. Programmer → games programmer → graphics programmer → shader programmer: all programmers. Programmer → server programmer → database programmer → Non-SQL (Couch DB) specialist: all programmers. What would the shader programmer call herself when talking to the Couch DB programmer? Would they even know what the other did? Why does it matter that they have to go back up the chain to find the most specific term that they both understand. Secondly, I disagree with the idea that we are not doing the same fundamental job. The word programmer does not 'cover a stupendously large spectrum of abilities and skill levels' that's a programmer with a superiority complex asserting his own status and the complexity of his career. Both the guy who designs the hardware and the guy who comes out to fix a broken socket at the back of your unit is called a TV Engineer as they are both dealing with the internals of a TV. Thirdly I disagree that our job is difficult and therefore we are somehow superior—an idea, sadly, that this article reeks of. We deal with data and algorithms that manipulate data. Its not that difficult, which is why so many people do it for a living. If it paid more I'm sure many of us would be dealing with Tar McAdam and telling the world how extremely difficult it was to get it perfectly flat.