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you're far better off knowing a little bit about code, and a lot about money, business or journalism, than vice-versa. Has anybody else actually read a biograp

you're far better off knowing a little bit about code, and a lot about money, business or journalism, than vice-versa. Has anybody else actually read a biography of Bill Gates? [1] Bill Gates was a hacker before he knew anything about money or business. Wikipedia: After his [high school] administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success." At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor... ...Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it... MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success... ...During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit. Gates is not an isolated example. Who founded Apple Computer? Hackers. (Yes, Steve Jobs may be more famous as a manager than as a hacker, but in the early days he built stuff, too.) Google: Founded by computer scientists. Yahoo, ditto. eBay: founded by a programmer. Jeff Bezos of Amazon: comp sci degree. You're better off knowing more journalism than programming? That's funny. Journalism is in flames, with senior reporters losing jobs by the score. One of the big reasons for this is that a lot of the money in newspaper publishing came from classified ads, and this money has been sucked away by a tiny company called Craigslist, founded by... a software engineer and comp sci major from my alma mater, Craig Newmark, a man with no background in journalism! You are correct, though: Most people would agree that these folks are no longer best described as programmers. Society agrees that "programmer" is a word for assembly-line workers with no demonstrated creative powers, just as "hacker" is a word for 13-year-old script kiddies with criminal intent. Which is why many programmers are smart enough to come up with a new job title and/or a broader skill set after a few years on the job. --- [1] Recommended: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Somewhat dated, but the dated bits are some of the most fun.

timr 18y ago
I've read about three different biographies about Bill Gates. But, again: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos et al. did not become famous from writing code. They may have written code at some point, but it isn't what made them successful. They made their fortunes by doing other things that occasionally drew on their technical skills. The difference between you and I, is that you look at these successful people, and want to expand the definition of "programmer" to include them, because they once did some programming. I think that's silly. Programmers are the guys who work for these successful businessmen, cranking out code from 9 to 5. Guys like Gates and Bezos have job descriptions that are far more expansive and influential than that of even the most senior software engineers. (Oh...for the record? Knowledge of journalism would serve a lot of startups well in their eternal search for PR. The industry of print journalism may be dying, but the craft is alive and well.)
- vlad 18y ago
  They may have written code at some point, but it isn't what made them successful. They made their fortunes by doing other things that occasionally drew on their technical skills. Like what? Raising horses and starting a petting zoo? The people you mentioned (Gates, Bezos, and others) became successful because they were technical, and not just occasionally.
jd 18y ago
Also Recommended: Gates, by Manes and Andrews. It doesn't score high on a literary scale but it really captures the thrill of starting a company. It also covers the partnerships between MS and Apple without passing judgment.
jimbokun 18y ago
"Society agrees that "programmer" is a word for assembly-line workers with no demonstrated creative powers, just as "hacker" is a word for 13-year-old script kiddies with criminal intent. Which is why many programmers are smart enough to come up with a new job title and/or a broader skill set after a few years on the job." So, maybe a more productive discussion than "what should i do for a career instead of programming?" would be "how can i get a more respectable job title?"

timr 18y ago

I've read about three different biographies about Bill Gates. But, again: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos et al. did not become famous from writing code. They may have written code at some point, but it isn't what made them successful. They made their fortunes by doing other things that occasionally drew on their technical skills. The difference between you and I, is that you look at these successful people, and want to expand the definition of "programmer" to include them, because they once did some programming. I think that's silly. Programmers are the guys who work for these successful businessmen, cranking out code from 9 to 5. Guys like Gates and Bezos have job descriptions that are far more expansive and influential than that of even the most senior software engineers. (Oh...for the record? Knowledge of journalism would serve a lot of startups well in their eternal search for PR. The industry of print journalism may be dying, but the craft is alive and well.)

vlad 18y ago
They may have written code at some point, but it isn't what made them successful. They made their fortunes by doing other things that occasionally drew on their technical skills. Like what? Raising horses and starting a petting zoo? The people you mentioned (Gates, Bezos, and others) became successful because they were technical, and not just occasionally.

jd 18y ago

Also Recommended: Gates, by Manes and Andrews. It doesn't score high on a literary scale but it really captures the thrill of starting a company. It also covers the partnerships between MS and Apple without passing judgment.

jimbokun 18y ago

"Society agrees that "programmer" is a word for assembly-line workers with no demonstrated creative powers, just as "hacker" is a word for 13-year-old script kiddies with criminal intent. Which is why many programmers are smart enough to come up with a new job title and/or a broader skill set after a few years on the job." So, maybe a more productive discussion than "what should i do for a career instead of programming?" would be "how can i get a more respectable job title?"