My undergraduate degree is in computer science. I discovered during my college days that I love the pursuit of hacking as a sort of art form; I love writing Lisp and I love making beautiful things. I don't love, at all, working as one coder among 100 on a big project; I don't like implementing someone else's ideas.
So I'm not a programmer by trade, if that's what this question means. I took another of my passions that I did enjoy performing on more of a mercenary basis, and went to law school, and am presently a very happy lawyer. I write appellate briefs all day in a quiet office and when I come home in the evenings, I unwind by putting some music on and writing something that'll never make any money or do anything except make me happy with how beautiful and elegant it is.
I'm not committed against the idea of writing code as my trade, but I'm happy that I don't have to do it unless and until the right opportunity comes along. Maybe it never will, and I'll go on like this forever---that seems most likely, and would also be just fine with me. It will mean that I never let a great artistic love be ruined by stamping out CRUD database apps all day until I couldn't bear to start emacs. (Plus, emacs is great for writing briefs in. I also think I'm the only lawyer in the Department who's ever filed a brief formatted in LaTeX. Looked great.)
I've often wondered why attorneys don't use LaTeX. Especially when you consider all of the different requirements for formatting that are required by different courts. Seems to me that you could hire someone to write the templates, and then the lawyers can stick to what they're good at.... lawyerin'
This tallies with my pet hypothesis about programmer career paths. It is commonly observed that programming is a young person's game: there are lots of teenage and twenty something programmers but fewer and fewer as you look at older and older age groups. This is sometimes blamed on age discrimination, and sometimes on the idea that programming is an exceptionally terrible career.
My hypothesis is that the "problem" with programming is that it has too much upside potential: If you learn to program, have a couple more skills than just programming and can keep your wits about you, you can find lots of business and professional opportunities... most of which carry job titles other than "programmer". You move up to "software engineer", and then you become "manager of X" or "founder of Y" or maybe you're just "the guy who does Z" where Z is something that makes money for the company, like marketing or strategic research or manufacturing operations.
The most significant piece of code I ever wrote was written when my official job title was "product engineer", which kind of means "troubleshooter". My job title and description had nothing to do with software; software just happened to be what I did all day, every day, (not to mention a fair number of nights) in order to help make the company millions of dollars by finding manufacturing bugs more quickly.
Here's the thing: no-one can make you be a manager. You might be aware of the downsides, sure, but managers aren't pressganged. So by and large, the people you find in management ranks are the people who wanted to be managers and not programmers. This is important because these people hold the budget and ultimately make hiring and firing decisions. Another factor is that angling for promotion is a full-time job in its own right. You can't do the maneuvering necessary and produce code. There just aren't enough hours in the day to schmooze at meetings and do work at a comparable rate to your peers who are mainly working.
A manager considers him or herself "successful" and looks back at their own career and doesn't see that they were perhaps a mediocre programmer themselves (or actually bad and given a promotion so they wouldn't be able to break stuff[1]). Then they look at a candidate who is still programming after 20 years and they see a "failure". That's why ageism is rife in the industry.
[1] It's very very difficult to fire someone these days. So you "promote" them sideways to get them out of the way. Problem is a couple of years later everyone has forgotten that, and their next promotion is a real one...
My title is technically "software developer", so I just use that. Most jobs nowadays seem to use "software engineer" instead.
I generally am not a fan of software engineer, because most software seems to involve a much higher level of trial and error than traditional engineering disciplines. To me, engineer implies a level of guarantee that usually can't be provide in most software systems.
In extremely critical software systems the developers are probably software engineers, such as if the presence of a single bug in your code would cost someone their life or waste billions of dollars.
I am just a graduate student, i want to code more, but in fact i don't have to code. I just have to write damn papers, i hate it. So, i am not a programmer actually
Well, I guess so, as I do write code on a regular basis. But again no, because part of me thinks "programmer" should describe someone whose job it is to produce software, and my code is not the purpose of my work. I'm a scientist: my job is to translate experimental data into meaningful statements about the systems I study. It just so happens that this requires a lot of new software! :)
Which makes me wonder how many HNers who code are what might be described as "professional software developers"? And how many write code, but only because they need to in order to accomplish the rest of their job?
(this might also be a poor framing of the question, but I don't have a better one in my head right now)
You'd probably be better off asking a more general question. Non-programmers are not likely to click a link, "Are you a programmer," while programmers are probably 10x more likely to click such a link.
It might be tacky, but it would work well-enough to just rephrase it as "How many non-programmers read HN?" and have a single voting option. We can assume that HN's uniqs/month, minus that number, are the number of programmers.
Nope. I'm a web designer and I have some interest in programing, but all I know is a little Actionscript.
I come here for the high quality discussion on the articles I do understand, and I read the occasional programming story just to see if I can get anything out of it.
When I was about 8 I got a Commadore 64 and learned how to program with the trade magazines that came with it. I hacked around on computers until about 12 or 13, at which point I cut that hobby out and tried to learn how to become "cool," whatever that meant.
About 10 years later I found Hacker News after watching a talk by Jessica Livingston and then reading Founders at Work. A few years into getting my news everyday from HN, I have learned Java, built a few programs in VB, and built a couple scripts in Ruby, and am starting to dive into Rails for a startup that I'm doing some initial modeling/planning for.
When I am with "business people," I become the "tech guy." When I'm with a bunch of alpha-geeks, like at Founders and Hackers the other week, I am suddenly a "business guy." Seems I wear a different hat depending on the crowd.
I think I enjoy the challenge of both startup marketing, sales, etc., but also really like spending time finding programming solutions to the business problems we have. Like the other day I wrote a Ruby script to help automate a process that they were doing manually where I work. It saved the team hours and hours of busy-work every month, and felt really good to build. So it was trivial to many here, but solved a problem and forced me to learn more about Ruby. And I liked it.
Anyway, I guess I'm saying that I see business in general as a big exercise in problem-solving, and I enjoy that process immensely. Whether I happen to be using a Ruby script or my background in sales/marketing to do it, I don't care. I like the creativity and stimulation that come with both.
I am a programmer. I am not a developer. I write little programs and tools that make my job and my peers' jobs easier. I write bits of software for fun when tinkering. I like playing with different programming languages.
I do not do well in IDEs. I don't collaborate well with developers on large projects. I think part of it is because developers have a mindset I don't usually find myself in.
I'm a systems and information security guy by trade, though. People like me are in a strange spot where we usually have to know how to automate and code, but we're not expected to develop applications for the public to use.
even if you can program you'll generally earn more money and respect if you call yourself something else, like manager or entrepreneur or software engineer or architect. unfortunate but often true.
A lot of the commenters seem to be programmers by passion but not by trade. I'm both. I got a BS in Computer Engineering but have always been a programmer at heart so I took a job 3 years ago working from home developing desktop applications in C#.
I came to Hacker News after I heard it mentioned in hushed conversation on reddit about alternative news aggregators. I enjoy HN because it seems that content is a higher priority than karma.
Actually its kinda funny:
Ever since I started a company with a friend of mine a year ago, I've been calling myself a programmer, even though, officially, we're both co-CEOs of our little startup.
Before that, when I had a day job as a programmer - I used to come up with longer descriptions and alternative titles for what I did at the firm that I worked at.
I do occasionally program stuff, even though that's not what I prefer.
I'm a sysadmin really, and to some extent, I'm sometime a dba, a network admin, a web designer, etc..
how do I call myself something without limiting myself.
Also I'm wondering how much of the HN crowd are more sysadmin than programmer.
I program in C. Also Assembly, I have programmed in CHILL also. Sometimes for fun I call myself a research engineer. When people idly ask me what I do, I tell then I grow flowers.
[+] [-] isamuel|15 years ago|reply
So I'm not a programmer by trade, if that's what this question means. I took another of my passions that I did enjoy performing on more of a mercenary basis, and went to law school, and am presently a very happy lawyer. I write appellate briefs all day in a quiet office and when I come home in the evenings, I unwind by putting some music on and writing something that'll never make any money or do anything except make me happy with how beautiful and elegant it is.
I'm not committed against the idea of writing code as my trade, but I'm happy that I don't have to do it unless and until the right opportunity comes along. Maybe it never will, and I'll go on like this forever---that seems most likely, and would also be just fine with me. It will mean that I never let a great artistic love be ruined by stamping out CRUD database apps all day until I couldn't bear to start emacs. (Plus, emacs is great for writing briefs in. I also think I'm the only lawyer in the Department who's ever filed a brief formatted in LaTeX. Looked great.)
[+] [-] el_chapitan|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patio11|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mechanical_fish|15 years ago|reply
My hypothesis is that the "problem" with programming is that it has too much upside potential: If you learn to program, have a couple more skills than just programming and can keep your wits about you, you can find lots of business and professional opportunities... most of which carry job titles other than "programmer". You move up to "software engineer", and then you become "manager of X" or "founder of Y" or maybe you're just "the guy who does Z" where Z is something that makes money for the company, like marketing or strategic research or manufacturing operations.
The most significant piece of code I ever wrote was written when my official job title was "product engineer", which kind of means "troubleshooter". My job title and description had nothing to do with software; software just happened to be what I did all day, every day, (not to mention a fair number of nights) in order to help make the company millions of dollars by finding manufacturing bugs more quickly.
[+] [-] gaius|15 years ago|reply
A manager considers him or herself "successful" and looks back at their own career and doesn't see that they were perhaps a mediocre programmer themselves (or actually bad and given a promotion so they wouldn't be able to break stuff[1]). Then they look at a candidate who is still programming after 20 years and they see a "failure". That's why ageism is rife in the industry.
[1] It's very very difficult to fire someone these days. So you "promote" them sideways to get them out of the way. Problem is a couple of years later everyone has forgotten that, and their next promotion is a real one...
[+] [-] watty|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sbov|15 years ago|reply
I generally am not a fan of software engineer, because most software seems to involve a much higher level of trial and error than traditional engineering disciplines. To me, engineer implies a level of guarantee that usually can't be provide in most software systems.
In extremely critical software systems the developers are probably software engineers, such as if the presence of a single bug in your code would cost someone their life or waste billions of dollars.
[+] [-] s-phi-nl|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] angstrom|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ikbear|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tocomment|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajdecon|15 years ago|reply
Which makes me wonder how many HNers who code are what might be described as "professional software developers"? And how many write code, but only because they need to in order to accomplish the rest of their job?
(this might also be a poor framing of the question, but I don't have a better one in my head right now)
[+] [-] rio517|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derefr|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throw_away|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zweben|15 years ago|reply
I come here for the high quality discussion on the articles I do understand, and I read the occasional programming story just to see if I can get anything out of it.
[+] [-] mishmash|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adammichaelc|15 years ago|reply
About 10 years later I found Hacker News after watching a talk by Jessica Livingston and then reading Founders at Work. A few years into getting my news everyday from HN, I have learned Java, built a few programs in VB, and built a couple scripts in Ruby, and am starting to dive into Rails for a startup that I'm doing some initial modeling/planning for.
When I am with "business people," I become the "tech guy." When I'm with a bunch of alpha-geeks, like at Founders and Hackers the other week, I am suddenly a "business guy." Seems I wear a different hat depending on the crowd.
I think I enjoy the challenge of both startup marketing, sales, etc., but also really like spending time finding programming solutions to the business problems we have. Like the other day I wrote a Ruby script to help automate a process that they were doing manually where I work. It saved the team hours and hours of busy-work every month, and felt really good to build. So it was trivial to many here, but solved a problem and forced me to learn more about Ruby. And I liked it.
Anyway, I guess I'm saying that I see business in general as a big exercise in problem-solving, and I enjoy that process immensely. Whether I happen to be using a Ruby script or my background in sales/marketing to do it, I don't care. I like the creativity and stimulation that come with both.
[+] [-] EdsonGould|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamtj|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ax0n|15 years ago|reply
I do not do well in IDEs. I don't collaborate well with developers on large projects. I think part of it is because developers have a mindset I don't usually find myself in.
I'm a systems and information security guy by trade, though. People like me are in a strange spot where we usually have to know how to automate and code, but we're not expected to develop applications for the public to use.
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mkramlich|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] The-KG|15 years ago|reply
I came to Hacker News after I heard it mentioned in hushed conversation on reddit about alternative news aggregators. I enjoy HN because it seems that content is a higher priority than karma.
[+] [-] K3G|15 years ago|reply
Rather than code, I do machining, CAD, and design control.
[+] [-] vishaldpatel|15 years ago|reply
Before that, when I had a day job as a programmer - I used to come up with longer descriptions and alternative titles for what I did at the firm that I worked at.
Odd huh?..=)
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] anto1ne|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atomical|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicksergeant|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zafka|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] motters|15 years ago|reply
I never much liked the term "developer", since it sounds vague and wooly. I generally prefer "programmer" or "coder".
[+] [-] frou_dh|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thepumpkin1979|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ax0n|15 years ago|reply