[breckinloggins]

My story is similar. I’ve been programming nearly every day for over 35 years and don’t see myself stopping any time soon.

Occasionally someone (usually at work) will ask “why do you know that?” or “how did you learn how to do that?” (where “that” is typically something outside of my direct job responsibilities).

I’ve been programming for so long and have dabbled or seriously worked with so many parts of the computing landscape - mostly out of simple curiosity and love of craft - that I admit to being somewhat annoyed at questions like this. I have trouble connecting with the premise.

But I don’t want to offend, and it’s not my place to judge when it feels like my interlocutor works in my field simply because the money is there. So I came up with a succinct way to answer those questions.

“I like computers.”

[loloquwowndueo]

My answer is typically “I read a lot”. Not untrue - if they read what I read they’d know what I know. I’m no genius (pretty dumb actually) but I do like researching and learning new stuff, mostly by reading.

[orev]

> Occasionally someone (usually at work) will ask “why do you know that?” or “how did you learn how to do that?”

This comes up a lot from business people, and I think at least one answer is because learning to program is a master class on how to break down a problem into actionable parts, while also considering as many failure and unexpected scenarios as possible. For many business jobs, that might be a full time job for one person who focuses only on one specific area. When someone trained in programming just “gets it” right away, it can be unnerving.

I think this is one reason there can be so many disconnects between IT and Business—the stuff IT does is just so magical they can’t understand it at all, and as a result don’t care if that magic comes from a local employee, an overseas one, or an AI.

[bravesoul2]

Of course "how did you learn how to do that?" could come from a place of curiosity! There is too much in the programming landscape for anyone to even scratch the surface with their life's work.

[breckinloggins]

When this question is asked in person, though, the tone is frequently one of “WHY do you know how to do that? It’s not your job”.

The difference is easily discernible. Online, though, I do interpret it more generously.

[bombela]

I think people are often both suspicious and impressed at the same time.

Suspicious that you might be acting overconfident, a common issue in software. Impressed that you know so much.

I am your cadet, and I have a similar experience. I have also converged to saying "I like computers", and "I read the docs and datasheets".