

Do you get offended when people think you are a programmer? - amichail

Isn't it like people thinking that a novelist is literally a writer?  And might be willing to write a novel based on their ideas if they share the profits with him/her?
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TomOfTTB
I don't mean this as a dig, honestly I don't, but if you're walking around
life getting offended by things as small as that you should probably re-
evaluate some things. Getting offended by something, at its root, is just a
way to make people feel bad. Either just you (if the person meant to offend
you) or you and the other person (if they didn't). Either way, it causes
nothing but pain.

That's ok because it's an emotion with purpose in that it drives you to act. I
am offended by the conditions in many African countries so I donate to those
charities. I am offended by the jokes that person is telling so I don't hang
around them anymore.

But if you are getting offended at something like this, where no action can
fix it, than you're just causing yourself undue pain.

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thomasswift
I get silently offended when people think I'm a computer repairman and that is
what I went to school for.

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sjs382
And others get offended when I refute that exact same thing by saying "Nope,
I'm not a computer janitor." :)

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jeeringmole
Hmmm....

Edsger Dijkstra described himself as a "humble programmer" in his Turing
lecture
([http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EW...](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD340.html)).
Don Knuth categorizes his contributions in three groups: "As a researcher...
As a university professor... And as a programmer..." (<http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/bio.dvi>). Joseph Weizenbaum's New York Times
obituary headline called him a "Famed Programmer"
([http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/world/europe/13weizenbaum....](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/world/europe/13weizenbaum.html)).
Tony Hoare's description of his work on implementing Algol includes this: "I
eventually married Jill, the other programmer who came to work on the same
project" ([http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/3/21782-an-interview-
with...](http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/3/21782-an-interview-with-car-
hoare/fulltext) \-- ACM access required).

Maybe one day if I work very hard and am very lucky people will think I am a
programmer, too.

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lucumo
No, why would I be? I _am_ a programmer. You can call it a "developer" or
words like that, but to me that sounds like title inflation.

~~~
nailer
I like coder or designer or business guy. 'Programmer' seems a bit formal.
What I do is design and code and run a business.

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gaius
There's nothing wrong with being a ghostwriter, or a session musician for that
matter.

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anc2020
I am a programmer and I want to be one. Unlike "web designer", this is the
first time I've come across negative feelings to the term "programmer" and I
can't really see why (if you want to insult a programmer call them a code
monkey).

What title would you prefer over programmer?

~~~
Jerdak
Imperial code magistrate.

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alex_c
Absolutely. If anyone ever refers to me as anything less than a ninja rockstar
hacker, I never speak to them again.

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dkarl
It sounds like you are inventing ways to put yourself above other people.
There is no title that guarantees that you do good work. Ovid was a writer,
Tolstoy was a writer, James Joyce was a writer, Thomas Pynchon is a writer,
and none of them would be offended to be called a writer, even though there
are multitudes of talentless scribblers who have never completed a novel (and
many talentless scribblers who _have_ completed novels -- so I'm not sure why
"novelist" is any better than "writer.")

So why should you be offended at being called a programmer? There are people
ignorant enough to think that "programmer" places an upper bound on your
talent and accomplishments, but there are also people ignorant enough to think
that writing is an easy task that requires no talent. If you want to impress
such people, allow me to suggest that you rely on your clothes and hairstyle
and just be vague about what you do for a living. Such people will be even
more impressed if they think you do nothing at all.

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hvs
Most people outside of the tech industry have no more idea of what I do other
than "he works with computers." I've long since given up trying to explain it
to them.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I've started telling people I'm a database administrator just to pre-emptively
ward off "will you check why my computer is so slow?" questions.

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darkxanthos
Why would someone get offended by that? Does programmer equate to only codes
for $ or something?

~~~
amichail
Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, it does.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I don't really understand why that would carry any stigma. I mean, do we hate
doctors who are only in the medical field because it pays well?

~~~
nailer
Personally, yes, I do, particularly if they insist on using honorary titles.

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mronge
No. Who cares, there are bigger things to worry about.

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mechanical_fish
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545530>

_Sometimes "programmer" carries too strong a connotation of "code monkey". I
find it best to just avoid places where this is true._

~~~
anamax
> Sometimes "programmer" carries too strong a connotation of "code monkey".

You write that like code monkey is a bad thing.

> I find it best to just avoid places where this is true.

It is good to avoid places that look down on code monkeys.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Well, sure, okay. I'm quite happy to be called a code monkey by someone who
respects what we code monkeys do. ;)

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ganley
Not at all. I think about the end of The Fountainhead, when Roark's
accomplishment is symbolized by the sign that says "Howard Roark: Architect,"
and I think about what that sign would read for me. I've never come up with
anything better than Programmer - better in the sense that it conveys what I
do in a way that people understand. Anyone who understands deeply enough to
care about the distinction will probably dig deeper anyway.

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jpedrosa
Software developer is a broad term as well. ;-)

And the last bastion of respect, the software engineer is not without its
enterprise-ish feel.

Researcher seems cooler, but it's all about feeling good and self-esteem in
the end. :-)

What about the designers, web designers, front-end engineers? Does it piss
them off being called a programmer every now and then?

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adelle
You think "programmer" is bad. Try "Visual Basic Programmer" or "PHP
Programmer". That kind of stigma can never be erased.

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CraigBuchek
As opposed to what? Developer? As a developer, I don't really see that much of
a distinction, or care about it.

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noodle
not really. i don't tend to get offended at this by default because most
people who say this type of thing just don't know any better.

i might get annoyed if someone was doing it on purpose with the intent to get
under my skin or something.

~~~
amichail
It's not entirely their fault. There are people after all who write code for
money. So it's not too much of a stretch to think they might be willing to
write code if you share with them any resulting profits.

How many people would be willing to write a novel based on your ideas for
money? How many would be willing to write a novel based on your ideas for a
share of profits?

~~~
EvanK
Enough of them that they have their own term -- ghostwriters.

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darwinw
I call myself code simian all the time. I am beautiful no matter what you say!

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eli
No.

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nunespascal
No, I am proud of it.

