Putting Rollerskates on a Cow… Not Always a Great Idea

What’s the old adage?  “You can put rollerskates on a cow, and it’s still just a cow.  With rollerskates.  But it’s not always a great idea.”  Never heard of it?  Probably because I just made it up.

What am I talking about?  Some people seem to think they can just randomly decide to be in the computer programming world because it’s a “safer bet” than, say, going into business school at the moment.

And they’re wrong.

It’s a Lifestyle

Being a programmer, coder, hacker, or any other variant of the idea of creating computer software (on any level) is not something you just wake up one day and decide to do.  You can’t, even if you wanted to.  This isn’t the same as studying for 4 years at your favorite college to get a degree in Economics and go pretend you know what all those giant spreadsheets mean.

Programming is typically borne from a love of computers, an obsession with them, and a need to know more.  You start tinkering with your Operating System (probably Windows of some sort), modifying things you don’t like and figuring out workarounds for those “people are dumb, treat them that way” software design idea.

And then you realize that you can create software.  Maybe you start with HTML and websites.  Maybe it’s PHP in the form of a mashup from your favorite websites.  Or maybe you even start playing with C++ or Java.

All while in middle school, or maybe even high school.  Because you definitely know you have a love affair with computers before you go to college, and have a high level of proficiency at any number of things computer-related.

Trust Me

I’m not making this up.  Us programmers are the same people you called geeks, nerds, and whatever else when we were younger, and now we happen to be the cool kids.  It doesn’t matter if you’re 40 or 20, people put you on a higher pedestal when they know you design software, because they simply don’t understand it.

Ask “that guy” that you know about how he got into it.  He’ll tell you.

It’s Important

Why is it important?  Because programming is not just about learning how to program, the syntax, structure, and quirks of a language.  It’s not even about being qualified to cry about pointer management or laugh at people who think Internet Explorer is “the Internet”.

It’s important because programming has alot to do with how you think.  How you approach situations, analyze them, and segment them into solution-oriented tasks.  How you continually test your code, trying to account for every possible outcome, and include contingencies for any and all failures.

There’s a reason why people are called “Software Engineers” and not “Software Artists”.

Read More

If you come across a scientific analysis of programming or how programmers work, take the time to read it.  Because current findings are that programmers are not just Engineers, but they’re also artists, despite what I said three sentences ago.

Programming requires the massive analytical processes of an Engineer, but it also requires a high level of finesse, creativity, and “out of the box” thinking typically associated with artists.

This means you need both sides of your brain when you are writing your Pizza Hut Ordering System hack.

My Point

So here’s my point:  these kids may go to school thinking they can just graduate with a Computer Science degree, be programmers, and make lots of money in a secure job.  They may even accomplish that.

But they’ll never be true programmers.  They’ll probably hate their jobs.  And they’ll definitely never do anything great or revolutionary.

True programmers, the ones that change the world, do it not for the money, even though it’s nice to have.  They do it because they love it.  These are the people who have full-time jobs and multiple side projects, always hoping one day to run their own company or get a research grant to do what they want, on their own time.

Some of the best programmers of today and of yore don’t even have degrees.

How is having a degree, when you’re the wrong type of person, going to make things better?

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