The breed vs. the stereotype
When you tell someone you are a software developer or programmer, they instantly get a geeky/nerdy picture of you: a guy/girl with glasses, not so good-looking, with no sense of humour or imagination, living in their own world, sitting at home with no interest in the outdoor world. That’s the stereotyped version of us.
Most of our breed of people are interesting, with huge imagination, outdoor types who like to party and socialise. We need to socialise with other people in order to exchange ideas, get new ones, or even see the feedback of our friends for the idea we plan to develop.
Imagining things
We must have imagination, since we work in an abstract world, trying to put an idea into practice in the real world. We have to look forward to every idea we come up with, think it through in every detail, so we know if it’s possible to do it. We imagine whole processes from start to end, whether it’s for developing our own idea or working on a project.
Partying
We love to party, hang out with our friends, meet new people, experience new things. We need to feel free and careless even for a few hours a day, to stop thinking of work and relax. And most of the time the greatest ideas come when we are enjoying ourselves and not thinking about the problem we are stuck on. It comes like a blast, like a thunderbolt — in seconds the solution appears in your mind and you know it will work. After this happens, we are eager to go home and try it, which usually works. However, if we don’t try it right away, it keeps playing in our mind like a broken record player, and we are not such fun company any more.
The sun
What most people don’t know is that we, programmers, need a lot of sun, since we are deep down in our monitors for hours, concentrating and working. Maybe that’s why most of us wear glasses, not just for vision improvement but also for protection. So we really like and appreciate the sun. Even a short walk on a sunny day helps a lot. We are inspired instantly! And as I’ll explain further down, inspiration is the most important thing in our work.
The art of programming
As artists need inspiration to work on their masterpiece, we also need that type of inspiration to work on our art. And yes, I can definitely call it an art. The definition of art says every expression or application of human imagination and creativeness, acquired by experiences, observations or study, is called art. Since we, as programmers, do exactly this — create something that came out as an idea in our or someone’s imagination, using our knowledge and skills, and through our creativity get it through the finish line into a beautiful software masterpiece — we can call ourselves artists. So, as we agree that we are artists, we need inspiration to make our masterpiece. In real life, and all programmers will agree with me on this, we can be stuck on a problem for hours or days and still not resolve it. But if we are inspired, we can solve the puzzle in minutes. A lot of things inspire us: listening to music, playing games, especially playing games, hanging out, watching movies and learning about new technology achievements in the world.
The circle of life
So, to conclude this topic, we programmers are definitely a different breed of people, different from the stereotypes surrounding our profession. We love to do all the things people from other professions also do. Maybe our minds are set to work a little differently, since we tend to connect everything we know into one solution, idea, logical conclusion or opinion on some topic. But we are still fun at parties, usually with a great sense of humour. Give us a chance and you’ll see the real people behind the apps you like so much. Maybe we can even help you with a logical solution or advice for your problem as well.