this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
189 points (95.7% liked)

Programming

16760 readers
111 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Rules

  • Follow the programming.dev instance rules
  • Keep content related to programming in some way
  • If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities [email protected]



founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

As someone who spends time programming, I of course find myself in conversations with people who aren't as familiar with it. It doesn't happen all the time, but these discussions can lead to people coming up with some pretty wild misconceptions about what programming is and what programmers do.

  • I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences. So, I thought it would be interesting to ask.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 130 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

That just because I'm a programmer that must mean I'm a master of anything technology related and can totally help out with their niche problems.

"Hey computer guy, how do I search for new channels on my receiver?"

"Hey computer guy, my excel spreadsheet is acting weird"

"My mobile data isn't working. Fix this."

My friend was a programmer and served in the army, people ordered him to go fix a sattelite. He said he has no idea how but they made him try anyways. It didn't work and everyone was disappointed.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 months ago

And everyone expects you to know how to make phone apps.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 months ago

He said he has no idea how but they made him try anyways.

Uh, I've been present when such a thing happened. Not in the military, though. Guy should install driver on a telephone system, despite not being a software guy (he was the guy running the wires). Result: About as bad as expected. The company then sent two specialists on Saturday/Sunday to re-install everything.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ironically, most of those things are true, but only with effort. We are better than most people at solving technical problems, or even problems in general, because being a programmer requires the person to be good at research, reading documentation, creative problem solving, and following instructions. Apparently those aren't traits that are common among average people, which is baffling to me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Sometimes I'll solve a computer problem for someone in an area that I know nothing about by just googling it. After telling them that all I had to do was google the problem and follow the instructions they'll respond by saying that they wouldn't know what to google.

Just being experienced at searching the web and having the basic vocabulary to express your problems can get you far in many situations, and a fair bit of people don't have that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

I used to get a lot of people asking for help with their printer. No, just because I am a software developer doesn’t mean I know how why your printer isn’t working. But, yes, I can probably help you…

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

My neighbour asked me to take a look at her refrigerator because it wasn't working. I am a software developer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

"Sometimes when somebody called it shows up up here but normally it covers the screen and I can see the name." Like I have no idea how those businesses fix people's phones, when they hear this kind of instructions. Makes me tear my hair out.