What profession is coding like?

[Greg Utas]

My tennis pro asked this, guessing that it would be similar to being a mathematician. I said that was only one aspect, that more often it was like being an engineer, architect, detective, or lawyer. What would you have said?

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[RickZeeland]

It's like self-flagellation :-\

[Mircea Neacsu]

Artist :-D The Art of Computer Programming[^]

Mircea

[honey the codewitch]

It's too often like being a janitor.

Real programmers use butterflies

[Slacker007]

honey the codewitch wrote:

It's too often like being a janitor.

that missed a spot, here and there.

[PIEBALDconsult]

It's like nothing else. At best it's like being a composer or playwrite, but not really.

[Marc Clifton]

Part time sanitation engineer, part time lion tamer, part time priest, part time vampire, part time snake charmer, part time psychologist. Depends on what shit code you're working on for a project you inherited, which uses some front-end framework you know nothing about, so you have to pray a lot and suck the blood out of SO and otherwise charm the code into working while appeasing management.

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[Greg Utas]

But we dress it up and call it refactoring. :)

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[Slacker007]

Yeah, experience in the dark arts is certainly a must for our kind. :thumbsup:

[raddevus]

Archaeologist -- I dig through the layers of old cities (Business Logic & obsolete code) to find civilizations, old clay pots & bones trapped under the heaps of dust and debris.

[raddevus]

I used to call myself Data Janitor, Manager: "We need clean-up on aisle three. Yeah, some kid just threw up there." :laugh:

[Vivi Chellappa]

Drain cleaner. Quite a bit of crap has slowly accumulated over time in production code. Suddenly, the flow, instead of gurgling through the cruddy* pipes, comes to a dead stop. Somebody has to get in and clean out the gunk. That is the job that falls to the programmer tasked with making the system work again, perhaps with new requirements thrown in to make things more difficult. * Now you know why database commands are referred to as CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete)!😂😂😂

[Lost User]

I'd have pointed out that math is more exciting :thumbsup:

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

[Gary R Wheeler]

It's somewhere mid-range between being a Michaelangelo apologist sculptor and an herbal proctologist.

Software Zen: delete this;

[Jacquers]

There are so many areas... there is game development, business apps, mobile apps, scientific apps, etc. So you'll get many valid answers depending on the area. Scientist, artist, magician, builder, engineer, etc. :)

[Super Lloyd]

it's sedentary work. it requires continuous self motivated learning. Other than that it's like being a machine whisperer....

A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!

[Wizard of Sleeves]

There is a reason my title is Wizard.

Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.

[5teveH]

Builder. We get to build new stuff - and are then lumbered with the maintenance and alterations. Sometimes, (if we are lucky), we get to knock it all down and start again. But most of the time we battle to tack on extensions to inadequate foundations.

[den2k88]

It's like being a sculptor. You hammer, chisel away, measure and try to figure out how to get the shape you want from the material you have. All the while sweating and swearing.

GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

[Richard Deeming]

Just don't Google what "Wizard's Sleeve" means! :laugh:

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"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer