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by jasode
3232 days ago
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This list is fine for what it is but if we want to be meta and go a level higher, we would categorize the author's perspective as "programming is a means to an end". Therefore, the article is really "21 Ideas for Software Developers Who are Paid to Solve Clients' Business Problems". Yes, that can be a valid perspective but if we already agree with that as a base premise, the 21 ideas are common sense. It's tautology. However, there is another perspective to programming which is that programming is NOT the means to an end. For some, the programming is itself the enjoyable activity. Programming is how some may self-actualize[1] and express themselves. In this case, the sentiments are reversed: any business and monetary value from programming is a side effect and the money becomes the means to an end to fund more programming. Yes, the programming-is-just-a-tool perspective outnumbers the programming-as-artistic-expression but that doesn't change the fact that both exist. You just have to be aware that if you're a "programmer-artist" you will not fit in culturally at a Big Company that requires "boring software deliverables" from you. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs |
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I don't think that keyboard part is really meaningful to anyone who claims to love programming, so it must be problem solving coupled with complex interactions between abstract idea how to solve it with concrete pecularities of programming languages, platforms, libraries, etc. The second part doesn't go anywhere whether you solve problems for Business Folks or scratch your own itch.
That means that difference between the perspectives is only who's supplying the problems. That reminds me of another distinction, namely, the one between painters and commercial illustrators (not sure if that is proper nomenclature). The path of Painter is hard and lonely, most of the painters we know today did some kind of commercial work or lived off 'grants' from philantropists. Or you can earn your paycheck doing something else and program as a hobbyist, for its own sake. I think that this is also valid programming 'culture' that exists somewhat under the radars of 'tech industry'.