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by ewiewi 2894 days ago
"Code monkeys" feels pretty derogatory when talking about people just doing the job they are paid for.

It's especially unnecessary in a thread like this one where OP is doubting his skills and choices, and looking for help/direction.
2 comments
pure-awesome 2894 days ago
I think the way that abledon used it here is fine. He wasn't saying "everyone else is a code monkey", he was saying "we are all code monkeys" himself included.

In this context, it might actually help OP to relax a bit - the message is "Don't worry, you don't have to be a programming contest winner in order to work as a programmer. Many programming jobs are much lower stress and lower cognitive load than that", and abledon's description certainly matches my own programming job more than, e.g. what was described in the other "What was it like to be a software engineer at NeXT?" post on HN.

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EADGBE 2893 days ago
Exactly. You must ask yourself what you want from this. If it's a secure-ish job, good pay, and relatively low-stress it's pretty easy to find.

If it's The Social Network style code-bro'ing, coding the cure to cancer, etc; well that's pretty easy to find too.

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MaxBarraclough 2893 days ago
At the risk of mirroring pure-awesome's comment: we could say the use of the word 'just' is derogatory, but it doesn't make sense to deny the distinction it draws.

There's a difference between a mechanical engineer, and a car technician. There's a difference between serious algorithmic work, and code-monkey work. One is more demanding than the other.

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