How to lose friends and be influenced by people
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/irm-blog/theory-p-the-philosophy-of-managing-programmers-4993
An essay on managing programmers, containing choice phrases such as:
First, I deliberately avoided the term "Software Engineer" because this would imply the use of a scientific method to programming. Regardless of how one feels about the profession, this is hardly the case. Basically, the programmer's task is to convert human understandable specifications into machine understandable instructions. From this perspective, a programmer can best be characterized as a translator. Unfortunately, such a delineation chafes people in this profession. It is not the intention of this paper to insult or demean programmers, but rather to put their position into proper perspective.
Someone needs to examine the training behind Software Engineering. There's more discipline there than in, say, building a bridge. To characterise programming as "converting human understandable specifications into machine understandable instructions" is about as meaningful as characterising project management as "telling people to perform tasks."
To outsiders, programmers are viewed as a sort of inner-circle of magicians who speak a rather cryptic language aimed at impressing others, as well as themselves. Such verbosity may actually mask some serious character flaws in their personality. Speaking in a foreign language may be amusing to a listener for awhile, but will inevitably alienate people over time.
The same is true of mathematicians, economists, medical professionals, in fact anyone who is involved in any technical field will have their own jargon. Management have their own jargon too, despite the lack of any technical depth to the role.
It is well known that programmers generally abhor organization and discipline. Their desks are often littered with stacks of paper and other debris.
The clutter on the desk is usually an indication that the programmer is focussed on the abstract world, with the concrete world involving paper and other archaic constructs of the 19th century workplace merely getting in the way.
Without basic organization and discipline, programmers will become mentally lazy.
I'll just leave that there for the reader to play with. Replace "programmers" with any other group of workers. Does the sentence have any more or less meaning?
An essay on managing programmers, containing choice phrases such as:
First, I deliberately avoided the term "Software Engineer" because this would imply the use of a scientific method to programming. Regardless of how one feels about the profession, this is hardly the case. Basically, the programmer's task is to convert human understandable specifications into machine understandable instructions. From this perspective, a programmer can best be characterized as a translator. Unfortunately, such a delineation chafes people in this profession. It is not the intention of this paper to insult or demean programmers, but rather to put their position into proper perspective.
Someone needs to examine the training behind Software Engineering. There's more discipline there than in, say, building a bridge. To characterise programming as "converting human understandable specifications into machine understandable instructions" is about as meaningful as characterising project management as "telling people to perform tasks."
To outsiders, programmers are viewed as a sort of inner-circle of magicians who speak a rather cryptic language aimed at impressing others, as well as themselves. Such verbosity may actually mask some serious character flaws in their personality. Speaking in a foreign language may be amusing to a listener for awhile, but will inevitably alienate people over time.
The same is true of mathematicians, economists, medical professionals, in fact anyone who is involved in any technical field will have their own jargon. Management have their own jargon too, despite the lack of any technical depth to the role.
It is well known that programmers generally abhor organization and discipline. Their desks are often littered with stacks of paper and other debris.
The clutter on the desk is usually an indication that the programmer is focussed on the abstract world, with the concrete world involving paper and other archaic constructs of the 19th century workplace merely getting in the way.
Without basic organization and discipline, programmers will become mentally lazy.
I'll just leave that there for the reader to play with. Replace "programmers" with any other group of workers. Does the sentence have any more or less meaning?