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Programming explained to non-programmers: What we do, how we do it and why some children end up in the intensive care

Some time ago I was asked by my aunt to do some job counseling in middle school. When I was looking for ideas how to approach the topic I found that article. I liked it so here’s reblog 😉
And I love the comparison between waterfall methodology and agile mindset. And “clean daughter” example 🙂

Technology Conversations

I am often asked by non-programmers to explain what I do and how I do it. Following is my answer.

I am a programmer and, like many others in my profession, I am a nerd.

“Wonderful thing with nerds: they’re enthusiasts. Not having a life means you get to love things with a passion and nobody bothers you about it.” – John Burnside

Many think that computers are really smart. They are not. They are as dumb as it can be. What they excel at is crunching numbers very quickly. They do not know how to think or reason. They do exactly what we tell them.

The job of a programmer is to translate real-world problems into numbers that computers can understand. A computer is like a child that will do everything you tell him to do. What you want him to do is irrelevant; the only thing that matters…

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