{"id":134,"date":"2004-05-07T17:02:51","date_gmt":"2004-05-07T23:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/?p=134"},"modified":"2004-05-07T17:02:51","modified_gmt":"2004-05-07T23:02:51","slug":"arrogance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/archives\/134","title":{"rendered":"Arrogance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, the arrogance of software developers. (I’m a software developer myself, so I figure I have carte blanche<\/em> to take aim at the foibles of my profession.) Why, just the other day, I reviewed a legal document, and pointed out several places where I thought it could be improved (wording, some incorrect references, and whatnot). Now, why do I think that I have any business looking over a legal document (a real lawyer will check it over too)? Well, why shouldn’t I? I think that most developers have a couple of the characteristics\/behaviors listed below, and that these can lead to such arrogance.<\/p>\n

1. Asking questions<\/p>\n

Many developers have no fear, even take pride, in asking good, difficult questions about technical topics<\/a>. Asking such questions can become a habit. A developer may ask a question, and feel comfortable about it, when he\/she is entirely out of his\/her depth.<\/p>\n

2. Attention to detail<\/p>\n

Developers tend to be capable of focusing on one thing to the exclusion of all else. This often means that, whatever the idea that comes along, a developer will focus on it exclusively. Such focus may turn up issues that were missed by the less attentive, or it may just be nit picking. (Finding small issues isn’t nitpicking when one is developing–it’s pre-emptive bug fixing.)<\/p>\n

3. Curiosity and the desire to learn<\/p>\n

Most developers are curious. In part because computers are so new, and in part because software technologies change so rapidly, hackers have to be curious, or they’re left behind, coding Cobol<\/a> (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). This sometimes spills out into other portions of their lives, tweaking their bodies<\/a> or the mechanics of an IPO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Know something about something difficult<\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah, most developers are not on the bleeding<\/a> edge<\/a> of software. But telling most people what they do usually causes some kind of ‘ooh’ or raised eyebrows conveying some level of expectation of the difficulty of software development. (Though this reaction is a lot less universal than it was during the dotcom boom–nowadays, it could just as easily be an ‘ooh’ of sympathy to an out of work .) Because developers are aware that what they do often isn’t that difficult (it’s just being curious, asking questions, and being attentive), it’s easy to assume that other professions usually thought difficult are similarly overblown.<\/p>\n

Now, this arrogance surfaces in other realms; for example, business plans. I am realizing just how far I fall short in that arena. I’ve had a few business plans, but they often fall prey to the problem that the gnomes had in South Park<\/a>: no way to get from action to profit. I’m certainly not alone<\/a> in this either. <\/p>\n

In the same vein of arrogance, I used to make fun of marketing people, because everything they do is so vague and ill-defined. I always want things nailed down. But, guess what, the real world is vague and ill-defined. (Just try finding out something simple, like how many people are driving Fords<\/a>, how women use the internet, or how many people truly, truly love Richie Valens. You appear to be reduced to interviewing segments of the population<\/a> and extrapolating.) And if you ask people what they want, they’ll lie to you. Not because they want to lie, but because they don’t really know what they want. <\/p>\n

I guess this is a confession of arrogance on the part of one software developer and an apology to all the marketroids I’ve snickered at over the years (oops, I just did it again :). (I promise to keep myself on a shorter leash in the future.) Thanks for going out into the real world and delivering back desires, which I can try to refine into something I can really build. It’s harder than it looks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, the arrogance of software developers. (I’m a software developer myself, so I figure I have carte blanche to take aim at the foibles of my profession.) Why, just the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}