A little piece of immortality...

I got home from school and I was watching a show on the Discovery channel today about SETI. A lot of talk about communication with extraterrestrial life forms, studying their languages, what our first impressions might be, all stuff like that. I was amazed at the jobs of some of the people working on the project, really intelligent people doing outstanding work and making great discoveries. It really got me thinking about where I’m headed in life.

I want to be a software developer. I’m already working on several small projects, and I’m about to start a proper commercial one very soon when I get the capital sorted. But after watching this show, I got thinking. Everyone knows about Neil Armstrong, and I’m sure they will in a few hundred years. Same as we’ll always be taught about Newton’s laws of motion in physics, and how Thomas Crapper invented the toilet. But will we ever remember any software developers?

Maybe Bill Gates and maybe Steve Jobs will be remembered for a few hundred years, but they weren’t just programmers, they’re also fantastic businessmen. As much as we all love Linus Torvalds, Anders Hejlsberg (creator of C#, Turbo Pascal and Delphi) and Bjarne Stroustrup (god of C++), do we really think these pioneers will be remembered in 200 years time?

It frustrates me; because I know already (and I’ll probably learn more later in life) that software development is quite a time consuming and very difficult thing to do, and probably the most brain-straining task a person can do on a day to day basis (aside from maybe being a parent). But by its very nature, software development is one of those things where you can’t grasp how difficult it is, unless you’re actually in the industry yourself. Personally I don’t think Neil Armstrong has anything on Anders Hejlsberg, but the average Joe wouldn’t even know who Anders is.

Is this lack of recognition one of the driving forces that seem to make a lot of older, more experienced programmers a little frustrated at the jobs? Is it what makes them lose the passion they once had? How many of you more mature programmers are still into programming as much as you were when you we’re a freshman?

Sorry if my negative comments spoil your day. No matter what the answers I hear are, I'm still going to be a developer. I can't imagine life any other way.

Personally, I don't care whether someone remebers me or not after 100 years. What difference will it make to ME? ( I'll be a fosil by that time :D ) As long as I can maintain a decent lifestyle I am a happy man :)

Recognition is hard to come by in this business. You can spend weeks and months coding something and then debugging it for every possible situation, and then some idiot comes along and finds a simple little quirk in your software and you become "the worthless programmer". Why? Not because you didn't build it properly, or that you f-ed up the interface. You probably made it really slick and automated a lot of the simple tasks for the user. Hell... you probably spent days just making the interface "feel" good.

But now you're a scapegoat because if someone types the wrong thing into a field, your calculation is off by a 1/100th... after all the error checking and validation.

Welcome to software programming. Here are some vitamins. They'll stop you from leveling your workplace with large explosives.

OH, and I almost forgot. I don't go about this with the zeal that I used to, and I'm just getting started. I used to program on the side... now I find it a chore to finish contracts for my side business. :(

I always code for the open source community. I don't care if I get credit for the work, because that is not the point. I give to the open source community so I can take from it.

I used to want to be a software developer, but I changed my mind when I realized the true meaning of professional software development. I'm keeping it as a hobby. That doesn't mean I wouldn't do some freelance work, but I am switching my interests to mathematics and physics.

i believe software development only works if you can do it as a hobby or you own your own business and can do it when/how you want anyway.