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Comment by alex_c | Hacker News Reader

What a... strange set of complaints. It's one of those things that is so fascinating to read because I can't understand what he doesn't understand.

I get the part about arrogance and looking down on people with less knowledge or skill. There's a certain "macho" aspect to the culture that does bother me.

But I'm baffled by his confusion that people enjoy doing this outside their job. Granted, the passion to create and the enjoyment derived from it isn't shared by everyone, but it's not THAT uncommon - no one bats an eye at artists practicing their craft "in their spare time", or people who enjoy tinkering or building random stuff around the house - again, "in their spare time". It's a craft, and many people who pick up a craft because they enjoy doing it... enjoy doing it.

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Exactly. He compared it to accounting. This is the most common fallacy I come across day to day. People just don't understand that programming is a creative sport. Not mathematically dry as this blogger percieves. Instead of accountants discussing form 4686, programmers gathering would be more like artists gathering to discuss ideas and make art together over a weekend.

People really need to start seeing programming as a creative thing. But then he's just a software engineer.

accounting can get pretty creative sometimes.

Then you get in loads of trouble with federal authorities.

Also, tax laws change yearly, so it's not as static as some might believe it to be.

Wait, you don't think accounting is a creative sport? Hmmm.

Accounting is more like war than sport. Even if sport is only war with rules.

It's definitely not a sport

> What a... strange set of complaints. It's one of those things that is so fascinating to read because I can't understand what he doesn't understand.

Absolutely spot on. I wondered for a moment halfway whether it was meant to be satire.

The author mentions:

> I would be in lab, trying to complete whatever assignment I was doing, and there would be a bunch of CS majors around, making jokes about programming, talking about esoteric CS topics that I didn’t understand, and just being obnoxious in general.

I might have just been very lucky, but I thoroughly enjoyed joking about computer science and discussing perhaps esoteric CS topics when my peers were generally hanging out doing assignments. These discussions really helped me learn more about CS beyond the rigid confines of the course and sometimes discussing these small tips and hacks are incredibly useful later on in life during job interviews.

I was fascinated by the article because of how articulate and honest the author was about their thoughts.

I agree, there's certainly nothing wrong with practicing your craft during your free time, especially if you enjoy it. But I appreciate the author's total candor. I find the mainstream "geek" culture unpalatable, myself. Of course that's not the same thing as hacker culture, or CS culture.

I can definitely understand how he doesn't like jerk hackers. These aren't mutually exclusive though. I know plenty of people that learn something cool (or are working on something cool) and want to show it off (these people are great). A lot of the people that are jerks have weird self confidence issues and tend to want to elevate themselves by looking down on others.

Maybe he should switch career.

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