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Comment by mclin | Hacker News Reader

> People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and get no respect. People who can code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing things to advance those disciplines.

Totally

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Totally as in, you have observed this phenomenon first-hand?

I disagree. People who code in the world of technology companies get respect, and quite a lot of it. Getting paid for your work is a form of respect.

Getting paid is only a form of acknowledgment that you worked, but it in no way denotes respect.

It simply says " to the best of our knowledge s/he did <insert type of job here/> work for the duration of this pay period.

I agree that some people do get respect in this industry, but too many of us are simply cogs in a wheel.

What's so bad about being a cog in a wheel, if you're enjoying your life?

I think that's precisely one of the the points Zed is making. That is, that coding is a cool, rewarding pursuit. But that you shouldn't expect a coding profession to necessarily be the either cool or rewarding.

If you're happy in that profession, great. I don't think the chapter in this book says you shouldn't be, in fact I think it would suggest that you have the right disposition for such a profession and are therefore fortunate.

I doubt you get paid comparable to your contributions to the bottom line. Or, maybe you do. :-)

I think it really depends. I have seen a lot of teams / managers would prefer a so call team player to sit there and write 500 lines of bad code, and ditch a good coder who don't go to all the bullshit meeting for write 500 lines of good code. And the glory go to the 500 lines of bad code, for showing up in meetings and talk about shits. That's respect.

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