Who Is the 21st-Century Programmer?

As I would find out over the next fifteen years, programming isn’t a job for the reclusive. It certainly is not about the über-nerd sitting in a dimly lit basement, sweating away for months on end, and then emerging with the final product in all its glory.

Today’s applications are mainstream. We build for every user. Our clients may or may not have any idea about how we work. Our turnaround times are sometimes on the order of whirlwind weeks, not months or years. Burnout can come on suddenly; procrastination can be the path of least resistance. For us, the developers of today, building software involves obstacles that go far beyond what we encounter in our development environment.

One of my good friends jokes with me on a regular basis. “What exactly is it that you do for work?” She knows I’m a programmer but doesn’t really know what that means. She questions me in that same sarcastic, probing way that Bob Slydell does as the office consultant in Office Space.

I tell her this: I am a nonaccredited, overly logical psychologist, therapist, mechanic, diplomat, businessman, and teacher working in an industry that is still defining itself each and every day.

That is as concise a definition I can give for the modern-day programmer.