What do Web Developers and Wrestlers have in common?

Recently, I traveled to Kuala Lumpur to attend a Wrestling City Asia event. It's a pro wrestling promotion initiated by Singaporeans, and being a bit of a wrestling fan since the Rock n' Wrestling era, I thought it would be nice to show some support for a local production. Plus, I really needed a vacation.

Upon my return, I was discussing the show with a friend, and she dismissed the entire exercise as a farce. Pro wrestling is fake, she proclaimed, and watching it is a waste of time.

Now, I don't blame her for this. Her opinion is pretty much in line with that of the casual observer. In fact, where this is concerned, there is one big similarity to web development. With software development as a whole, even.

Photo by Shawn Byron Danker

But pro wrestling is fake, dude...

Well duh, Mr Obvious. That's kind of the point, you know. That's precisely why I watch it. I can feel reasonably certain that no one is going to die or get seriously injured over the measly twenty bucks I paid for my cheap seat. What kind of psycho wants to watch real violence, anyway?

Pro wrestling is not martial arts. It takes no skill!

That's where I beg to differ.

I agree that pro wrestling is not martial arts, and any attempt to compare the two is an exercise in futility. Pro wrestling is more like a choreographed dance, much like Teochew opera. Or the average action scene in a Jackie Chan flick.

Speaking of which, do you enjoy watching Jackie Chan? Well honey, in case you haven't realized it, his shit is choreographed too. Would you say it doesn't take skill to do what he does?

Pro wrestling is pretty much about two men (or women) in the ring pretending to beat the ever-loving crap out of each other while totally not doing so. Imagine yourself throwing a punch with your bare fist. You'll probably break someone's face and your hand in the bargain. Now imagine yourself pretending to throw a punch at someone's face and stopping just an inch from impact. Does that take more skill than simply whaling on him? Now - imagine doing it live. No outtakes. No re-shoots. You screw up, you screw up in front of the entire audience.

If what Jackie does requires skill, I'd say pro wrestling requires double that.

Jackie Chan's movies at least have a plot and storyline!

Wait, hold up. You watch Jackie Chan's movies for the plot?! Lemme guess - you watch Jackie Chan's movies for his acting too?

We got a live one here.

The parallels with software development

People who dismiss pro wrestling as fake and unworthy of attention are many, and it all boils down to one thing: people judge based on what they see. In the case of pro wrestling, people see outlandish moves and over-the-top acting by beefed-up studs hamming it up. They don't realize the amount of skill it takes to put up a halfway credible performance, and the amount of work it takes to achieve that level of skill.

I'm familiar with that feeling in web development.

When you're working for people who aren't technically inclined, they process only the visual component of your work. They see that the interface looks nice and the color scheme is great. They see the flashy stuff, the bells and whistles. But if they come back a week later and the interface looks the same, they'll assume you haven't been working.

Which is an utter fucking fallacy. And very, very sad.

See, there's a lot more to web development than just the front-end. The stuff that works in the background - validation, security, web compliance, cross-browser performance - all this takes up just as much time as making shit look nice, if not more. The average layman sees none of this. And what they don't see, they take for granted.

Don't even get me started on the clowns who claim that as long as you're not in front of your workstation typing, you're not working.

Still, when people tell me they don't seem to see me working much, I've learned to take it as a compliment. The fact that they don't see me working despite the amount of output they're getting in the product, is testament to my sheer programmer awesomeness. I must be such a genius, it's almost magic.

If you're in the tech business, whenever you're tempted to dismiss pro wrestling, think about the times your users simply didn't understand how much work it takes to get the product right. Because they just didn't see the wizardry behind it.

Don't slam pro wrestling, OK?
T___T