Just recently, I saw some very self-righteous comments on Quora (wow, what a surprise) about how programmers who are in it just for the money should get out of the industry that we all love and let only the worthy remain, or some bullshit like that. And I found that really disturbing.
First of all, yes, I've always been of the opinion that if we don't love what we do, we are in very real danger of being replaced by machines. And that loving this trade, being willing to make sacrifices for it, will make life easier in an industry where life is often not easy.
But I would never say someone who is only in it to make a living, can't do the job. I would only say that if you don't love to code and you are in the position where you have to code constantly for a living, life might be more miserable than it needs to be. That's common logic. It certainly doesn't follow that people who have interests outside of software development, or indeed, are interested in other things more than software development, have no business competing with me for jobs. Some people are dispassionate but smarter than I am; they'll add more value than an enthusiastic but relatively unskilled worker like myself.
I mean, there are countries where poverty is rampant and coding is one surefire way of getting out of that cycle. So a dude codes simply because he needs to eat? What in the ever-loving heck is wrong with that? Needing to not starve is a perfectly legitimate reason to do any job.
Non-tech examples
We live in a world where opportunity abounds, and those with different skills can find their niche. Yet, often, due to circumstance, people are forced to use means considered, shall we say, inglorious, to achieve their ends. This isn't such a big deal; the world is what it is, and we all have to make do. |
| Networking skills. |
I have a friend who makes this big song and dance over his extensive network, about all the powerful people he knows and how he's on first-name basis with them, and so on. If you ask me, he comes off as really desperate to impress, but that's neither here nor there. The thing is, there are people who accuse him of toadying up to powerful people. Is that necessary? Is it wrong to be proud of your networking skills? Is having networking skills even something one should be ashamed of?
And I have other friends who seem really proud of how they're able to broker deals, sucker people into parting with their money and manipulate them with misleading information. Negotiation skills FTW, amirite? Yet we have people accusing them of being morally bankrupt... come on. Have you ever considered that these guys would choose to make big bucks honestly if they were capable of it?
See, here's the thing. Some of us aren't that smart, aren't that talented, and yet manage to secure well-paying jobs. I consider myself privileged to be a software developer - a halfway-decent one, at best - in a world where there are more programming jobs than there are programmers. How many people worldwide, more gifted than myself, are in a position where they are actually well-compensated for their skills?
The world isn't always fair. In fact, very often it's the exact opposite. And very little of that is your fault exactly. You don't get to choose the circumstances of your birth. You don't get to choose what you're naturally good at. You don't get to choose the environment you grow up in. You only get to choose how you make things work using what you have. Some people are born with disabilities. Some are dyslexic. Some are born pretty. Some are stronger, faster or tougher than others. These are the cards you're dealt; now play your hand!
And as such, there's no need to judge others. Sure, everyone has choices. But not every choice is appealing. Sometimes no choices are appealing and we simply have to do what makes the most sense.
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| Not everyone has good choices. |
A couple years back, I was in Vietnam and got a cheap foot massage in some spa. My masseuse was a young woman... with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. This being Vietnam, she did the pragmatic thing and simply did whatever got her better pay - a masseuse in Ho Chi Minh City rather than a senior accountant in Hanoi. Was she wrong? She merely adapted to her circumstances. What else was she supposed to do, sit there and gripe about how unfair the world is?
For a more extreme example, there are young girls from poorer villages in Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand. And yes, Vietnam. They don't have much of an education. Some of them work as domestic helpers in Singapore. Some earn their money having hot, nasty sex with tourists. These are their circumstances. Plenty of local women, with their fancy Diplomas and Degrees, may look down on these women. They may feel they're of a higher class than them. They may go, "no matter how tough life got, I'd never resort to that". Well, honey... these things are a lot easier to say when you're born in a country with a strong economy, a country that subsidizes education, that ensures the chances of you needing to sink that low, are just about nil.
Statements like that bother me because they reek of arrogance. Not the kind of arrogance that's honestly earned; that I can live with. No, I'm referring to the kind of arrogance that has nothing to do with ability but everything to do with privilege. Do people actually think they're better than some hick from a third-world backwater? Newsflash - they're not. None of us are.
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| Not everyone can be the King of the Jungle. |
This is like Mother Nature's food chain. There's a place and a role for everybody. Not everyone can be the lion. The ecosystem would collapse if everyone was a lion. Sometimes you have to be the flea in the lion's fur. But there is no shame in being a flea if sucking blood from unsuspecting hosts all you're designed to do.
You're a goddamn flea, what else are you supposed to do?
Likewise, there is no shame in having powerful contacts if leveraging on the power of others is what you're good at. There is no shame in helping stupid people part with their money if spouting hot air is the only thing you're good at.
If you're good at something, make it work for you. If that's the only thing you're good at, and you don't have many other viable options, then hell yeah definitely make it work for you.
We all have to figure out what we're good at, and what the world will pay for. That is our place in the food chain. Not everyone can be a doctor, lawyer or architect. Some of us have to be drivers, cooks.... and yes, to get back to my original point at the start of this post, coders.
Unlike Mother Nature's food chain, there is a chance you can break out from that role and assume another role. And again, it is our environment and the circumstances of our birth that allow us to do just that. How many are born in a country that isn't constantly at war? How many have access to an education; indeed, take it as a God-given right?
The takeaway
You're not inherently better than anybody else. Remember this. Unless you succeeded despite (and not because of) the conditions of your environment, you have very little to turn up your nose at. Exercise some humility, judge less, and get off that high horse. It goes a long way.
Don't take life lion down, yo.
T___T
T___T
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