Programmer Pain in Memes

Memes communicate a lot of information, yet they are rarely preserved and explained.

It is February 2024. A friend of mine who works in tech just posted a fleet of funny memes about his job.

I have written a research paper and a policy paper about job selection into tech.

Research paper: “Willingness to be Paid: Who Trains for Tech Jobs?“

I found that enjoyment or subjective preferences are underrated in the policy literature on the skills gap and promoting STEM in America. In a presentation in the Spring of ’23, I speculated that ChatGPT or other AI-assisted coding tools would make coding less tedious and therefore more fun.

I observe in this set of memes (posted in February 2024) that ChatGPT is already embedded in coding life, and yet it does not feel like anything fundamental has changed. Workers still Google their own way to solutions (although surely that has diminished somewhat due to LLMs). The work still feels hard and the workers still feel undervalued.

Senior programmers today would have grown up working very closely with search engines, largely to harvest the vast knowledge contained in tech message boards. I myself use that tool often when I have to program. Part of learning to code is just learning how to get help. This requires a certain mindset that is different from what is traditionally taught in school.

Many people who end up as programmers want to do better. They are driven to write clean sensible code. A common theme is frustration that the product does not match the vision. This sentiment comes up more frequently than I have seen in other professions. The work they do is truly hard, and they are rarely afforded enough time to do it “right.”

Interviews to get a high-status job are famously difficult. It takes a certain personality type to try at all. There is also a consistent complaint that HR and hiring staff don’t understand tech.

This must be a pretty new programmer meme.

Common sentiment. Tech people often report feeling underappreciated. I think this is partly due to the fact that no one can really “see” them working. Someone laying pipes in a ditch is clearly working hard and any passing stranger would notice it. Don’t hospital nurses also feel overwhelmed and overworked? Yes, and yet they would never make a meme just like this.

Common complaint. The programmers are unhappy that the code is bad. As long as it works, it ships. It ships before perfectionists and nerds have had time to make it beautiful. It’s only the programmers who ever have to see what lies beneath. This is evidently a source of stress.

“Why doesn’t everyone just learn to code?”

I asked the young man who posted this flight of memes the simple question: do you like your job? His reply:

Truly, what is more fun than complaining? Maybe the complaining, to people who understand you, is the best perk of all. Below is a link to my post about a friend who learned to code and enjoys her new life (even the complaining).

Secret Fun Tech People

Lastly, I found these conversations I saw over in the Threads app interesting. I don’t know these people, but I have reason to believe they are sincere.