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Why programmers need to have a sense of humor?

When I asked one of my friends for his comments about my last post, this is what he had to say -, "as an MBA i know hw imp ads are so i dont quite agree wit u" (reproduced verbatim from GMail Chat History). This was the same guy who had a great sense of humor when he was working as a programmer. He quit his job as a programmer and bam!, his sense of humor went away. Now this presents a burning question in front of us - why do all good programmers need to have an innate sense of humor?

It is an established fact that computers can become boring, especially to a programmer who keeps talking to it day after day without getting any response or appreciation. It never happens that you log in to your system and the computer chimes, "Hey Bro! Where have ya been? How 'bout a cuppa coffee before you begin?" If it happens, it means that it was written by a fellow developer who had his manager breathing down his neck to complete the project. Enjoying such greeting is like wearing a Blood Diamond! So to escape this dull, meaningless drudgery day in and day out, we programmers need to have a sense of humor.

The established notion of productivity in an IT company also contributes to programmers developing a funny bone. A developer, after working working very hard, reduces the running time of a program from 30 min to 30 seconds. Excitedly, he tells his manager about it. But the MBA-retarded manager only says, "Good. While you are here, can you point me to where I can find the mails I have kept for follow-up?" Its right there man. Just below the inbox, where it says "For Follow Up". What do you want? To dish it up in front of you complete with a 'Bon Appétit' greeting! The only way one can hope to survive in such a environment is to see the funny side of it.

The HeadFirst Design Patterns book is a great example of humor in computers. So are blogs like The Daily WTF, or XKCD.

Finally a message to all the the programmers of the world aspiring to be a great one - learn to laugh. It will surely help you in avoiding the 'SenseOfHumorNotFoundException'. No kidding!
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Comments

  1. MeghanaOctober 7, 2010 at 1:59 AM

    While the Head First series of books are good, humorous reads, I found the one that you refer to, "head first Design Patterns" a bit too verbose and distracting. The examples stretched way too for the comfort of a technical book. Humor is fine, but not at the cost of trivializing technology.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MayankOctober 7, 2010 at 6:43 AM

    If you want a serious book about design patterns, there are loads available in the market. Frankly, I don't find a serious technical book to be 'comforting'!

    ReplyDelete

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