   Reason for arrogance?
  I hope I don''t come off too arrogant here, but something just happened to get me thinking a little bit.A few minutes ago, I answered a question in the General Programming forum. It was a simple case of pass-by-value rather than pass-by-reference error; a mistake I made COUNTLESS times in the past, and a mistake I still sometimes commit *ahem* mistakenly.I read the question, I studied the given code for about five seconds, I deduced the obvious answer, and I replied with a solution; to which, I got effusive thanks. All good.However, my sister happened to be sitting in the chair next to me, wasting time and idly chatting, watching me as I replied. After I had finished, she shook her head. She could not understand how I could answer the post so quickly, or how I could understand such a cryptic (to her) bit of nonsense in the first place, especially well enough to answer the question after such a short time.To her, it was a cryptic bit of nonsense; as it is to 90% of the people I associate with, among them regular computer-using professionals.I dunno...maybe I''m just rambling here. Is it wrong to be proud that I can comprehend something that 90% of my acquaintances can not?I guess, what I''m trying to say (instead of coding, which I should be doing, that is) is that we should be PROUD that we can understand--and write--this sort of cryptic nonsense. So go ahead, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a Dorito. You''re a  PROGRAMMER, dammit, and you deserve it.Sorry to waste your time/bandwidth/storage space. I''ll go away now.   Joshvertexnormal AT linuxmail DOT orgCheck out Golem at:My cheapass website
quote:I guess, what I''m trying to say (instead of coding, which I should be doing, that is) is that we should be PROUD that we can understand--and write--this sort of cryptic nonsense. So go ahead, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a Dorito. You''re a PROGRAMMER, dammit, and you deserve it.Oohh.. so you feel pride because you learned something that is really quite simple?  Can you fix your own car, refrigerator, bike, or build any of the above?What you are so proud of is that you have a minor accomplishment in one field.  There is nothing special about being a computer programmer.I am not even a computer programmer by choice; it is just a skill I picked up when I wasn''t learning about biology and chemistry.  Before you go patting yourself on the back think about how many people there are who can create or modify organisms.  That is challenging (and just give me a few more years of school).;  I''m proud that I''ve gained specialized knowledge, but really, programming/technical knowledge is crap as far as long-term value goes. In 10 years, most of the specialized knowledge you have will be severely outdated and obsolete. The lasting value comes from the mental discipline you''ve developed from learning to program. If you''ve got that, then I really do think that''s something to be proud of. ;  Its definitely not wrong to be proud that you are a programmer by any means, everybody should be proud of themselves whatever they do, and since programming isn''t the easiest thing to learn, its even more worthy of a pat on the back.I certainly wouldn''t call it arrogance.Programming is far from simple, because with it you never stop learning.   An ASCII tetris clone... | AsciiRis;quote:Original post by ChaoticCanuck  quote:I guess, what I''m trying to say (instead of coding, which I should be doing, that is) is that we should be PROUD that we can understand--and write--this sort of cryptic nonsense. So go ahead, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a Dorito. You''re a PROGRAMMER, dammit, and you deserve it.Oohh.. so you feel pride because you learned something that is really quite simple?  Can you fix your own car, refrigerator, bike, or build any of the above?What you are so proud of is that you have a minor accomplishment in one field.  There is nothing special about being a computer programmer.I am not even a computer programmer by choice; it is just a skill I picked up when I wasn''t learning about biology and chemistry.  Before you go patting yourself on the back think about how many people there are who can create or modify organisms.  That is challenging (and just give me a few more years of school). I wasn''t really trying to be offensive. I can fix my truck, and I rebuilt a Toyota 4x4 from the ground up. I''m a licensed plumber, certified welder, I can frame, pipe, rope, and pour the foundation for houses, break horses, brand cattle, I''ve been a diesel mechanic, yada, yada, yada...None of these have EVER given me the sense of fulfillment I''ve gotten from being able to program a computer.My apologies if you were offended; I was just killing time. Joshvertexnormal AT linuxmail DOT orgCheck out Golem at:My cheapass website;  mehh... its better when you know more than the average person about everything instead of a few subjects ;  Um think of it like this, nobody''s going to know everything his friends know, and everyone else in the world know. So you can do something that your sister can''t? I think your making more out of this just cause its programming, its not cryptic or hard or anything different then any other subject, you learn it and you use it. I bet there''s lots of stuff you know that your sister doesn''t.And hell yes give yourself a Dorito, hell get yourself some orange juice and you''ll have a good breakfast when 3am comes around and you just closed without saving! ;  That''s easy, the average person is waaaaaaay below average.  ;  This is why I want to study physics - it''s the most important thing in the universe. ;quote:Original post by Zorodius   This is why I want to study physics - it's the most important thing in the universe.  More important than computer games?  Riiight...   [edited by - Drooling Iguana on August 14, 2003 6:45:29 PM]