Programmer's Day: myths and reality

Recently, we often come across a meme on youtube "Typical day of a programmer". All famous Runet bloggers have dedicated more than one video to this meme. We, perhaps, will not only refuse this video shooting, but also criticize a little.

Programmer's working day: myths and reality

First of all, there is no typical programmer's day. Maybe an office worker has one, but certainly not a freelance programmer. You can even sit all day studying when there are no orders. Sometimes a week can pass like this.

Coincidence of the situation: tasks are either not interesting, or they simply cannot be found. For example, during the New Year holidays, or at the end of August (when everyone is on vacation). During these periods of time, only regular customers remain, who understand that a break will be costly for them. And also there is another type of customers "All at once". Well, they want to create a dozen landings for the sale of New Year's accessories, Christmas trees and, of course, promote these landings. And all this, of course, a week before the new year. About a month before the New Year, you have to get your electronic cemetery (external screw) with a bunch of standard layouts and landing pages with standard functionality and simply change either blocks depending on the task, or simply fill in pictures with winter beauties or Christmas tree decorations, costumes .

To put it simply, "it's a lot of fun" and takes about an hour a day. And the rest of the time you either make orders for regular customers, or study. What are we leading to? If anyone out there thinks that the programmer – it's a machine that just does the same things every day. No!

It is impossible to find a "typical programmer's day" in our work. Because everyone is unique. Even the wake-up schedule will depend on yesterday's tasks and when you went to bed.

Working days of a programmer

Second, "a typical programmer's day" cannot be simply because of the difference in tasks. Sometimes you spend the whole day at the monitor developing the logic of some application, and on another day you run after components for a home server, because an order has appeared for which you need to deploy a local server and each time the software is different. And you, as a kind person, last time, of course, gave a RAM or a percentage to friends. The next day after this is not "typical" either, because setting up and setting up again, deploy and stomp to make the application.

Perhaps, and this situation: you dig up a "dinosaur" freelancing and working on a platform from the 90s. And that’s all, because everything was deployed to the customer in those years and everything works fine to this day, so the upgrade is “No way.” At such moments, you take out dusty books from the shelf, because their relevance has already passed 10 years ago.

Thirdly, the logic of this meme is not entirely clear. The video shows the life of an ordinary working person: the road from home, traffic jams, sad faces of employees, etc. How is this situation different from others? What does programming have to do with it?

Yes, what they show the office is cool. But why the road from home and back? It would be better if they showed the tasks that programmers face in projects and how they solve them. Or they motivated the programmer to maintain a sports mode. Those who work in this field will especially appreciate this video.

Perhaps we are looking at this meme from the side of a freelancer and that is why everything is so eccentric for us. "Typical Programmer's Day" XA-HA. Rather a typical job (hard work).

For a person far from programming, our day is very primitive. Well, what are they sitting at the monitor all day, quietly swearing inside themselves. From the outside, it looks weird. But on the inside, it's not really like that. Your own world with its own problems and tasks. This is what a "typical programmer's day" looks like. The bottom line is that it is not only day, but also night.

Have you ever tried to sit at work until 2-3 am, and then go to bed? You can only dream of a normal sleep, you will get the same tasks in your head as behind the monitor. And you will lie and solve them in your head! Why is this not shown? They only show how they emptied the coffee machine at work and ate fast food. Cool typical day!

In general, guys, a programmer's day is not at all like a "typical" one. Every day of ours – it is always something new: discovering yourself and your skills from a new perspective, new acquaintances and knowledge, opportunities and mistakes. Every day of ours – this is an opportunity to prove to yourself (first of all) that you have not chosen this field of activity in vain.

In the end, we would like to apologize to the bloggers for the criticism. We understand that for you this meme is just a way to earn money.