Most developers have experienced this at one time or another. Friends or family members can understand occupations like finance, law, or medicine, but ask them to explain what you do, even at a high level, and they are at a loss for words, intimidated by the black magic nature of your work. “Something to do with computers,” they probably say. *sigh*

Its not like programming is any less complicated than a lawyer or a surgeon’s job. In fact, most developers needed way less formal training than those previously mentioned occupations to get started. The problem is that programming, computers, and the internet are still relatively young concepts in society when compared with jobs that have been around for centuries, like banking or medicine.

The experiences of developers shared across social media and web comics tell the tale:

“Either you can hack or you can’t!”

from redditor Destects

The Worst Coder Movie Trope

from redditor Captn-Crunch

This is What a Hacker Looks Like

And Here’s an Elite Hacker

This Conversation Gets Pretty Technical

By Randall Munroe, xkcd.com

This Description of Programming is so Simple, a Baby Could Understand It

But Even Developers Have Fantasies About How the Masters Do It

from quora, user John Ruzicka

Have Faith in Our Next Generation…

from redditor original_brogrammer

…Because This is How We’ll Be Remembered



