Re: No longer a programmer

Some people have the programming bent and others don't. At high school my interest was in science and focused down to electronics. But computers are electronics right? So I got a job as an electronics technician. However there was a large r&d component in the job and it just seemed to work out that most of the projects were based around embedded processors that required a fair degree of programming. :-D

For various reasons I left that job and joined to company I now work for - as a full time programmer. Looks like that was what I was destined for after all.

As a litmus test for "programmer suitability" I rather like xkcd's "Paths". If you find yourself in the situation depicted, chances are there is a degree of programming (or maths) in your soul.

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

Comment on Re: No longer a programmer

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Re^2: No longer a programmer by tilly (Archbishop) on May 23, 2007 at 05:31 UTC
A degree of math, I'll agree. But not necessarily programming. I'm thinking here of some of the finance people that I know. Very mathematically inclined. But not particularly organized towards programming...	[reply]
Re^3: No longer a programmer by GrandFather (Saint) on May 23, 2007 at 07:56 UTC
Optimising pathways in various ways is something programmers often do. Not with mathematical rigour to find a shortest path, but by rule of thumb to find a reasonable compromise between programmer effort and machine effort. DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel	[reply]
Re^2: No longer a programmer by GrandFather (Saint) on Nov 04, 2020 at 11:00 UTC
And now, still (after 25 years!) at the company where I became a full time programmer, I have returned to my roots and am helping design embedded systems and am pretty much the sole firmware developer in the team. Not so much Perl now, but lots of challenging and interesting coding. Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond	[reply]