Why Programmmers dont have a High Social Status?

Up to date there is No single street name for a top programmer or computer scientist in any of the Top 20 most developed countries in the world during the last 60 years.

There is no statue built in the center of a major city for a renown programmer or computer scientists.

No “Presidential Medal” or “Congressional Gold Medal” has been awarded to a computer scientists or programmer.

There is no nationally televised social reward ceremony for computer programmers and scientists like there is for artists, football or basketball players, etc.

There is no red carpet and Nobel price award ceremony-like for their achievements, and contribution to the progress of humanity.

Even when their work makes the whole world singing praises, they only fill the back seats glancing at other junkies making the speeches and grabbing the awards.

The only exception I found is about the English computer scientist Alan Turing who is considered to father of computer science.

Turing has been honored in various ways: a bridge and a street were named “Alan Turing Way”. A statue of Turing was unveiled in Manchester on 23 June 2001. And, since 1966, the Turing Award has been given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to a person for technical contributions to the computing community.

The Turing Award is widely considered to be the computing world’s highest honour, equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

The most known accomplishment of Turin outside of computer scientists circles is his contribution to Breaking the Code of German naval Enigma system during the second world war.

He is regarded as one of the main contributors (behind the scene) to the Allies victory in 1945 against the Nazis.

Another exception, once again from the United Kingdom, is about Tim Berners-Lee, considered as the Inventor of the World Wide Web, who received numerous recognition around the world, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, in 2004.

Despite what precedes, overall most programmers and computer scientists are less paid than sales people, MBA types, Designers, Doctors, etc. and it’s not easy for them to get laid on the first date. They are not artists, musicians, designers, architects, football players … Definitely they are not at the top of the sexual food chain.

Time magazine has been doing a great job naming up to 4 computers geeks “Person of the year” during the last 85 years: the The Computer in 1982, Andrew Grove in 1997, Jeffrey P. Bezos in 1999, Mark Zuckerberg in 2010.

However, it remains a long way to go before the celebration of computers geeks enters into the realm of everyday life, schools, streets, marketplaces, medias, etc.

So, it comes to me to wonder why programmers and computer scientists are not so highly regarded and rewarded accordingly? When I look around me, I wonder how the world will be without these nerds? From the iPhone, to your latest Gadget , none of these things will ever be possible without an army of these hard working folks.

Here is another annoying fact.
On October 8, 2011, Dennis Ritchie, the Inventor of C and Developer of UNIX died, almost at the same date as Steve Jobs (October 5, 2011). Ritchie’s death went completely unnoticed, and was only reported by few news portals, geeks’ blogs and forums. The President of the United States, the top national politicians, the top business executives, all news medias lavishly reported about Steve Jobs’s death, and spent countless hours of talk shows and magazine articles on his life, achievements, and legacy. But nothing similar for Dennis Ritchie.

My question here is “Are Dennis Ritchie achievements less than Steve Jobs’s achievements? Did Steve jobs achievements brought more change in more people life than Dennis Ritchie achievements?” If the answer is No, Damn how do you explain the situation!?

Now, from all the previous observations and questions, I went on to investigate, and some of my discoveries shocked me a lot, but also amused me immensely.

First discovery: Programmers have the fate they deserve. Their self esteem and self value is too low.

This manifests itself by a very singular phenomena: programmers hate each other. They usually bash other programmers when talking to non-programmers. Give the work a programmer to another programmer, and most of the time the comment will be negative about the work and the programmer.

Artists don’t do that.
Sales people don’t do that.
MBA types don’t do that.
Politicians do that only for joking to have votes.
Most of other prestigious professions support each other publicly, even when they are in competition (Look at lawyers for examples – Please, don’t ask me why these bastards rule America).
In few words, all above professions have a bigger sense of community, and are proud to be who they are and proud of what they are doing.

The crab mentality should Stop!

Rumor has it, if you put several crabs into a bucket, and if one of them begins to crawl out, one or more of the other crabs will put it back down and prevent it’s escape. It's called Crab Mentality. This is a good metaphor for life

Second discovery: Most people hate programmers.
Sales people hate programmers.
MBA Types hates programmers.
Designers hate programmers.
Programmers hate programmers.
Joe the plumber hates programmers.
Girls hate programmers.

Why? I don’t know. I found a lot of speculations here, here, and here

We need to have less haters

Third discovery: Programmers are not looking for these vanity titles, sexy ceremonies and awards, they hate the spotlight.

A Programmer wants to program. He want to be left alone to program. Programming is his mission, and the politics, the glories, public speeches are not interesting to him. He hates people who are not as smart as him, and hates more all the people who don’t understand the holy mission of programming with C++.
He then slowly convinces himself that he is born introvert, so he is afraid to go out, talk on the phone, go to the bar, meet politicians and strangers, all things that are in fact necessary to build up his social network and status.

Let have a dream from today.

1. Nerds deserve the Presidential Medals, the Congressional Medals or any kind of high level rewards that distinguish high achievement and contribution to society.

2. I’m a programmer, other programmers are friends, not enemies, therefore I swear I won’t talk them down in front of non-programmers. Repeat after me!

3. Programmers are brave and smart, but also funny people. “Introversion is not in the DNA, so I’m not born introvert, I can choose my attitudes and social masks at anytime” Repeat after me!

4. Complete the list … if necessary

Now is the best time ever in history for geeks. I love programing and I love programmers. It’s full employment period for geeks while the other guys have to beg for job ) hahaha … the Revenge of the Nerds )

 

 

个人翻译版：

时至今日，在过去的60年中，在世界最发达的20个国家中，没有一条街是以一个顶尖的程序员和计算机科学家命名的。

在那些中心城市中，没有一个雕塑是为了一个很有威望的程序和计算机科学家。

没有一个程序员和计算机科学家获得“总统勋章”或者“国会金质奖章”

不像那些艺术家，足球，篮球运动员，没有一个国家级的电视颁奖典礼是颁给那些计算机程序员和科学家的。

没有红地毯和类似于诺贝尔奖颁奖典礼，颁给那些为人类社会贡献成就和奉献的程序员

即使程序员，科学家的工作使得整个世界大唱赞歌，但是他们也只够格坐在后面，看着那些骗子上台做着演讲，拿着奖

我唯一能找到的特例就是美国计算机科学家艾伦图灵，他被誉为现在计算机之父。

图灵已经被以下各种方式纪念着：一座桥和一条街道被命名“艾路图灵之路”。图灵的一座雕塑于2001年6月23号在曼彻斯特被树立。并且自从1966年，图灵奖每年由ACM颁发给那些对计算机科学贡献巨大的。

图灵奖是计算机领域最高级别的荣誉奖，比肩诺贝尔奖

图灵在计算机科学领域之外最有名的成就就是在二战期间，成功破解了德军的情报密码。

他被认为是1945年盟军胜利的最重要哥的幕后贡献者之一

另外一个特例再次来自于美国，提姆-伯纳斯-李，被全世界的人认出是互联网的发明者，并且在2004的时候，被授予英国伊丽莎白勋章。

不论哪个时代，几乎所有的程序员和计算机科学家的待遇薪水都没有销售，ＭＢＡ，设计师，医生等等来得高，并且对于他们而言，初次约会也没有优势。他们不是艺术家，音乐家，设计师，建筑师，足球运动员……这导致他们完全不是在男女关系的顶层。

《TIME》曾做过一个很伟大的工作就是列举了四位“年度人物“计算机极客在过去的85年中。1982年的“the computer”,1997年的“andrew grove”，1997年的jeffrey p.benzos,2010年的mark zuckerberg.

然而，对于那些计算机极客，倘若他们想进入学校，街道，市场，媒体这类似的角色。他们还有很长的路要走。

所以，它依旧让我很好奇为啥那些计算机科学家和程序员为什么不被社会高度的认同。当我环顾自身周围，我很好奇如果少了这些极客，世界会变的怎么样？从iphone到你身边最新的小玩意，如果少了那些努力工作极客们拼命的工作，这些将都不可能实现。

下面是一个让人烦心的事实。

在2011年的10月8号，dennis ritchie去世，c语言和unix的发明者，几乎和斯蒂夫乔布斯一起（2011年10月5号）。dennis的死讯完全没有被报道，只有少部分的记者，极客们的博客和论坛才提及此事。美国国家总统，国家顶尖的政治家，顶尖的公司高管，所有的媒体都非常丰富的在报告乔布斯的死讯，并且花了大量长的时间脱口秀和杂志文章报道他的生活，成就，和他的遗产。但是这些dennis一点都没有。

现在我的问题就是：难道dennis的成就比jobs少？难道jobs的成就比dennis的成就在更多的恶人带来了更大的改变？如果这答案是否定的，你TM的如何解释这个现状呢。

现在，从上面的那些观察和问题可以看出，一些发现确实让我很吃惊，同时也让我很是欢乐。

第一个发现：程序员妄自菲薄，觉得他们自己就该受，他们的自我认可和自我价值都太低了。

这些现象本身就不是一个单一的现象：程序员相互憎恨。当他们跟一个非程序员交谈时，他们通常强烈的抨击别的程序员。把任务交给一个程序员和另外一个程序员，大部分的时间是程序员都是消极的评论。

艺术家不会那样做的

销售人员不会那样做的

MBA类型的不会那样做的

政治家这样做只会为了给自己选票

大多数有名望的专家公开的互相支持，即使他们共处竞争当中（举个律师的例子），未完待续