Why are programmers vulnerable & # 8230; crazy?
One is "imposter syndrome", when you make sure that other coder do the same, be smarter and more talented than you. You live in fear that someone will discover that you are deceiving your intelligence or ability.
And the second thing is likely to drive developers crazy to be a true programmer!
Women often experience this symptom, which is not strange. The syndrome is considered by psychologist Dr. Pauline Rose Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes as a typical problem for successful women. It is the subject of a self-improvement book for women.
However, more and more male programmers feel this syndrome. They tend to impose particularly high standards for themselves, often in cross-assessing working environments. Writing software is like plowing on a field, especially with open source software that anyone can look at and edit it.
From "impostor" to "true programmer"
"Impersonator Syndrome" makes developers urge themselves to work harder to be better. That means spending more time writing code, even while walking, and getting more projects. This feeling is the "true programmer" syndrome (Real Programmer), referring to those who only live to program.
Reddit forum user big_al11 explains: "A true programmer is someone who loves programming. They love it so much that they spend all their time with it. They don't see it as "work" … A programmer can't be "a real programmer" when they don't volunteer to work 60 to 80 hours a week (without overtime money) because it " happy"".
In fact, the programmer must work for hours without being new, but the idea of them doing it because of their will and preference is new. For example, a decade ago, during the "Internet bubble", the book called "Death March" was hugely popular. It recounts how long working hours have caused programmers to have health problems and the conclusion that poor project management is responsible for this.
In 2004, programmers also sued game company EA because of overtime and compensation of $ 15 million. In 2010, the story of a woman married to a programmer working at Rockstar Games became a new phenomenon. Accordingly, the company requires employees to work 12 hours a day for 6 working days throughout the year, the whole month, causing the husband to be extremely stressed.
In 2011, the "Real Programmer" syndrome began to get noticed. That year, a lively discussion on social networks for people to program StackExchange took place around the topic: "I am not programming in my free time, does it make me bad?" The general idea is that you can still be a good person if you only work during working hours, but "the best programmer will write the program at the break".
More is not synonymous with better
Its correctness is suspected. Stanford students (USA) have studied how much a person really spends working time. Not surprisingly, the result is too much work will reduce labor productivity. Coder is overworked (60 hours / week) with lower quality than those who only work 40 hours / week.
However, it does not prevent these two syndromes from continuing, even more sad stories have arisen. For example, about a year ago, programmer Kenneth Parker wrote a blog post titled "I know a crazy programmer." He talked about his colleagues working so hard that "a complete mental stroke".
“He is one of the most hardworking employees I've ever witnessed. He often stayed after hours of work with projects. He is always there when the director needs someone to finish work quickly in the weekend … The will to improve things is what makes people like. However, his results were not good and ended up in a mental institution ".
Recently, New Relic software engineer Nick Floyd started writing and speaking about what he called "balancing the life of a computer addict" (Nerd Life Balance). He confessed to being tortured by the "impostor" syndrome but now believes that happiness will come when he finds love for the job:
“Working at New Relic is a challenge, both difficult and amazing. Before joining, I was used to the belief that work was only a job, sometimes frustrating, and life was a liberation from the discomfort at work. Finally, I realized: life is best when what you call "work" becomes a way to express passion in life. "
In short, Reddit big_al11 users offer the most affordable solution for programmers in particular and every industry in general: "I just wish that we live in society where we don't establish ourselves by work and is a place where working to death is not praised as a virtue ”.