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What do your friends and family think about the software industry?

Ben Halpern on July 27, 2020

What do they think about your career, the industry in general, about code, etc.

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Krzysztof Buczynski

Well my parents still think that sitting down in a front of PC for 8+ hours a day is not exhausting...

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Keff

This happens to me a lot, from non-techy friends mostly. They think sitting down is not exhausting just because I don't lift rocks.

I understand where that comes from. It is easy to assume that sitting down is like lying in bed or something. It's complicated for outsiders to understand the real work that goes into our jobs. And the exhaustion levels we get to. Yeah, mostly mentally but also physically.

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Krzysztof Buczynski

Seems like I am not alone with this issue :D

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Ben Halpern

What's the context where this comes up in your interactions with them?

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Krzysztof Buczynski

Most when they ask me to do something that I can do during my day off but they want it now

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George C. G. Barbosa

haha. My mom does not consider "messing up with the computer" working.
She also complains that I make 10x more than she does...

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Sara °°°

Hahaha
My Mom keep saying that too.

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Dominik Pieper

Same here. "You just sit there for hours. That's easy"

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Keff

Working remotely is all fun and good. In my case, people think the mental part of the job is easy and is not prone to anxiety or exhaustion. And you can wake up whenever, do whatever and just live life... nothing further from the truth. Yeah, it can be great but needs a lot of work and discipline to make it enjoyable.

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Ben Halpern

100%

What is nice is not being stuck in commute. I'd never go back to riding the subway or being stuck in traffic, but working from home has its own great challenges and can be that much more exhausting in so many ways.

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Keff

Oh yes, that has to be one of the best things about working remotely. I have driven my car 10 times in the last 4 months. It's great!

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mohamed es-sanousy

my wife thinks that i can talk to her and work at the same time while working from home
my parents tought that all i do is play on the computer all day

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Cheuk Ting Ho 🐍

They think that you can fix any computer-related problems...

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Lud

This also extends to phones, TVs, and any other consumer electronics my family has -.-. :D

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Ben Halpern

Oh yeah, been there.

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Brad

Me: I code.

Them: Oh you must be super smart, good at math, and did well in school.

Me: Haha, no.

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Samuele Zanca

Them: good at math
Me: i've got dyscalculia
Them: you must have done well in school
Me: if by did well you mean get held back twice resulting in high school taking 7 years instead of 5 yeah I did super well.

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Alan

In the beginning, my mother wasn't excited about my career choice. I was originally majoring in Robotics Engineering because I was born and raised in Mexico, so robotics and industrial automation are a big thing over there. However, I had been writing software since I was really young. It was my hobby and it became too evident when I was failing all of my robotics classes that robotics and electronics was not my thing haha, so I decided to switch majors to Computer Science and I started to excel at school. Straight As all the time and I was getting internships at prestigious places and making money on the side freelancing, so I think after my mom saw that I was happier in this industry she just accepted it. She didn't really see a future in my industry, until very recently when she's seen the big technology revolution and how everyone keeps talking about learning how to code. I think she's proud of me now haha

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Lars Moelleken

Wife: Why do you sitting in front of your laptop again, you already did that 8 hours at work today?

Me: I am trying to fix an issue in one of my OSS projects. 😁

Wife: Who are you doing this for?

Me: The package has ~ 6.000.000 downloads (e.g. packagist.org/packages/voku/portab...). 😁

Wife: And how if paying for this?

Me: It's open source, you do not need to pay for it. 😁

Wife: So the 4 € from github last month was alms for the (stupid) developer which is doing OSS work?

Me: Yes, something like that. πŸ˜’

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agitri

Family / uncles / cousins; dont understand why my job is hard / pays well.

friends; dont understand the complexity and only have 'great ideas' for an app.

wife; understands what i go through but doesnt understands my job.

it is pretty fun when u find a random like-minded developer, only than you can talk the same language, even when the other person develops in a different language.

and than after all that you have the sandwich-programmars who only do it for the money / benefits. those are the worst kind, trust me im sitting next to one, hes an idiot.

endRant.

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Samuele Zanca

The reason I'm in this career is because I enjoy coding.
Guess you could say I'm entitled when I say this but I couldn't see myself doing something I don't enjoy.

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Philippe Roubert

They think that making an app or a website doesn't take too long. They throw weird looks when I tell them how much we charge for a website, and they think we are being too expensive, but in reality we are amongst the cheapest solutions in the industry. Yes, I understand that the final product of a single webpage with a 500$ price tag may sound expensive, but in reality people don't realise the amount of work behind it. Trust me, I'd love to make your 1-million-dollar web/app idea, but I just don't have the time!

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Drew Knolton

Most of my family thinks I am an expert in Windows and can fix their printers even though I've not touched Windows for 7 years now. Even though I probably can fix it with my Google-Fu, I just don't want to. :)

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Samuele Zanca

I have never installed a printer and hopefully never will. They scare me.

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Tyler Smith

Huh. It's illuminating reading the comments. My friends and family basically get what my job is about, but it seems like that's not the case for a lot of people in here.

However, my friends and family DO assume I understand computers really well and can fix their machines when they break. I can't.

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Marc

About me/career overall IT Expert, knows how to solve any IT problem like the not working TV, not working Internet, especially slow Internet, knows what to do when they click on all "you have a virus"-buttons. They think that all developer jobs a safe for the future and still wait till I become the next Steve Jobs.

Industry
They like most of what technology brought to them. At the moment they are into privacy and sustainable use of their tools

Code
Magic

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Abdur Rehman Khalid

Well In My Country Playing Games for Earning is Not Considered as a work. Everything related to computer is not encouraged as working from Home about 8 hours is also not considered as working as people of my home thinks that I am still playing games.

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Tolga Ünlü

Since my focus is currently on security, a lot of my friends and family members (specifically those who do not work in IT) are thinking that cyber attacks are performed by a genius group or individual conducting very technical attacks that they would never be able to understand. Some of them are but many of them are not and are rather simple and even boring from a technical perspective - which by the way doesn't mean that they are not dangerous. For example, I explain to them what social engineering is and they then see that this is not so much different from what they know or have experienced from crimes in the real world.

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Avalander

I once had an acquaintance who believed that my job consisted in going to people's homes and installing Microsoft Office in their computers πŸ™„.

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Vincent Trivett

My dad once asked me whether I get bored writing ones and zeroes all day

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Chad Adams • Edited

No matter how many times I tell my family what I do. They still call me asking me how to fix their computer.. I’m a web developer not a PC technician..

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Amin SAIGHI

They think I'm rich like Mark and Bill.

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Omar Zouaid

My mum thinks that all I do when I'm taking my lap is just playing games and chilling