The Love between Coffee and Code

“Why do you programmers fetishize drinking coffee?”

A question most friends have been asking me. I believe the biggest reason is that coffee is a symbol of concentration. And coders need to concentrate to get any meaningful work done. A coding session can be intense and a boost to focus and concentration is a big plus since you want to write good clean code and avoid the dreaded "bugs" while running that session's code.
It is a widespread concept that drinking coffee can benefit work that relies on productivity and steady brain function—easy to see, then, why it is a preferred beverage for people who need just that.

Having a cup of coffee by your side when you dive into some complicated code is part of a habit. It’s almost like a trigger for me when I’m pondering a complicated problem: As soon as I sit down with a cup of coffee in my hand I know the ideas will start flowing.

It’s also a signal to my coworkers and the people around me that says “Leave me alone, I need to get stuff done now.” It’s definitely a ritual for the other developers I spoke with.

The programmer's Coffee Culture

Coffee culture plays a big role, too. Visit the office of any tech company and you’ll see there are coffee machines everywhere. People will congregate around them to chat or have impromptu meetings. And if there aren’t any coffee machines visible then people will flock to nearby cafes to get out for a bit and have “walk and talk” meetings to grab a cup of coffee or tea.

I wouldn’t underestimate the bonding effect this has. A lot of programmers are quite introverted and this might also mean that going out for a cup of coffee with a coworker gets associated with feeling good quickly.

There’s no denying, programmers all around the world seem to love their coffee. They love it so much they named a programming language after it. James Gosling named the Java programming language after coffee.

What’s great about drinking coffee is that programmers then also get to show off their coffee mugs. I noticed developers seem quite buzzed to get a cool or funny coffee mug to show their love for a certain programming language or technology stack. Every software engineer wants a nice coffee mug on their desk. Any hacker worth their salt will most likely have a fun and geeky coffee mug on their desk. Some coders even use their coffee mugs as collectibles.

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