Currently programmers are the driving force of society. I have no idea how far we could’ve gone without them. Probably I would not have an ability to share my thoughts with you right now because the Internet wouldn’t be invented yet. Who knows?

![programmer](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/prog3_zps9azkrckq.jpg)

Anyway, if you had a chance to talk with programmers in person, you probably noticed that they are kind of different. They talk faster, they make weird choices in their life, they do a lot of things that ordinary people just cannot understand, and that’s fine.

I’ve been surrounded by those types of people for 6 years now, and after the graduation next year I’m going to be one of them. 

A lot of people from Itera and GlobalLogic where I spent the last year or so were telling so interesting stories about being a programmer. I mean, usually people treat you a little bit differently, which sometimes feels annoying. 

So by collecting those stories from developers, QA testers, my stepdad who is also a programmer in Ciclum, my friends who are working in the same field, and from my personal experience I would like to share some things that programmers just simply can’t understand.

# 1 - Why people ask us to fix everything?

This is the most common one. I heard so many stories that friends or parents ask to fix printer, TV, furniture or absolutely random things that are broken.

Sometimes I don’t really get it what people are associating with programming. They have a belief that if you have some deal with computers, you can solve everything. That’s weird.

Yeah, we can find a way to fix it but to create software means writing a code.

Why do I have to know how to repair a teapot?) I don’t really want to. You can Google and do it by yourself. But at the end you’re still going to do it just because you developed a skill to solve all sorts of issues and you like to help.

Sometimes to make it more fun when people are asking you how to do some stuff, you can use [lmgtfy website](http://lmgtfy.com/).

![lmgtfy](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/teapot_zps6ool2dj7.gif)

# 2 - Why people call us lazy?

The truth is, lots of non programmers see programmers as really lazy people. They think you just seat there typing stuff and acting like you do work, but you do nothing.

Here is a deal, programming is different type of work. Sometimes you have to spend more time figuring out how to solve a problem and then actually start coding. We can spend 5 hours by looking and comparing the most optimal approach, and then write a code in 1 hour. That’s how it usually works for those with experience.

![programmer](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/prog2_zpspk4oksnm.jpg)

Moreover, in software development there is this thing, called debugging, where you basically go through some part of a program to find out what is the root of the trouble that caused your app to crash.

>”In reality a single debugging session can take 3 days. Just setting up the data and getting to the point where you really need to debug can take hours.” (Guillermo Schwarz, 20+ years developing software).

# 3 - Why people think we are nerds?

Yeah, sometimes even appearance can reveal to us that a person is a nerd. Usually he is living and breathing the code, have a huge beard and almost never go out from his apartment.

![beard](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/beard_zpsysmkrihu.gif)

I heard stories that people have 3 hours sleep, and consume lots of beer, potato chips and stuff like that.

However the majority of programmers are pretty normal. They have a simple lifestyle, lovely family and awesome friends. 

# 4 - Why certain things are not automated yet?

You may or may not know that but programmers like to automate stuff. They would rather spend the entire day to write a program that will solve some calculations for them, instead of do that manually.

That is a true thing. I remember back 3 years ago I needed a place to store English words and phrases because I wanted to expand my vocabulary. Sure enough, I made an Android app that made this process easier.

Now I don’t use it anymore but it was kind of cool to observe how your mentality changes.

# 5 - Why don’t people use Bitcoin?

I know that cryptocurrencies are still in the early stage but a lot of true believers are using it and accepting it as well for long period of time. 

This is a very handy thing, and if you think about it, you now have an ability to travel with no cash at all. In fact, you can even tie your Bitcoin wallet to Visa or Mastercard using [Xapo](https://xapo.com/) or [Shift](https://www.shiftpayments.com/card), and eliminate the fiat consumption at all.

![xapo](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/xapo_zpsrfadtx9t.jpg)

A lot of people have no problem with cash, and I suppose that it is the main thing that is stopping from using Bitcoin worldwide. Of course developers first need to deal with scalability and block size issue but when it’s done, a huge shift in the mindset has to be performed.

>“People just get used to hold money in their hands, it is real. With Bitcoin though you cannot do it”, one of developers from GlobalLogic.

To be honest, I cannot predict the future, so we’ll see how it goes.

By the way, I know that you’re on Steemit reading this but I highly recommend you to take closer look at it. I was astounded when I saw that the number of daily transactions is 189,345. 

To give you an idea Bitcoin maximum number of transaction was 276,448 per day. That is a huge deal. On top of that it seems like Steemit has no problem with such numbers and they can handle even millions of transactions per day.

![transactions](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/transactions_zps9up7rzxi.png)

That’s why if [@dan](https://steemit.com/@dan) and [@ned](https://steemit.com/@ned) are going to keep growing their user database and keep developing the platform, I have no doubt that Steemit can become even bigger than Bitcoin.

# 6 - Why people believe that programming is a rocket science?

Let me tell you the truth, programming is not a rocket science. It can be learned.

A drawing of programming that I downloaded.

Yes, it requires a lot of long hours of self-study, learning new frameworks and programming languages, thinking logically, solving complex issues and dealing with demanding customers.

Besides, never think that programming is easy as well. It requires a lot of skills coming together to make it all work.

![programming](http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/dmbaim/programming_zpshkw2zv4k.jpg)

But I believe the most important here is to find out whether this is what you really want from your life or not. That’s it.

A lot of people think that there are professions that are unattainable but that is incorrect. With enough time, patience, persistence, dedication and practice anybody can achieve any dream possible.

During those years I’ve met lots of different people in IT sphere. What I found though is that they all love their craft. They are working not because of a high salary but because of a high level of passion towards technologies.

To sum up, I would like to say that although inventing new things is really cool, you don’t have to be a programmer for that. We can all find out thousands of creative ways to make this world better. So choose yours.
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