Programmers are often stereotyped as nerdy geeky guys sitting in their basement, writing codes. The point to be noted is that not all developers are geeks or have social issues. Most of them are just regular folks, who happen to write complex algorithmic codes. They eat and sleep like most of us, have similar hobbies, go malls to do shopping and walk out with their pets. So why this stereotype?
Let’s assume the root cause:
South Park:
The South Park series is often known for exaggerating the stereotypes and that’s exactly what it did in the episode, make love not warcraft. In this episode, closet gamers are portrayed as middle aged men sitting in their basement, getting gaming points. This meme blew up and naturally became associated with programmers in a pop culture reference.
Programmers love for fantasy
Programmers are often in a world of their own, majority of them are fascinated by fantasy genre. They believe it to their core that a love of sci-fi and fantasy should be celebrated to infinity and beyond and in their deepest admiration of fantasy, they want to be in such a world. In my office, there is a hierarchy of programmer nerds, the oldest, most experienced programmer calls himself the grand wizard and has his beard up to his sleeve. Most of his entourages started ordering wild growth hair oil for beard just to be like him.
They are hipsters who don’t show off
Way back in the 90s, there were all sorts of people curious about programming but as coding has carved out its own niche now, there is a fancy crowd you often see in Starbucks starting to code or at least pretend to code, these guys for coding are what script junkies are for hacking but to nullify this type of crowd, which you’d often find in London, San Francisco or any other hipster town, there are true hipsters who strongly believe on the principles and often do not care. They don’t grow a beard per say to get in style but they simply forget to trim it or keep it maintained.
Dressing sharply is changing
Dressing sharp is changing, and for good and the programmers are the ones who pioneered this movement. You don’t need to have a leather shoe, a suit and a policed shirt to dress sharp, you can just dress clean and let your work do the work, programmers believe this mantra to their core.
While marketers and other professional people often dress sharp for office, hair styled and gelled, programmers simply do not care, they were probably busy automating their tasks in the morning. Dressing up nicely–eww! Where is the efficiency in that?
Conclusion
The dress codes are changing and so is the definition of being hipsters, programmers are here to stay and so their amazing rocking beard. Kudos to all the programmers out there, stay awesome!!
Be First to Comment