Chapter Seven. Orphans Preferred

Wanted: Young, skinny, wirey fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week.

PONY EXPRESS ADVERTISEMENT, 1860

We realize the skills, intellect and personality we seek are rare, and our compensation plan reflects that. In return, we expect TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE COMMITMENT to project success overcoming all obstacles to create applications on time and within budget.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER ADVERTISEMENT, 1995^[1]

The stereotypical programmer is a shy young man who works in a darkened room, intensely concentrating on magical incantations that make the computer do his bidding. He can concentrate for 12 to 16 hours at a time, often working through the night to make his artistic vision a reality. He subsists on pizza and Twinkies. When interrupted, the programming creature responds violently, hurling strings of cryptic acronyms at his interrupter "TCP/IP, RPC, RCS, ACM, and IEEE!" he yells. The programmer breaks his intense concentration only to attend Star Trek conventions and watch Monty Python reruns. He is sometimes regarded as an indispensable genius, sometimes as an eccentric artist. Vital information is stored in his head and his head alone. He is secure in his job, knowing that, valuable as he is, precious few people compete for his job.

USA Today reported that the techie nerd stereotype is so well-entrenched that students in every grade ranked computer jobs near the bottom of their lists of career choices.^[2] The Wall Street Journal reported that film crews have difficulty presenting stories about leading-edge software companies in an interesting way because every story starts with "an office park, a cubicle, and a guy sitting there with a box on his desk."^[3] Sometimes the stereotype is fostered even inside the profession. The associate director of Stanford University's computer science program was quoted by The New York Times as saying that software jobs are "mind-numbingly boring."^[4] This is all in spite of the fact that sources such as the Jobs Rated Almanac consistently rate software jobs at the top or near the top of the most desirable occupations.^[5]

How much of the stereotype is true, and what effect does it have on the programming occupation? Let's look first at the programmer's personality, then at the other elements of the stereotype.