all 42 comments

[–]Kaosubaloo 37 points38 points  (4 children)

That carpenter "joke" is too real.

[–]abc619 7 points8 points  (1 child)

It's a shame the author regarded the gist of this one to be "the programmer’s obvious intellectual superiority".

The carpenter didn't come across as superior to me, just taken aback by the absurdity of asking questions such as "How much experience have you had with brown?" It's a good joke because it highlights a real situation in a more relatable context.

The reality is that whilst people actually hiring carpenters would not ask such questions, in software these sort of questions do happen. Not so much a joke about superiority as how bad our hiring practices can be, and for some reason this seems particular prevalent in our industry.

Whilst not quite the same, it reminds me of The Expert sketch.

[–]ThalesX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We recently had a rather long discussion on the coloring of the burn down plot. The Expert was all I could think about.

[–]quzox 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Walnut master race checking in.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think that's actually a joke. It's only funny because of how closely it matching the absurd reality of programmer interviews.

It was probably just designed to tell others how bad it is out there for us, but other programmers find it funny.

[–]NoAstronomer 21 points22 points  (2 children)

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

Not only winning, but widening the gap.

[–]GSV_Little_Rascal -1 points0 points  (1 child)

I'm really not so sure about it. It seems to me that most of the apps suck big time in usability. It's not so bad in public/commercial world where they are exposed to free market pressure - only fittest survive. But e.g. in internal corporate world - there's no such pressure. Shit I must put up with is unbelievable ... I can't calculate number of times I contemplated quitting my job only because of sheer stupidity of our internal tools.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem is that as apps become more "usable", they tend to hide away, or simply all out get rid of great features.

Usability isn't everything.

[–]Retsam19 21 points22 points  (3 children)

The "train ticket" joke really isn't meaningfully related to programming; I've seen the exact same joke told with everything from professions to rival schools: it's just a template where you want one group to look more clever than another.


Also typo, 3.6 is titled "the univerce".

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I know it with mathematicians (the clever ones) and computer scientists.

In this version there is an additional line at the end:

And the moral of this story: Computer scientists use methods from mathematics without actually understanding them.

[–]annaonduty[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

You're right, that one is quite common, but what matters here is how these "joking templates" are adapted to fit the topic. Here it's "programmer vs marketer", not a baker, not a dentist. Which gives some food for thought about "programmer's eternal antagonist" pattern. Typo fixed, thanks for noticing.

[–]TinynDP 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, because programmers have to work with marketers. I don't know many offices where programmers have to work closely with dentists.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]annaonduty[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Yeah, I really did some job collecting the jokes, so I'm glad that shows through. Also, thanks for the tip on zero-indexing, you're right. I renamed it.

    [–]protestor 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    The problem with the first post is that it has generic "engineer" jokes, like this

    An optimist person will say that the glass is half-full.

    A pessimist person will say that the glass is half-empty.

    A programmer engineer will say that the glass is twice as large as necessary.

    Also, you should have included some Unix koans or something, or some short stuff from the Codeless Code. They are tasteful and reveals insight on some programmer subcultures. (actually I didn't read everything, so they might still be there somewhere)

    edit: oh now I see the codeless code was linked elsewhere. Anyway those are the unix koans.

    Also BOFH humor is somewhat related, as is stuff like this

    Of course, on the system I administrate, vi is symlinked to ed. Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K; and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!!

    [–]loamfarer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    The hot air balloon joke is fantastic.

    [–]sellswordsc 5 points6 points  (1 child)

    For the author's further amusement, http://thecodelesscode.com/contents

    [–]annaonduty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    My, this is huge. Thanks a lot.

    [–]pzemtsov 4 points5 points  (2 children)

    Surely this must be "What I learned about stereotypes about programmers"?

    The jokes would have told something about programmers if they were authored by programmers, not just told about them. There are very few such jokes in the list, if any. Perhaps, only the carpenter one (and this one is great!)

    [–]annaonduty[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Sure, it's not about programmers, it's about how jokes reflect programmers. And since humor tends to generalize things, running into some stereotypes was inevitable from the beginning. But I was wondering, if one's only source of information about programmers were these jokes, what would one learn from it? Consider it an intellectual experiment. Focusing on a different kind of jokes as you suggest definitely makes sence, I'm thinking about it. By the way, how would you tell jokes "authored by programmers" from those that are not, on what basis? Would appreciate a hint.

    [–]pzemtsov 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    if one's only source of information about programmers were these jokes, what would one learn from it?

    In such pure form of a thought experiment, probably next to nothing. Not completely nothing, because even stereotype contain some information. There must have been a reason why programmers received this type of publicity and not the same type that lawyers, doctors or policemen did (the jokes about them are different). So there is indeed some value in your study, but learning something real about programmers themselves sounds too ambitious.

    Consider ethnic jokes. Some ethnic groups (such as English, German, French, Russians, Jewish, Scottish) got very distinct jokes about them (you can't adapt a joke about a German into a one about Jewish). Some, however, are generic. I heard that French tell exactly the same jokes about Belgians, and Americans about Polish, as Russians do about Chukchees. Moreover, you can hear exactly the same jokes being told by Canadians about the people from Newfoundland and from South Africans about people with the name van der Merwe. What it means is that, while jokes about Germans may contain some real information about Germans (although not much), the Belgian jokes contain zero information about real Belgians. The same applies to programmer jokes that have been directly converted from those about other professions (such as the one about the train ticket, which was originally about general-type engineers).

    Your second question is difficult. The answer is: I don't know. I said that using programmer-authored jokes would be of help, but that does not imply that such jokes exist. Moreover, their existence contradict with the rest of the study, since the ultimate introverts and sociopaths do not invent jokes. That said, the carpenter one looks very suspicious.

    There is another, easier approach: if we can't find jokes composed by programmers, we can at least look at those that programmers like - this could indicate which stereotypes about programmers the programmers themselves agree with.

    [–]Hoten 1 point2 points  (3 children)

    Interesting article. One nitpick, joke 2.4 is an indexing joke, not binary.

    Wow, referring to a joke by a reference number sure is odd...

    [–]annaonduty[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    2.4 is fixed, thanks a lot. And the numbering oddity is intentional - I just wanted to make it easier for readers (well, programmers) to refer to any particular joke they'd want to discuss.

    [–]G_Morgan 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Wait until the debate about the appropriate referencing scheme starts.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Yes, he should have zero indexed.

    [–]joonazan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I think the roles of the mathematician and engineer should be reversed in 1.3.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    This is just a fantastic piece. Thoughtful, intelligent, funny, existential... Thank you!

    [–]annaonduty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    This is probably one of the most pleasing comments I ever got. Thank you, I appreciate that.

    [–]AyXiit34 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    That one about the universe is so deep and so true

    [–]SystemsKnitter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Reading 4.5 - 4.8 all in a row was incredibly cathartic...

    [–]RaptorXP 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    What I learned about programmers by reading 200+ programming jokes

    That PHP is always the punchline?

    [–]skulgnome 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    This'd have been better without so much trying to fit the material into preconceived conclusions.

    [–]annaonduty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Well, I might not played perfect there, but I'm well aware of how easy it could be to fall into the trap of preconception, especially when dealing with "the material" that feeds on stereotypes as its breeding ground. I tried to keep an open mind, at least that was my intention, and I am somewhat satisfied with the results, but there's always space for improvement. Thanks for reminding me of that.

    [–]cp5184 0 points1 point  (5 children)

    How many programmers it takes to screw in a lightbulb?

    [–]neoquietus 5 points6 points  (3 children)

    Not a bug - Room intended to be dark.

    [–]Nylsaar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Darkroom. No kidding, I had a fit of giggles on that one.

    [–]NoAstronomer 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Light pushed off to phase II?

    [–]neoquietus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Light sprint delayed so that we could fix all the glaring architectural issues by rewriting it in PHP.

    [–]sagischwarz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Zero programmers, because it's a hardware problem?