The following is a small excerpt of an interview in which Cameron and I discuss some of the stereotypes surrounding programmers. This is just a sneak preview of the what I will be discussing in my upcoming ethnography, “The Antisocial Programmer”. Here, Cameron and I discuss how programmers socialize and communicate with one another. The bolded text is spoken by Cameron, and the remainder are my responses.
“So, writing computer programs is sort of like talking to a computer?”
“Right”
“So, how well do you believe computer programmers communicate with other people?”
“Well, I know the stereotype, and I’m sad to say that I think a lot of the time it is true. People think programmers are very introverted.They think they are not good at public speaking and that they may be able to write programmers but if you ask them to explain it they are going to stumble and fumble, and it is going to be terrible. The sad thing is that from my programming classes is that a lot of kids are like that.”
“I think that is why here at NC State in your engineering classes they emphasize working in groups, communication skills, and public speaking. These things are something a lot of people have to do in the work place. I think when most of your work is done via isolated communication with a computer, by yourself, typing loads of code it is easy for programmers to lose some of their communication skills. These skills just seem less important.”
“What do you think about computer programmers social skills? What groups do they like to socialize with and be around?”
“The odd thing about computer programmers is that a lot of the time they don’t even want to socialize with each other. At least, that is a stereotype people have. I know certain cliques and groups of programmers that have formed in classes.”
“I just think programmers are naturally more inclined to be small friend group type of people, as opposed to extremely social party goers. I can say for certain that I am this way. I would rather have four close friends than go to a part and know everyone. I think that is just a little overwhelming and odd.”
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