Are Software Developers Naturally Weird?

jammag writes "Well, c'mon, yes — let's admit it. As a veteran coder discusses as he looks at his career, software development is brimming with the offbeat, the quirky and the downright odd. As he remembers, there was the 'Software Lyrics' guy and the 'Inappropriate Phone Call' programmer, among others. Are unique types drawn to the profession, or are we 'transformed over time by our darkened working environments and exposure to computer screen radiation?'"

Not unique to software development

[mpoulton]

The stories in the article don't seem unique to software at all. That type and degree of weirdness shows up in every type of work, techie or not. People are just strange! We all know our families are strange - we've either adapted and become oblivious, or moved on. With coworkers, however, we are forced to interact daily with a group of random people we don't get to choose individually. That exposes us to a broad cross-section of societal weirdness that we aren't used to, and we notice it. I think everyone has had this experience to some extent. That's one reason The Office is such a popular show; we can all identify the Michael Scotts and Dwight Schrutes in our lives.

Quite so...

[denzacar]

Also, author comes off as a bit of a jerk.
"Crossroads" and "You spin me round" comments were not only funny, but also completely on topic.

"Crossroads" - case statement, "You spin me round" - loop.

"At a minimum distracting"? You know what else is distracting?
Having a sense of humor.

Re:No, not that wierd

[russotto]

You know lots of CEOs, futures traders, rock musicians, and high-end call girls, do you? I'd like to work where you work.

Either a brothel or on Capitol Hill, I would think. Can't see anywhere else you'd have all of them.

Re:Less pressure to conform?

[chromatic]

Finally, I don't know much about law firsthand....

Clearly; a lot of the practice of certain kinds of law is problem solving.

Re:From what I've discovered...

[smisle]

The problem presented is similar to the signs you see up at small restaurants advertising what they sell:

Burgers Tuna Shakes

You can read it as "Burgers, Tuna Fish, and Shakes" or you can read it as "Burgers, and Tuna Shakes"

Now, OBVIOUSLY, the sign-writer didn't mean the second one (I hope!). You know this by the context, and that if they DID sell tuna shakes, they wouldn't advertise it. You can figure out what they meant by the context. Now, some signs are actually written incorrectly, so that they can ONLY be read the second, incorrect way. You still KNOW what they meant, even though they got it wrong.

Now, apply this to a normal conversation, where people aren't very careful about what they say, add one super-analytical person, and they will feel compelled to answer the question asked. Depending on the rest of their personality, they will then answer the question as they see it, even though they know this was not what was meant, and they know that the person who asked it was unaware of the incorrect question, OR they could point it out, etc, or they could convert the question in their mind, and then answer it.

Here's a good example of a similar problem.

Person one asks person two: Do you know what time it is? Person two merely answers yes, as person one didn't ask person two to tell them the time. It's just an overly literal interpretation of what they asked. You could answer the question (as above), or you could re-interpret the question and tell them the time. the OP, being an analytical person, used to take the first route, and as a compromise, now tells them, you meant to ask me what time it is, the time is x. It's a first step, and the OP did say that 'he' hoped to someday move to just answering the question as intended by the asker.

Re:From what I've discovered...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, the "If you need anything else, my name is Betty" is a programmer joke I heard a long time ago and thought was funny.

You need to relax man.

Re:"Right" and "Wrong" questions.

[swillden]

Either that, or he's someone who knows the definition of "pun".