Psychological deformation of programmers. View from both sides of the barricades

The very existence of a psychological strain in any profession is usually quite a controversial point due to the fact that it manifests itself differently in different people. However, the general trend can be identified and, perhaps, the time has come when one can quite boldly say that programmers still have their own special psychological portrait due to their professional activities.

I quite often came across this opinion and did not attach much importance to it, but when the female team of our organization congratulated the programmers on February 23 for calling them “space troops”, I decided to place certain accents in this matter, because One of my professions is directly related to psychoanalysis. And the bash is no longer silent .


Immediately it is worth noting that a programmer spends a lot of time on the computer, therefore, many of the listed items apply not only to programmers specifically, but to “computer scientists” as a whole.
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Hyperconcentration

Every programmer knows that good and high-quality work on the code requires a very high degree of immersion in the code. Someone tries to isolate himself with headphones, someone sets timers, turns off all external stimuli, etc. The degree of concentration when a programmer is working is comparable to work at a nuclear station. Accordingly, all this gives rise to increased irritability at the interruption of this process, which is outwardly perceived by the uninitiated as “confusion at work”, etc.

In real life, this can also cause its effects, such as domestic affairs, too, out of habit, begin to be produced in a hyperconcentration mode. For example, during cleaning in an apartment, the programmer will not at the same time think about a million cases or talk impetuously on the phone. Rather, he plunges into some of his task (maybe in the cleaning itself) and will simply be engaged in the process. You should not “demand external attention” from a programmer when he is loaded into a code or some kind of task.

Immersion in the internal images and designs

The work of the programmer has its own specifics, which in a similar form is most inherent in the profession of engineer-inventor. If you are familiar with the works of Nikola Tesla, then you can remember how he described what is happening in his head. In short, Tesla could build a mechanism in his head, start it, and even “scroll through” his work to understand what details would wear out and where problems could arise in the future. No less complex constructions arise in the course of the programmer’s professional work. This effect is called imaginative design. If a man in the street sees only character sets on the screen, then in the programmer’s head this code turns into whole parts of the world. Just as reading a book creates images and experiences in a person, so the code can do the same with a programmer. That is why programmers "feel" the code, they know when it is "beautiful", when it is "dirty", whether it will work, etc. For some reason, a good programmer is comparable to a writer of fiction.

In real life, this is manifested in excessive immersion inside oneself, especially if the programmer is trying to understand something. If the deformation is significant, then the programmer can begin to build a whole scheme of what is happening now. That is why often “built schemes of social interactions”, for example politics, programmers evoke the feeling of “dirty code” and rejection. In everyday life, this can sometimes be partially perceived as a mild form of autism, although in reality it is not. A person is quite adequate and open to interaction with the outside world, but the interaction mechanisms themselves have the specified specifics.

Low level of social interaction and its diversity in daily work

This moment is not “de facto”, but nevertheless it periodically occurs and can play its specific role in the deformation of the psyche. Since the programmer spends most of his work in the code world, the only “interlocutors” in it are “methods, functions, objects, modules, packages, etc.”, respectively, and the level of social interaction among programmers is usually lower, than in most professions. This is connected not so much with how many people are involved in the work, but with whether people themselves are thinking about other people at the moment. If it is difficult to call the work of the janitor “actively social”, nevertheless, the janitor himself can at this moment reflect on his wife, children, friends, etc. But for the programmer, this possibility is absent; it must be immersed in the code. And although there is often a working team, the team is usually the same programmers. It is sometimes difficult for programmers to work alongside people from other professions. So if the degree of deformation in a team is high, then this only aggravates this factor (social diversity of relations).

Aggravated perception of cause-effect relationships

Any code should work, but to write working code, you need to understand the structure of the cause-and-effect relationships of this code. Simply put, “what, why, and how it happens,” as well as “what happens if something does not happen as expected.” All this leaves its mark on the thinking of man. This way of thinking is also called “technical mentality” when a person tries to find a rational explanation for everything and to understand the causal relationship. In addition to writing code, individual programmers are often drawn into technical aspects, such as the development of hardware for their needs (hello to the "soldering iron"). Sometimes it can reach unique add-ons in the psyche. For example, when the difficult fastener of a bra of the girl causes as much interest, as well as that this bra hides.

From the outside it can often be perceived as “confusion over trifles.” What is of no interest to most people in a programmer can generate enormous streams of thought. Accordingly, since the volume of application of mental effort is not proportional, the conclusions that the programmer makes about the effects of the real world can sometimes seem "eccentric" and be perceived with a certain surprise. But what is surprising, if you ask the programmer why he decided this, you will most likely get a whole chain of causal relationships, and almost always quite reasonable ones. In general, this happens in the mind of every person, however, it is often the aggravated point of the programmers and sometimes he is able to involve for the analysis those analogies that would not have occurred to the ordinary person.

The addiction to the formalized formulation of tasks

Since the programmer must create code that should work exactly as it is required for the task, the habit of doing what has been said gradually flows into other areas of life. But since in most cases of social interaction there is a non-verbal perception, “guessing” and “thinking out”, then the programmers have a sharpened sense of concretization.

Not to say that programmers do not know how to read thoughts and foresee the actions of other people, but rather they prefer to ask an extra question than to “redo it again”. Send a programmer to the store? Say one more sentence, but save him and yourself from unnecessary questions. For example, not “buy eggs”, but “buy ten eggs of the first grade fresher”. And do not take it as a "robot" if your question you get detailed instructions with a bunch of "you do not need details." He tries to do everything right. If for the majority of “be easier” it is “say less”, then for programmers “be simpler” it is often “speak more precisely”.

The victims of "engineering-glamor"

I risk to be “eaten alive”, but this moment requires all the same coverage in this article. It is not so much about programmers, but about "computer scientists". Glamor is a normal and natural generation of human needs, in short, the slogan of glamor can be called “Who is cooler”, respectively for real life it is “cars, clothes, loot, etc.”. In the field of engineering-glamor, the same principle “Who is cooler” operates, but with different criteria. Since the main concentration of "computer scientist" is directed not at other people, as in the "glamor of the real world", but at its own inner world of images and cause-effect relationships, respectively, and the goals here are pursued from the area of ​​this world. The latest featured smartphone; powerful computer / server / laptop so that everything runs even faster; fresh programs that drive the autocomplex in 32 milliseconds faster; new applications with smoother prorutkoy and fashionable voice recognizer; knowledge of the secret features of the new version of the compiler, etc.
As in the "real glamor", so in the "engineering" has its own "icons", for example the recent article about the modem US Robotics is a clear example of this.
So don’t ask “why does he need the same phone” and don’t be surprised at the answer “it’s not the same, it’s right there by 500 megahertz more powerful”
An interesting moment. In some cases, "engineering glamor" can be suppressed by a heightened demand for causal relationships. That is, the new computer will not be bought until its power is really required.

Conclusion

Actually the whole series “The Big Bang Theory” is built on the hyperbolas of the phenomena described above. If it is not so much to exaggerate what is shown in TBV, then on the whole it is precisely this picture that would be observed in a person who would be significantly affected by all the specified effects of the programmer’s work.

Taking into account everything described, it is not without reason that programmers are perceived as “cosmic comrades,” but in my subjective opinion, I would like to say that if it were not for the voluntary choice of those who go into the ranks of programmers, then they would be worth giving “milk for harm”, but in This case is of a psychological nature.

Nevertheless, each person builds his own life and the very fact of the psychological deformation of the “code workers” is not so great yet. Most have family, friends, interests other than code and computer. So do not get fooled by the template "yes he is a programmer." This is not a diagnosis, it is just a style of thinking)

Leksunin Eugene,
"Reducing entropy in development"

UPD :
A small bonus from the user ikra : LJ post "Do not wake the programmer . "