The Fine Line Between Genius And Madness
Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy? More Psychologist, Philosopher, Diplomat, Sociopath to be completely honest.
We walk a very fine line in the grand game of software engineering, often on a daily basis, and it can be very confusing for people outside of the industry when you tell them that you’re not just writing code all day.
It’s so, so much more than that.
Morning
In the morning we’re sociopaths until suitably caffeinated, of course, the stereotype here is inevitably correct.
In point of fact, it’s a well known secret within the cabal that all coffee is secretly caffeinated and all milk comes from cows — it’s just the labels that change. We write the code that drives that infrastructure, after all.
Head down, earphones on — walking, cycling, sometimes driving, between bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and home office we aren’t the threat we used to be to normals who accidentally stumbled across our purposeful path now we’re working primarily from our homes.
In olden times an unexpected delay at the coffee kiosk could cause untold collateral damage, a malfunctioning bike lock could cause a high decibel scream fatal to all within 50 yards, or a battery gone flat mid-commute could just ruin the whole damn day.
