Why I don't want to be a programmer

[Chris Knight <knight -at- ADA -dot- COM>]

Here's a new angle on this thread:
Some years ago I was working for a software development company--
they made e-mail software and shall remain nameless.
I was writing manuals for the mail server administrators. I was
having a problem with my main SME--he was very vague, hard to get
definitive answers out of.

So, after quite a bit of this, I took one of my major questions to
the Software Development manager, saying "I'm having a problem
getting clear on this". Well, she said, "The only way to be sure is
to look at the source code". So she called it up on her nice big
Sparc monitor and started a blazing series of commands looking for
the right module.

At this point, things slowed down and the two of us are looking at
the source code, and she's giving me a play-by-play as she follows
the logic and structure. After a while I said "Oh there it is!
It's blah blah..." She checks it and says "Yes that's the answer.
Hey! you should be a programmer!"

"No thanks" says I, "I prefer writing. It's more challenging solving
people problems than engineering problems." And so it is.

--
Chris Knight
Consultant, Technical Communication Architect
Vancouver BC, Canada
(currently at Applied Digital Access,
E-mail: knight -at- bcg -dot- ada -dot- com    Phone: 604-415-5886   Fax: 604-415-5900)
Opinions expressed are my own, not ADA's