Developer the next Renaissance man: Beggars can't be makers.
Tags: coding, discuss, career
Published: 2018-10-25 03:54:06

---
title: Developer the next Renaissance man: Beggars can't be makers.
published: true
description: A rebuttal to being called an ideological beggar. 
tags: coding, discuss, career
---

Normally I don't care what other people write say or do, and I just let the haters hate. But something about this post made me want to rage vomit all over the keyboard so here it goes. 

I am going to try and dismantle [this](https://dev.to/mudasobwa/developer-is-the-next-ideological-beggar-job-59id/comments) article piece by piece in a civil and respectful manner, not that it does the same courtesy to it's audience by any means. 

First lets start with this. 
"Yes, I said that. I am not talking about real developers, who calculate rocket’s trajectories in NASA". 

Okay, I assume he is talking about American salaries, since he mentions NASA. If this is the case I am not sure the author knows how the American Economy works... You see, here we have a free market. No one is "overpaid" despite that term being thrown around a lot. You see, here in the Land of The Free you don't have to be a wage slave. Instead you ask for an amount of money, then you find someone willing to pay that amount. That's it. *You are worth whatever you can convince someone to pay you*. If you claim that someone is "overpaid" you are assuming you can better assess someones value than they, and the party paying them can. That is a sign you are due for an ego check. As long as there is no scamming/con-artistry the concept of being overpaid is fundamentally un-American. You decide your worth, not some angry blogger. If both parties know and understand what will be delivered payment is between them.

Next!

"Writing pieces of banking software receiving at least twice as much as a bus driver is a nonsense. IQ required to code CRUD in any web framework is below average." 

Perfect! I wrote banking software, I am hella qualified to field this one. 
So lets break down this nonsense statement. 

"IQ required to code CRUD in any web framework is below average." citation please? I have worked with a lot of programmers, and funnily enough, even the worst of them seemed to have at-least average intelligence, but most of them are mega-smart, driven and determined. Especially the self taught ones. "Writing pieces of banking software receiving at least twice as much as a bus driver is a nonsense." Weird, a skilled job paying twice as much as an unskilled one? What has the world come to? Im not going to make any further comment because I think bashing bus drivers is uncool. 

Now, idk what type of software he has seen in banks but the "CRUD" app I worked on at Amex was admittedly pretty simple. All you had to know to jump on the team and be one of the best was:
React, Typescript, Node, Joi, D3, Express, Next, Html, Css, Git, Docker, Jest, Enzyme, Local-storage, image processing, Emotion, Ramda, Yup Storybook, GraphQL, Apollo, Formik, and Redux. Oh and then all of the domain knowledge. 

Cakewalk right? Should be easy for any geek off the streets to pick up in a week right? Come the hell on dude.

"Random people, who do not love to code, come to the profession after big salaries."
*GASP* You mean here in America people choose jobs based on how well they can fund their passions and raise a family? *Bunch of greedy motherfuckers*, all of you should be like me. I sit and code for thirty cents a day out of the pure love of the craft. 

When a release is breathing down your neck, the weeks start to approach 60+ hours, its money that keeps your fingers at the keys, pretending its something else makes you an obvious virtue signaler. 

"Can you imagine a surgeon who’s afraid of blood" 
I have never written software that someones life depends on. NEXT!

"Let’s talk about bus drivers. They have a broken schedule, an uncomfortable chair, a rolling wheel instead of the table" 
Maybe they should learn to code? Seriously, I used to dig holes for a living in 110 degree weather. It fucking sucked, so I learned to code. NEXT!

"And despite that developers have unimaginably inflated demands." Inflated by whose standards? Obviously not the people currently fulfilling them lol.

"Something like bartender unionists discussing whether “bloody Mary” should be now called “somewhat-red-colored bot” and denying serving it under the former misogynistic name?"
So Im actually on his side here. Grow some thicker skin and respect our heritage. Sure the worlds fucked up and unfair, guess what it was 100 years ago? Way more fucked up and unfair. Thankfully because a bunch of brave hero's were a lot further than we used to be. But complaining on twitter doesn't make you a champion of social issues, it makes you a whiney child. So at least we see eye to eye here.

"Developers Are Not Elite Anymore"
Elon Musk? NEXT!

oh... I guess thats it. So Ill sum up.
Don't listen to people who do nothing but complain about the success of others, stop begging for attention and go make something worth while. 

Beggars can't be makers, if you create something of value what you ask for in return is called payment.