I put on my robe and wizard hat...

Do you programmers and computer techs sometimes get the feeling you're really some sort of black magic sorcerers?

Think about it.  You're distrusted by most who employ your services.  Most understand absolutely nothing about what you do.  They are extremely wary of computers, the one tool that makes your job exist.  If something happens by their own fault, they immediately blame it on you.  They go so far as to attribute devilish properties to the machine and believe that it actively works against their interests.  They'll find any possible excuse to get you burned at the stake even if you've done nothing wrong.  And at the same time, they expect you to solve all the world's problems in five minutes with two lines of code.

So really, what's the difference in the end?

Do you programmers and computer techs sometimes get the feeling you're really some sort of black magic sorcerers?

no, but i allways wanted to be a magican.

;_;

>>1
Do you programmers and computer techs sometimes get the feeling you're really some sort of black magic sorcerers?
Yes, ever since I read my SICP. Programming indeed is closer to magic than it is to science or engineering.

I conjure the spirits of the computer with my spells

The real difference is, with computer programming, it's the level of abstraction that makes it difficult to comprehend, while black magic doesn't exist.

The real difference is, with black magic, it's the level of abstraction that makes it difficult to comprehend, while computer programming doesn't exist.

Where do you think the term automagically comes from?

>>7
Satan.  The same one who invented guesstimate.

>>7
Why, it's a play on `automatically', where a g is substituted for the second t in order to create a form of portmanteau where the word `magic' is glued into (not onto the end, as with a regular portmanteau) the word `automatically', of course.
This fuses their meanings and implies that the subject verb is both automatic and magic.
Clever, huh?

>>1
Impressive postulate, OP. The only difference is merely the state of mind you take into the comparison, not unlike the neural net that enlightened the Sussman.

12 Name: Anonymous 2012-12-08 15:54

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