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The Psychology of Computer Programming — Interlude: Part 1: Programming as Human Performance
- Source: /library/The Psychology of Computer Programming/source-file.pdf
- PDF pages: 26–30
- Pages without text: 27
- OCR note: OCR is supplied below for image-only pages; multi-column reading order may be imperfect, so consult the PDF for layout and visuals.
- Note: Part introduction and Silver Anniversary comments on the part.
PROGRAMMING AS HUMAN _ ERFORMANCE
[OCR from image-only PDF page; verify layout and illustrations in the PDF.]
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One can- not help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous struc- ture of reality. It is enough if one tries to compre- hend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. AlbertEinstein* omputer programming is a human activity. One could hardly dis- pute this assertion, and yet, perhaps because of the emphasis placed on the machine aspects of programming, many people -many programmers-have never considered programming in this light. Among programmers, there is a certain mystique--a certain waving of the hands which takes place whenever one tries to probe the manner in which programming is done. Programming is not done in a certain way, they say, it is just done. Either you can program or you cannot. Some have it; some don't. One of the corollaries of this mystique is the high salaries that must be paid. to those programmers who *have it”---and even to some who
- From Death of a Genius, by William Miller, LIFE Magazine, May 2, 1955 C 1955 Time Inc.
4 Programming as Human Performance don’t, just on the chance that they might. Perhaps because of these high salaries, or because they cannot tolerate being at the mercy of a mystique they don’t understand, computer executives have always been aware of the human element in programming. Their concern, however, has usually been with eliminating, rather than understanding, the human element. Over the years, executives have backed their desire to eliminate pro- grammers with staggering funds. Dozens of simplistic schemes have been heaped with money and praise on the promise—as yet not kept—of going directly from a sales proposal to a working data-processing system. But we should not chide these executives for their naiveté in assessing technical merits. We should applaud them for their sophistication in sensing the source of so many of our problems. Their touching faith in the magic of technology should serve as inspiration to those of us who daily bend our backs to the programmer’s burden. Perhaps their wishes—though they can surely never be fulfilled—should give us pause— make us lift our noses from the coding pad or the terminal—and con- sider this human activity of ours from a human point of view.
Silver Anniversary Notes P1.i Comments on Part 1: Programming as Human Performance Over the years, executives have backed their desire to elimi- nate programmers with staggering funds. (p. 4) The only thing that’s changed here in twenty-five years is the fact that the funds dedicated by executives to eliminating programmers from their payrolls have become far more staggering than | imagined back then. And, now, | finally recognize in this executive desire a pattern so strong, so emotional, that it has blinded these executives to two facts: 1. None of these schemes has succeeded in eliminating programmers. (We have now at least ten times as many as we did then.) 2. Every one of these schemes has been concocted by programmers themselves, the very people the executives want so passionately to eliminate. So, although people say that programmers lack interpersonal skills, they evi- dently have a skill at persuasion that surpasses that of the late, great P.T. Barnum, famous for proving his theory: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
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