Software engineer Andrew told Bored Panda that the essence of any programmer's joy lies in creating new and exciting things, and seeing them work as intended, in all of their glory.
"The best moment for any programmer is seeing something you built work for the first time. It seems almost too good to be true, when something goes from an idea to a bunch of lines of code, to something that actually works and is helpful," Andrew explained a part of what drives his passion for coding.
"You don't even need to invent anything to experience this thrill. Often it's just a matter of taking a well-known algorithm and applying it to a new situation. There are many great teachers out there who can teach about algorithms and the thought process of how to apply them—people who can take something that has the potential to be really dry and make it fun and interesting," he explained that our mentors can shape how we view and experience the entire field of programming.
Andrew opened up to Bored Panda about how excited and joyous he felt when his software-based art project started working as intended. "I certainly had that kind of moment when my image processing program LeastAverageImage spat out the 'airplanes' image and it was exactly what I had been hoping for," he said. However, this wasn't the only time he felt like this.
"But I had a similar feeling when a program I intended to reduce photos to only the colors available on a Lite Brite completely failed but made a 'running paint' effect much cooler than anything I was intending to make," he shared. "That program isn't called LiteBriteColors now; it's called The ErrorSpreader," Andrew clarified.
The software engineer was honest about the fact that we can't expect huge breakthroughs and adrenaline-fuelled moments to happen too often in our daily lives. Though that doesn't mean that the job's all dull and dreary. Far from it! "Those 'eureka' moments don't happen every day, but the day-to-day fun in programming is debugging. I know that sounds crazy because if you're debugging it usually means the code you wrote doesn't work! But everyone I work with feels this way. The more confusing and strange the program's behavior is, the more fun it is to unravel the mystery, find the cause, and fix it. It's like a puzzle."
Finally, Andrew shared an exclusive glimpse into the world of programming with Bored Panda by giving us a taste of the kind of wit he heard during a grad class that he took.
"Teacher: Since we don't care about the language specifics, I'm going to write the example in pseudo-code.
Student: Pseudo-code...isn't that the puzzle with numbers on a grid?
Teacher: No, that's Sudoku."
Who said that learning can't be fun?
Currently, the r/ProgrammerHumor subreddit has just over 1.6 million members. It has been steadily growing as a community for the past decade. The sub will be celebrating 10 years since its founding on January 22, 2022, so if you’re a fan of what they do, why not pop in and say a quick, ‘Congratulations!’
The online group documents any and all memes and jokes that are related to everything to do with programming and computer science. So if you’ve got a coding meme that’s been on your mind for a while now or you’ve stumbled upon a programming joke online, don’t be shy, share it on the sub. However, you should put in the effort to be original. Check if you’re reposting a popular meme before sharing it.
The subreddit’s moderators have some guidelines for new and existing members. According to them, members ought to avoid generic memes that could apply to any profession and should also steer clear of general tech-related jokes that have been done to death. Jokes about putting your USB drive in the wrong way several times in a row would be an example of something that’s already been laughed at enough, it’s time for something fresh.
What the community is not, however, is your personal army of tech-savvy geeks who will fix any and all IT, PC, and coding issues you might have. If you want advice, there are plenty of online communities for that. r/ProgrammerHumor does what it says on the tin: it’s about programmer humor. Nothing more. Nothing less.
At the end of the day, as long as you put some effort into your jokes and titles, you should be fine. Part of the subreddit’s success can most likely be explained by the fact that they set the bar higher than average. This, in turn, leads to great jokes and even better memes that make internet users chuckle and subscribe. It’s an upward spiral of success that starts with extra effort on an individual redditor’s scale.
When it comes to humor, especially niche humor that’s related to coding, some Pandas will, inevitably, miss the joke. However, that’s part of the fun. It’s a learning process that helps reignite our curiosity about the world and hones our sense of humor.
British comedy writer and stand-up comedian Ariane Sherine explained to me a while back that some people have jokes go over their heads because they weren’t looking for them. “I think some people just aren't used to looking for the humor in situations,” she told Bored Panda that if we’re aware that there should be a joke coming, our minds will work in overdrive to try and get it.
“Many people take life very seriously (like my mum, who can vaguely identify a joke but always laughs in the wrong place!). Alternatively, it could be the fault of the person telling the joke—the humor might be too subtle and not signposted enough,” Ariane explored some other reasons why someone might not get the joke.
