Why are Chinese programmers always called code farmers?

In fact, the IT industry in China is not a particularly bad industry, and the salary of programmers is not low, but why are Chinese programmers always called code farmers or miserable programmers? What is the difference between the life of Chinese programmers and that of European and American programmers?

Previously, the R&D channel published two articles, "How Eastern Programmers View Western Programmers" and "Eastern Programmers in the Eyes of Western Peers". Programmers from all over the world expressed their opinions. Perhaps, from the above two articles, we can also draw some conclusions about "Why are Chinese programmers always called code farmers?" The following are the opinions of the experts on Zhihu. Let's take a look together!

Answer from a programmer named Wu Tao:

Programming activities, like mechanical and electronic activities, can be considered a kind of craftsmanship. People who engage in such craftsmanship can be called craftsmen or engineers. European and American countries that have experienced the industrial revolution have a deep engineering foundation. From machinery to electronics to software, they are all the pillars of the national industry, nourishing the middle class, the backbone of society. Engineers generally have a relatively high social status. They have a heritage of craftsmanship, a cultural circle, and a history of industry.

The current software industry in China is very similar to the manufacturing industry, which is mainly based on low-level repetitive labor of processing materials. Just like farmers rely on God to provide seeds, soil, sunlight and water, Chinese programmers rely on foreigners to provide equipment, technology and ideas. From microprocessors, operating systems, programming languages, compilers, IDEs, programming frameworks to applications, except for the sand used to make wafers, which is locally produced, there is almost nothing of their own. The daily work content is mainly to assemble what others have according to their own needs - or even not their own. There is no creativity, and there is little technical accumulation and inheritance in the industry. Even if there is, it cannot be spread. After all, the cultural level of programmers is generally not high - "knowledgeable but not cultured", that is, this situation.

I remember the era when low-quality pirated VCDs were everywhere. A programmer made an ugly player with good decoding tolerance, which was in line with the national conditions and became famous overnight. As a result, he finally wrote a book, but few sentences were smooth. This poor condition of technical books has continued to this day, and the poor methods have become more diverse. There is no technical inheritance, no cultural circle, and there are many people who knew nothing about programming before going to college. They only studied computers because computers are "hot". It's like an arranged marriage, without a trace of love, and finally they make programming their career, just because they can't do anything else.

On the other hand, domestic programmers do have a hard time, no matter how much they are paid. Many people are forced to work overtime for a long time, and it even becomes a voluntary habit. However, productivity and product quality have not improved as a result. Just like farmers who have been accustomed to using hoes and sickles for thousands of years, few people want to learn and improve their tools and habits, and even have irrational resistance to emerging trends and methods. Life is so miserable, but so unprogressive, which is very similar to the problems of farmers. In addition, just like the country people in the eyes of city people, programmers are dull, sloppy, lack of sentiment, and rustic. But they are conceited and look down on each other.

In short, as a programmer in China, there is rarely anything that can make people feel that the work they do is decent. So, in a society where self-deprecation is the fashion and many industries like to belittle themselves aggressively, there will be no psychological burden when you try to belittle your profession, self-deprecate and quarrel with others. However, just like black people can call themselves or each other "niggers", but white people will get into trouble if they dare to say so, programmers who like to call themselves this may not tolerate others calling them this.

Finally, there is a similar term in English, which calls an office with partitions a cube farm, which is common in traditional software companies. The cartoon Dilbert, which satirizes (but is not limited to) the daily life of software companies, has many scenes in grid offices. However, cube farm does not mean that programmers are like farmers, but that they are like crops or fruit trees in the field, producing fruits and waiting to be harvested. After all, farmers in developed countries in Europe and the United States often live better than programmers. High income, agricultural machinery, large tracts of private land, and a peaceful pastoral life. The life of farmers there, if not desirable, at least has no derogatory meaning.

Supplement: The usage of code monkey in English mentioned in the same article is different from the usage of "code farmer" in Chinese.

A code monkey is a person who is a computer programmer or someone who codes for a living. The term may have a slightly derogatory meaning, meaning that the developer may write code but cannot perform more complex tasks, such as building software structure, analysis and design, and generally refers to junior programmers.

If a code monkey is working to increase his knowledge and improve his professional skills, then another level of noun will be given to him.

In fact, the term code monkey is still a bit difficult to classify, because those who are really skilled developers or programmers are still doing coding work. Maybe it would be better to divide it like this:

1. coder: coder

2. programmer: programmer

3. software engineer

4. Software Analyst: Software Analyst

5. software architect: software architect

Perhaps you could add prefixes like "junior," "intermediate," or "senior," which reflect a certain grade, skill level, and salary.

Please note: it can only be determined in a certain hierarchy within a small scope, such as within a company, or even a department. A "programmer" working in company A may have more skills than a mid-level architect in company B.

The following is the answer from Deng Chenhua, who focuses on front-end technology:

First of all, the title of the question "Why are Chinese programmers always called code farmers?" is somewhat debatable, because the fact I know is that most of the time "Chinese programmers call themselves code farmers", and it is rare for people from different industries to call programmers "code farmers". Of course, it may have something to do with the environment I am in. I agree with what Tao Wu said that "programmers who call themselves code farmers may not tolerate others calling them that", because it is like the example he gave, black people are allowed to call themselves code farmers, but white people are not allowed to call themselves code farmers. The same word is intimate, self-deprecating, and even self-ironic when said by acquaintances, but to outsiders, it is not only disrespectful, but also potentially insulting.

Secondly, in the Internet industry, programmers work hard and it is normal to work overtime. Project progress, emergencies, and company culture may all become reasons for overtime. Although the income is not necessarily bad, it is quite miserable. On the other hand, programmers are a mixed bag with varying levels of skill. The Internet has always been an open industry that emphasizes ability. You get paid according to your ability. This is bound to cause a considerable number of programmers to have insufficient skills, resulting in income issues becoming a headache for "code farmers".

"Hard work" and "low income" are similar to farmers, so whether you are self-deprecating or being called a "code farmer" by others, it is very likely that you have one of these two characteristics. If you have both, you are a purebred "code farmer", which is really miserable.

Of course, there is a third situation, like Zhao Jie's brother-in-law, who is a "piano-playing programmer" who has reached a certain level as a "programmer" and does not necessarily emphasize the hard work and the poor income. He jokes about life in a teasing tone of "programmers". This mentality is the same as everyone calling themselves a loser, which is more self-deprecating. In fact, there are many elite "programmers" in the industry who have high incomes and are relatively less hardworking.

The following is an explanation provided by graduate student Wu Zhou from the first issue of Turing Chinese Community e-magazine "Coder": "So-called Coder" article:

Some people like the name "code farmer", while others don't. The difference lies in how they feel about the word "nong". Nong, of course, refers to farmers. This word has a rich connotation. It can be said to be great or insignificant. It is said to be great because our survival is inseparable from farmers, and China has always been an agricultural country. It was once said that 80% of the people are farmers, which means that one or two generations ago, you and I were all farmers. From this perspective, farmers are great. It is said to be insignificant because in everyone's concept, farmers mean many shortcomings. The high-sounding statement is that they are bad natures, such as short-sightedness, outdated thinking, selfishness, etc. In short, they are all kinds of problems that we educated people can't stand - although we have these problems ourselves, but we can't see them - so "farmer" has become a common word for scolding people.

In fact, there are some similarities between my programming career and the work of hoeing the fields at noon. You can imagine that the neatly planted rice seedlings in the fields are somewhat similar to the scattered lines of code displayed on the screen. There are particularities in planting various crops, just as you should pay attention to programming style. Fertilization and irrigation are like compiling and linking your code. Weeding and pest control are naturally debugging. You fetch water and I water the garden, which is probably pair programming in a small vegetable garden. Because they rely on the weather for their livelihood, farmers also need to learn some cloud computing, and more and more people go to Wudaokou Vocational and Technical School for further studies. In the harvest season, there are more people than work, and outsourcing is often done because deadlines are important. But frankly speaking, the term "code farmer" makes people feel more funny, weird, and nonsensical. After all, one is simple physical labor and the other is high-IQ mental labor, which cannot be compared. Programmers, on the other hand, prefer this feeling of time and space confusion. They are self-deprecating (I am just a farmer!) yet at the same time they are pretentious (I am a programmer, who am I afraid of?!). They are extremely independent.

Under the straw hat of the programmer is a free and uninhibited mind full of creativity. They follow best practices and hate stereotypes and dogmas. They appreciate genius but do not believe in authority. They like to think but do not easily agree. They are technical people, but they pursue humanistic ideals; they dare to shout, express their own opinions and ideas, and are better at being down-to-earth and using their own work to change the status quo. The programmers are diligent, and working overtime is a common thing. How many lights in the city at night are lit in the offices and homes of the programmers? How many programmers are active in the technical exchanges and lectures held everywhere on weekends? Offline reading, online discussions, meditation, hands-on practice, new technologies drive the footsteps of programmers, and programmers are changing our lives. Survival is inseparable from farmers, and life is inseparable from programmers.

Dear "coders", what do you think of this title? What do you think about the opinions of the above experts? Why not share with us!

This article is compiled from Zhihu.com

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