This is what we do

I am reading  The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas and the very first page strikes a chord with me. I hope to learn and share few things as I read the book.

Programming is a craft.

At its simplest, it comes down to getting a computer to do what you want it to do (or what your user wants it to do).

As a programmer, you are part listener, part advisor, part interpreter, and part dictator. You try to capture elusive requirements and find a way of expressing them so that a mere machine can do them justice.

You try to document your work so that others can understand it, and you try to engineer your work so that others can build on it. What's more, you try to do all this against the relentless ticking of the project clock.

You work small miracles every day.

It's a difficult job.