If I can do it, you can do it

Re:If I can do it, you can do it by danso on Monday January 27, 2014 @01:58PM (#7132318)

I know this story is satirical anecdotal but I wonder what weight your parents' programming jobs has in your decision to be a programmer, at least compared to other professions? My parents were both COBOLers and that never at all interested me, yet we had a computer at home early on and my dad bought BASIC books for me to use.

Anecdotally, it seems most of my academic friends also have parents in academia. Chasing tenure track seems insane to me but if you grew up in a professor's household, it may seem less strange

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Re:If I can do it, you can do it by raganwald on Monday January 27, 2014 @02:02PM (#7132346)

I honestly don't know. When I first wrote a program, I felt like Mickey Mouse putting the sorcerer's hat on. My interest wasn't particularly rational.

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Re:If I can do it, you can do it by cafard on Monday January 27, 2014 @07:57PM (#7134534)

My parents had no programming jobs. My father must have learned a bit of programming along the way, in support of his work, but I never saw evidence of that. My mother did not program, and I don't believe that my stepmother ever learned. When I think about friends who program or have programmed for a living, I come up with (fathers' work here): coal miner; taxi dispatcher; engineer; technician; construction estimator.

I should say that I and most of my friends were born at a time when there were mighty few programming jobs.

[edit: corrected a typo]

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Re:If I can do it, you can do it by IceyEC on Monday January 27, 2014 @03:20PM (#7132913)

Well, my parents are a lawyer and court reporter so clearly not everything

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Re:If I can do it, you can do it by JoeAltmaier on Monday January 27, 2014 @03:55PM (#7133156)

Mine, farmer and homemaker

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