I am not a rock star 16

Posted by Piers Cawley Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:13:00 GMT

I am not a rock star. I am a computer programmer. I think I’m quite a good one.

You are not a rock star either.

387,000 matches to that query. Can we all just… I don’t know… grow up please?

Mutter… grumble… chunter… I’m 40 you know!

Updates

I have it on reliable authority that James O’Kelly is a Ruby on Rails Rockstar that would make a great addition to any team!

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  1. Avatar
    Codepope about 4 hours later:

    Hey, at least Ruby and Rails gets Rock stars….

    On Java, we have no good alliteration. Well, apart from junkie. And that’s not good either. (and jewel sounds nice but it’s a bit princessy)

    And heck, spare a thought for the .Net chaps… what alliterates with dot?

  2. Avatar
    Piers Cawley about 4 hours later:

    Actually, if you google for javascript rockstar you get more hits than for ruby OR rails rockstar.

  3. Avatar
    Aristotle Pagaltzis about 7 hours later:

    Maybe someone died and made you a rock star programmer? :-)

  4. Avatar
    Ben about 8 hours later:

    I really, really hate the whole “rockstar/ninja/whatever” job posting trend. I’m hopeful it’ll die out soon, but let’s just say I’m not holding my breath.

    Re: javascript rockstars – I bet that there’s a lot of overlap. In fact, here are the numbers (Googling, of course):

    javascript rockstar        - 475k
(ruby or rails) rockstar   - 381k
javascript rockstar -rails - 245k
javascript rockstar -ruby  - 213k
  5. Avatar
    Piers Cawley about 9 hours later:

    Oh… ninjas. I forgot the fucking ninjas. Thanks so much for reminding me.

  6. Avatar
    Jack Danger Canty about 12 hours later:
    Wanted: Rails Rockstar Must have:
    • Drug Addiction
    • Inflated sense of self importance
    • Guitar or keyboard
    • Willingness to sign a contract blindly
    • Tight pants

    Payment in stock options only.

  7. Avatar
    spacemonkey about 17 hours later:

    Piers, when coders get to our age they are no longer capable of being ninjas. That is when we need to transition to sumo wrestlers.

    WANTED: Ruby on Rails Sumo Wrestlers

    Yeah, I like how that one looks. :-)

  8. Avatar
    Thomas about 18 hours later:

    I was told that I’d be a Cowboy. I guess that’s the quite variation of the Rockstar.

    And yes, I hate to be a cowboy, but what else can I do? Digging for oil?

  9. Avatar
    Piers Cawley 1 day later:

    I have an embarrassing confession…

    If you search for “Piers Cawley” on Google groups, you’ll find posts of mine from around ‘95-6 in which I describe myself in my .signature as a “Systems Sheriff at Frontier Internet”.

  10. Avatar
    Ajit 1 day later:

    Come on! We all know all computer programmers are as good as rockstars. Haha. Without us, the world would quite stop working. We are indispensable.

  11. Avatar
    Simon 1 day later:

    I was a rock star.

  12. Avatar
    E. James O'Kelly 2 days later:

    Ahh, thanks for reminding me to target a new set of keywords. Maybe I will ask for the phrase to be included in testimonials. ie James O’Kelly is a Ruby on Rails Rockstar that would make a great addition to any team!

    I do have a lot of tats and a guitar, used to have some nice addictions…. bah… never was emo enough for tight pants. too bad.

  13. Avatar
    chromatic 3 days later:

    My undergraduate degree is in Rock Star. Seriously. (Well, mostly serious.)

  14. Avatar
    Piers Cawley 3 days later:

    @E. James O’Kelly: Right you are James. Check out the updated article. Hope this helps you.

  15. Avatar
    sprewell 7 days later:

    As soon as I see someone writing about rock star programmers, I know that person is an idiot. Unfortunately, many of the people who write job postings are idiots.

  16. Avatar
    Brendan 20 days later:

    But are you a code warrior?

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