From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 11232c,ab67bdd1ff50fd8
X-Google-Attributes: gid11232c,public
X-Google-Thread: 103376,c8086456b887be55
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-04-27 11:03:07 PST
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,misc.misc
Path: 
 newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!news-reader.ntrnet.net!uunet!ash.uu.net!xyzzy!nntp
From: Jeffrey Carter <jeffrey.carter@boeing.com>
Subject: Re: Ada, Software Engineering and "weirdoes" (was License to Steal)
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: e246420.msc.az.boeing.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Message-ID: <3AE9AD0B.79593A@boeing.com>
Sender: nntp@news.boeing.com (Boeing NNTP News Access)
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Organization: The Boeing Company
X-Accept-Language: en
References: <92HD6.3345$D4.334091@www.newsranger.com>
 <200104240531.WAA01552@well.com> <3AE5A34F.B89C8D5F@boeing.com>
 <tei8u4eutfetad@corp.supernews.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 17:31:55 GMT
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en]C-CCK-MCD Boeing Kit  (WinNT; U)
Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:6989 misc.misc:2631
Date: 2001-04-27T17:31:55+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Peter Richtmyer wrote:
> 
> "Jeffrey Carter" <jeffrey.carter@boeing.com> wrote in message
> news:3AE5A34F.B89C8D5F@boeing.com...
> > This has something to
> > do with how people's brains are wired; only weirdoes can be software
> > engineers.
> 
> I question the term "weirdoes". We have qualities (perhaps) and modes of
> operation when programming that are fairly rare. I am not sure that "rare"
> should be confused with "weird". I am not a linguist, but I just looked up
>  "weird" in my Webster's, and I do not think it fits. Ironically, I had
> Webster's
> out because earlier I had looked up "peer", because we are going through
> "peer reviews", and I felt that most of those "peers" of mine were not, by
> definition, my  peers. Except that we ("software engineers") are not
> "ranked"
> based upon the "software engineering" that we do. We are ranked based
> upon so many other factors (including coding).

A "weirdo" in common American usage is simply someone who is
significantly different from the norm; it was not uncommon when I was in
school to hear it applied to stereotypical nerds. I did not use it
seriously, but merely to emphasize that those capable of becoming
software engineers differ from a significant majority of the population.

This implies that cost-effective development of high-quality software
cannot be accomplished through the "replaceable moron" approach most
organizations are so enamored of.