Software Simian: Why?

For those wondering, the title of this blog is taken from a Dilbert cartoon. I've always liked the term code monkey, especially Jonathan Coulton's fabulous song. But alas, someone else is at codemonkey.blogspot.com and codemonkey.com. And then during my required morning reading of Dilbert, the solution appeared - heavens opened - angels singing - all that.

Code monkey can certainly have negative connotations. Hence the phrase, "just a code monkey" And so some developers may shy away. I can respect that. I certainly used to bristle at being called a programmer - I was a developer - I develop, I create - I take an idea from inception to production. To me, developer encompassed architect, designer, programmer (putting curly braces to paper), tester, maintainer. This is probably why I am attracted to the Agile mindset, the realization that you have to wear many hats at one time while building software.

So, if I wanted a fancy title now, I'd go with Solution Developer. But, as I mellow in time, a) titles aren't important, and talent is and b) putting the curly braces on paper is what I like to do. I don't want to manage, I want to be the best coder I can. So, I choose code monkey with a bit of irony, and my tongue in my cheek. Perhaps one day I can evolve into a higher coding primate.

One of my favorite authors is Robert Heinlein. In his novella Methusaleh's Children, the closing lines are "There ought not to be anything in the whole universe that man can't poke his nose into...whatever the answers are, here's one monkey that's going to keep on climbing, and looking around him to see what he can see, as long as the tree holds out."

Well, my friends, let us see how strong that tree is.