Coder Subculture: An Exploration
Software coders are a fascinating and unique subculture. This is why we need to understand them in the Digital Age.
Globally, it’s estimated there are about 28.7 million software developers pounding away on keyboards. Maybe a few more. Or less. That’s quite a small amount of humans compared to the several billion of us puttering about this planet. Especially given the impact they have on our species.
Coders are a subculture unto their own. Often depicted as nerds in movies and shows. Awkward, shy, aloof and perhaps disconnected in some ways. It’s a broad brush and not entirely accurate. Nor entirely wrong.
In this article I’ll take a high-level look at the subculture of coders, why it’s helpful to understand it and why it’s so fascinating and important to our world.
I’ve worked with hundreds of coders for well over 25 years. Some brilliant with no PhDs and others with PhDs that are quite clever too. While I’m not a coder myself, my work as a digital anthropologist means I have to understand the coder subculture to help in creating human-centric technologies and exploring the intersection between humanity, culture and technology.
I’ve often said that the culture is in the code and the code is in the culture. This is exemplified when it comes to coders. This is because they’re own cultural influences become embedded in the code, the solutions they are seeking and the biases of their lives. Just as writers and authors are influenced and often inspired, by the culture in which they live.
But whereas a novelist may write fictional stories that move us emotionally, a coder is writing to solve for a problem. It is a different type of story, yet one that remains ultimately very human. Coders at the heart of it, are problem solvers.
Coding is about purpose. Whether it be to automate a simple, repetitive task for themselves or something much bigger and meaningful like making a medical device that saves lives more efficient and reliable.
And that’s the drive behind coder subculture; problem solving. Efficiency. Effectiveness in the shortest of steps. So important is this ability to solve for problems that they will then build their lives and activities around this purpose.
Take Canadian software developer Rob Rinehart who created a product called Soylent. It is a concoction of mineral and vitamin powders, protein, a starch, oats and soy. It’s kind of like a milkshake. He created it to save time having to prepare, cook and eat meals so coders could get back to coding. It became a huge success and over a decade later, is still a viable business.
Not all coders seek this degree of efficiency just as not all coders are anti-social nerds as portrayed in movies and shows. But when one gets so immersed into coding and begins to discover what can be done, it influences ones lifestyle. Much as a farmer is so immersed in growing crops or raising animals. It becomes ones substrate of living.
Coders speak in their own sort of patois that’s evolved over the decades. Inside coding jokes, ways of talking that are shortened and staccato to outsiders. They have evolved common norms and social behaviours in how they will tease one another, in a way to create a more egalitarian system, yet will laud those seen as brilliant in their area of coding. A sort of informal hierarchy that is ever changing.
There is a sort of dress code that has evolved from the early times of coders who entered the business world in the 1960’s and 70’s, whop eschewed wearing ties. Today it’s all about hoodies, fancy sneakers and backpacks. Though they seek a sort of societal independence and non-conformity, they end up with a type of conformity anyway. All subcultures do.
To coders, they see much of the world as problems to be solved for. This can carry out into the real world with the products they develop and how they view ways in which the world and sometimes, humanity, can be logically organised and run. It is not malicious or some evil plot, it comes from a place of genuinely caring about the fate of humanity.
Understanding this ideology of sorts, though that too may not entirely be the right word as it is not a rigorously defined ideology or philosophy. When we hear ideas from coders who’ve become wealthy influencers from Silicon Valley who talk about what they believe their field of technology can do for society, it is from this mindset that they are viewing the world.
This is in part why the wider world of non-coders sometimes looks at them as they’re some sort of mad scientists and at other times as some sort of wise sage who will save the world. Unless you are a coder or deeply entrenched within that subculture, it can be difficult to understand their approach and view on humanity and the world.
This is where the friction often comes between broader society and some of the ideas put forth by some coders. Coders may at times struggle with the messiness of being human while much of the non-coder world is quite fine with all the messiness, or at least sees problem solving in different ways.
The vast majority of coders just want to do good things. They are brilliant creators who consciously or subconsciously, just want to help make the world a better place. There is of course a darker subset of this subculture who are malicious and do nasty things. That is found in all cultures and subcultures though.
The better we understand as a society, the mindset, values and worldview of coders, the better we can find ways of making software products work for humanity’s benefit. It is why I believe that in computer sciences education, the humanities should be a part of their learning. Classes on cultural anthropology (I’m admittedly biased on that one), sociology and psychology could benefit them. So that we all understand each other better.
We all view the world and shape our realities through the cultures we are raised in and much later by the professions we choose to pursue in life. The lens I use to observe the world is through understanding, or at least attempting to, culture. These are our biases that we must be aware of, to understand others.
Coding and creating a software product is very similar to that of writing a book, songs or creating art; deeply immersive, often lonely and very rewarding when done. Broader society tends to see coders as separate from this kind of creativity and that is to misunderstand the value coders deliver.
Broader society has been taught in a way, to view coders as distinct, other than. Yes, it is a subculture that seems quirky and at odds with society, but they’re no different than many other subcultures and there are many in this world!
It is a fascinating subculture to behold, to explore and understand but is important to understand as software, code, is becoming ever more deeply embedded in all aspects of our lives from the smallest of nanotechnologies to operating our electrical grids.
If you’re interested in a deeper dive into the culture of coders, I highly recommend the wonderful book “Coders” by journalist and author, Clive Thompson.