To non-programmers, programmers are akin to witches and warlocks. They inscribe indecipherable runes — or code, as they lovingly refer to it — into their computers and in doing so instruct the inanimate (but likely magic) rocks within those computers on how to think.
The thinking rocks are then able to do all the things that make life in the 21st century what it is — from maintaining our system of currency to enabling us to make and share memes.
Silly and reductive as this man teaches rock to think explanation is, it’s not entirely untrue, which makes it all the funnier. And if that doesn’t make for fertile meme-making ground, nothing does.
So, kick back, grab a coffee, and join us in this exploration of the programming condition through memes.
In this article:
Memes to help you understand developers
It goes without saying that the vast majority of non-programmers don’t understand how programmers can teach rocks to think.
But, the thing is, sometimes programmers themselves aren’t sure how they did it either.
From god complexes to impostor syndromes, programmers experience a wide range of emotions through most days of coding. These memes will help you better understand them.
(And, if you’re a developer seeing this, enjoy laughing at your own pain — it sounds cruel, but we all know that’s why you clicked on this page.)
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If you’re having trouble understanding some of these memes, perhaps it would help to get a general understanding of how software development works. This guide will help you do exactly that by walking you through the stages of a software development plan:
Memes that depict code and its mysterious ways
As you might expect of thinking rocks, we don’t always understand how or why they work. Code has a degree of autonomy about it that can both delight and frustrate.
QA vs devs memes
For many developers, their code is their labor of love. Unfortunately, that code will be used by others — in most cases, by paying customers — so someone needs to make sure that the code will work no matter how violently the users smack it around.
This is the job of quality assurance testers, who sometimes have strenuous relationships with developers because of this.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If some of these QA vs prod memes hit too close to home, your bug reporting processes need some work. Try some of our bug reporting templates to make your life easier:
How programmers feel about users (and other non-programmers)
The brains of people who can teach rocks to think are wired differently from ordinary brains.
Consequently, features that developers feel are intuitive and simple to use and understand can end up feeling overwhelming and impossible for users who aren’t tech-savvy.
This can lead to developers imagining users in some hilarious ways as depicted in the following memes.
Programming languages be like
Code can be written in many different programming languages, each with its own eccentricities. Here are some ways in which particular programming languages drive developers insane.
Where developers get help from
Now we’re not saying that all developers steal code, but the very concept of stealing is seen a bit differently by the programming community than by most others.
Developers have grown several platforms to share and instruct their kin and code is easy to copy-paste from these platforms, like Stack Overflow and GitHub.
In some cases, this is perfectly fine. In others, not so much, but it still happens on occasion.
In either case, this added context should help those who aren’t in the know understand (and hopefully appreciate) the following memes.
To procrastinate less and get more done, try Plaky
We hope you enjoyed procrastinating, but you should probably get back to work now.
If the reason you were procrastinating in the first place is poor organization, then might we suggest using Plaky to organize your programming tasks?
Plaky is a project management tool that works wonders for software development. You can see why Plaky is a great alternative to Jira by following this link — the short of it is that Plaky costs almost half as much while offering some features that Jira doesn’t support. It even has a free version that far eclipses its competition and allows for unlimited users, projects, and tasks.
With Plaky, if you still end up procrastinating, at least it won’t be because management has made it impossible for you to do your job.
