Be nice to developers

Lately I have been reading Scott Rosenberg's book,  Dreaming in code and besides all the interesting ideas and stories therein, one quote in particular stuck in my mind "Our civilization runs on software".

If you think about it, every item we use on a day to day basis, relies on software to function. If that's true, then it's safe to say that software developers make the world go round. This may be one way to explain why more and more people are getting into the software industry (this includes developers, testers, managers, marketers, distributors - you name it - of course, not necessarily in that order).

Which brings me to my point. A friend of mine once told me an interesting story. He was in a restaurant abroad and since he is a very good cook, he wasn't happy with the way the food he ordered was prepared. Rather than complain to the waiter, he left his food and went away. Intrigued by this I asked him what was his reason for doing so. He told me that it is never wise to argue with people who prepare or serve your food... and you can imagine why.

I have to admit it made perfect sense to me. Besides, if one person doesn't like something (in this case, the way some food is prepared), that doesn't mean there isn't someone who actually loves it that way (except for a few cases in which the food is very bad prepared). And if that's true for food, which is something we need on a daily basis, why wouldn't it be also true for software?

So in closing, if you don't mess with people who prepare and serve your food, you certainly don't want to mess with people who code your software. Remember, the people who cook your food, rely on software to get the recipes right.

Don't mess with us, we control every aspect of your modern life...