Even recently when I read or watch something related to Twitter I encounter comments about "Them lazy, overpaid programmers, haha, Elon fired them and the app still works! Those libtars got what they deserved". Probably you, the reader, also have encountered these comments.

They are extremely problematic and we should not be silent about them.

Problem 1: being lazy or exploitation?

There are many levels we can choose to interact with that statement:

Mental health

Not working until exhaustion IS healthy. The burnout culture is NOT healthy. We, as a society should work towards reducing workload and not increasing it.

You did a great job! Now I no longer need to exploit 10 people, just exploit you and I can fire the 9 others.

What a joke! Be more productive to have more free time, so we can give you more tasks.

This is not sustainable as high productivity also means extremely vulnerable "quantum states". Having free time helps the mind replenish its stores, from which we can create those "quantum states".

Productivity

Unlike stacking boxes, software engineering usually looks like a chess party: you have to consider your moves, you have to think of what can go wrong in the near and in the far future.

In short: highly specialized job requiring very particular mental states.

You can't write good code if there's war in your heart (family issues, etc.). You can't write good code if you're tired, exhausted, demotivated. You can't "grind" your mind into "omniscient creator" mode by sucking it up.

The only way to get into the "zone" is to be a good mental state.

That's when you are extremely productive. With a sharp, fresh mind and a light heart.

Developers therefore will require different schedules.

Usually most of us know exactly from when until when they are the most productive, be it from 6am in the morning until 2pm, or from 10am to 6pm. Or maybe two-three distinct times.

It's not up to anyone but the person to know when they are the most efficient.

Problem 2: overpaid? Or we underpay other people?

In this stage of equality, developer salaries usually allow people to live a middle-class existence of decades ago:

• they can go to vacation
• they might be able to afford their own apartment

BUT

• the moment our (mental) health declines we are not padded
• there are no secret stashes of money
• you can't really afford not working at somewhere
• we are still workers requiring working rights, safety network and public healthcare

And yet, we get the hate.

Enough is enough. It's not us who exploit people. It's not us who make health care unavailable. It's not us who make people work long hours. We're just workers, only the pay is more meaningful.

If they want to hate somebody, hate the billionaires, hate the paid politicians who lobby against working rights, raising mininum wage and so on.

Not living in perpetual existential crisis should not be a hated privilege. It should be the norm.

The unsaid problem: set against each other

We're a very cheap punching bag, a strawman for issues beyond us. The only real choice we can make is to find a better employer. We can't influence policies, we can't topple goverments, we're just workers who live from their brains.

Hating us solves nothing.