🇩🇴 I'm a Technical Program Manager and Content Strategist with an MSc in UXD. I help developers become better content creators and DevRel teams build robust content programs.
I hear you. Before I moved into tech it was really hard to grasp the details about whats devs did because it's one of those things that you have to try to fully comprehend (there's just so much involved), but I found metaphors helps! I got used to my dad never understanding what I did. Nowadays I tell him I'm on an engineering team and he seems satisfied with that! :D
My dad is ex-military (with a background in electronics), spent a while as a truck driver after his service and later a public bus driver.
I tried explaining one day... "You know when you push a button in the bus and the suspension lowers to let the elderly/disabled on... someone has to tell the suspension when to stop, when it's safe to move, when it's time to release the parking brake, etc etc etc. All of the things you never have to worry about & you simply push a button & it does what you expect."
His response was: "Ah, so it's your fault all this new electrical work fails all the time."
I thought about going down the arguments of the requirements, the testing, the real world scenarios that are never caught etc... but I knew that would have been "excuses" - so "Yeah, always my fault, but it's also me that stops you having to stand in front of the bus & crank the engine by hand to start it. You win some, you lose some."
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I hear you. Before I moved into tech it was really hard to grasp the details about whats devs did because it's one of those things that you have to try to fully comprehend (there's just so much involved), but I found metaphors helps! I got used to my dad never understanding what I did. Nowadays I tell him I'm on an engineering team and he seems satisfied with that! :D
My dad is ex-military (with a background in electronics), spent a while as a truck driver after his service and later a public bus driver.
I tried explaining one day... "You know when you push a button in the bus and the suspension lowers to let the elderly/disabled on... someone has to tell the suspension when to stop, when it's safe to move, when it's time to release the parking brake, etc etc etc. All of the things you never have to worry about & you simply push a button & it does what you expect."
His response was: "Ah, so it's your fault all this new electrical work fails all the time."
I thought about going down the arguments of the requirements, the testing, the real world scenarios that are never caught etc... but I knew that would have been "excuses" - so "Yeah, always my fault, but it's also me that stops you having to stand in front of the bus & crank the engine by hand to start it. You win some, you lose some."