Developer vs Programmer

In any field the skill set of the people lies in the spectrum of two levels and the difference is very subtle. Here, I have taken an example of difference between the developer and programmer in IT industry. I need to briefly retell a popular story from Mahabharata epic to describe the subtle difference.

Once Guru Dhronacharya wished to test his student’s ability in archery. He hung a wooden vulture from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. Dhronacharya said, “On top of this tree, I have placed a vulture made of straw and rags. Yudhishthira, aim!”. Yudhisthira took his position with bow and arrow. Dhronacharya asked, “What you see?” Yudhishthira told, “I see the vulture”. Dhronacharya questioned him, “Do you see the tree?”. Yudhishthira said, “yes, I see the tree. I see my bow and the arrow, I see my arm…”. Dhronacharya stopped him, “Back to your place”. He then called upon Nakula, Bhima, and Duryodhana. They too exhibited the same behavior. Dhronacharya summoned Arjuna, “Arjuna! Aim it”. Arjuna diligently took his position. Dhronacharya questioned, “What do you see?”. Arjuna without shattering his concentration replied, “I see the vulture”. Dhronacharya asked, “Describe the vulture”. Arjuna said,”I can’t”. “Why?” Dhronacharya echoed.  Arjuna said, ”Because, I can only see its eye”. Dhronacharya yelled, “Release the arrow”.

This story describes the focus and diligent of the person in approaching the problem. The altered version of the story to demonstrate the difference between the programmer and developer.

The Project Lead calls upon a developer and programmer and asks, “I have this problem. Can you solve it? And you have the required resources”.  The Lead turns to the Programmer and asks can you see the problem? The Programmer replies, “Yeah! I can see it clearly”. “What else you see?” the Lead continued. The Programmer said, “I see the SDK, APIs, IDE, etc. to solve the problem”. The Lead turns to the Developer, “Do you see the problem?”. The Developer acknowledges, “I do”.  “Can you tell me what type of APIs and SDK can be used to solve it?”. The Developer replied, “I can’t. I only see the problem that to be solved”. The Lead yelled, “Start coding”.

The programmer sees the limitations with the available tools and does not see the vision. Whereas, the developer is not limited by the tools and finds the way to approach and solve the problem.  A true Engineer focuses on the problem and tries to solve it; does not evade with excuses of tool limitations.

A lighter version of the same story:

The CEO asks the same question to different persons:

CEO : “Do you see the problem?”
Person A:  [Thinks: What a stupid question]
Person A: “Of course! I can see everything?”
CEO : “OK. You are eligible as a Tester”.

CEO asks the same to Person B.
Person B: “Yeah! I can see the problem. I can clearly see the tools required to solve”
CEO: “You will be a good programmer”

CEO turns to Person C.
Person C: “I can only see the problem”
CEO : “You are a developer”
CEO: [Formulate this quote in the mind: Developer writes code and Programmer copy-paste it]

CEO finally turns to the Person D.
Person D: “I do not see anything”.
CEO : “Well, you are eligible for the Manager post”

Areas of Life

Recalling the memories, dreaming or imaging, acquiring knowledge, and sleeping are the states of mind. At any moment, a person’s mind can be identified in any one of the state and its keep changing. Similarly, there are different areas in life where people keep swinging in and out during the entire life and exhibit different behavior throughout their life. These areas can be classified on a average basis in a simple way.

Fun Area

Reason    :  By nature.
Behavior : Being in the state of Happy and person is mostly in the state of laughing.
Period     : Age 0 – 8

Irregular Fun Area

Reason   : Education, Increase in the reasoning capability
Behavior: Undergoes the state of thinking before laughing.
Period    : Age 8 – 15

Purpose Area

Reason   : Parents, Society, Mirror Neurons in the brain, Survival Competition
Behavior: Working hard; Using the brain and physical body to achieve the purpose; Start spending less time in the fun area
Period    :  Age 15 – Till death

Empty Area

Reason   :  Confusion due to presence of Fun and Purpose area; Inability to stay in the Purpose area; Disinterest in doing anything;
Behavior:  Staying calm; Depression; Neutrality; Signs of anger, jealous, etc.
Period     : Age 17 – Till death

God’s Area

Reason   : Staying in the Empty area; Limitations of one’s capability in Purpose area
Behavior: Having faith in unknown entity; Visiting Temples; Trying to be good; Blame the unknown entity for the all the pain incurred; Trying to understand one’s self.
Period     :  Age 18 – After death

Relations  Area

Reason   : Lot of people exists on the earth.
Behavior: Happy, Sad, love, and lot of human emotions take place.
Period    : Age 16 – Till Death

Segregated Relation Area

Reason : Love; Marriage
Behavior: Happy, Sad, love, and lot of human emotions take place with limited people.
Period: Age 20 – Till Death

Hoarding Area

Reason   :  Insecurity feeling; Social responsibility; Greed;
Behavior: Keep accumulating the wealth beyond one’s need; Fun area starts shrinking; God’s and Empty area increases; Purpose area decreases.
Period   :  Age 25 – Till Health drains completely

Growth of Empty Area

Reason : Realization of 18-40-60 rule (The rule says that  When you’re 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you; when you’re 40, you don’t give a darn what anybody thinks of you; when you’re 60, you realize nobody’s been thinking about you at all.)
Period  : At some point of life

In the last days of life, only empty area exits