I'm currently in high school and the school-backed push towards programming careers has sort of created a predefined perspective on what programming is to "the world", and that programmers change "the world" so you should too. This isn't helped by the internet sensationalizing software development successes. I went to a virtual coding competition last year with around 100 contestants and it had this hivemind feeling. Now, I know it would have been different in person since it diverged into a shouting match of tabs vs spaces and other crap, but everyone I've met in school who is interested in computers for the past 3 years has a lot of the same ideas about things and haven't done much actual work. I think it's great that people are getting into software development but there's a certain level of badness in why programmers I know are programming that's hard to explain.
I think I've been adjusting my life style to that idea for a couple months now. Being alone without friends for a few years makes working much more fun then I remember. Great article.
