Today I'll talk about a young woman's husband and their story. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Eleven years ago, I met the programmer for the first time, during military training in my freshman year. I'm not even sure the programmer remembers that it was our first meeting. At the time, I had accidentally pretended to be artsy and joined the guitar club. I wanted to borrow a beginner's guitar book, and the enthusiastic Brother Hai in the guitar club said one of his classmates had it, so he took me to get it. That was our first "meeting"—I only saw a figure hunched over a computer, with his back to me... I seriously suspect the programmer never even lifted his head to take a look at the girl who had been tanned like an inverted panda, because after handing over the book, he quickly returned to the embrace of his computer. Correspondingly, I don't remember what he looked like either.

I never understood the warning heaven gave me with that back view, and so I fell into the abyss of a lifetime.

At that time, I knew nothing about computers or programmers. I only knew that these computer science students were mostly naturally airheaded, played games, didn't study, and their migrant-worker aura grew stronger and stronger. They wore yellow migrant-worker slippers to class, ate with the migrant-worker brothers in the cafeteria, didn't wash their hair and covered it with hats, picked clothes out of the dirty laundry pile when they had nothing to wear, and their drinking cups had gone so long without brushing that bees actually built a nest in one. Every day they took apart other people's computers, burned other people's CPU chips, or stared at the computer studying "crap" (Debian), or gathered to watch videos...

Even though the programmer later got a bit artsy and joined a band as a bassist, he was still the most airheaded one in the band, just lowering his head and playing hard, not like the lead singer and guitarist who were flashy.

After getting to know him a bit, I learned that programmers could be called on to assemble computers, repair computers, install systems, and so on. And programmers aren't slick-talking. Many girls thought the same, so over the four years of college, the programmer got into various girls' dormitories quite a few times, and every time he went he stayed the whole afternoon. He said installing systems was too slow, and for the time being, I chose to believe that.

The programmer almost failed to graduate in his senior year, failing more than a dozen courses, from basic courses like English, advanced mathematics, and college physics to professional courses like computer graphics—none were spared. Fortunately, with extreme danger in the end, he narrowly passed.

I asked him: "Don't you like studying computer science? How did you end up as a pile of crap?" He said: "Those teachers using outdated textbooks are the ones teaching a pile of crap."

Facts proved he was right. I found it a bit baffling—I had never seen him study, but it turned out he could write code, and he even helped others write their graduation theses, and after graduating he smoothly found a job.

As for where to go after graduation, the programmer put it this way: "In China, only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen still have some IT industry. You pick a place." I said: "Then let's go to Beijing." And so, we came to the imperial capital.

Seven years ago in Beijing, with our first jobs, the programmer's starting salary was only 2500 RMB, and I found a job at a publishing house with a starting salary of 2500 RMB as well.

In my memory, the first two years of working were the most tiring time for the programmer. For two years, he hardly rested at all. From Monday to Friday, he worked overtime until after 10 or 11 p.m., or even later, or pulled all-nighters. On Saturdays and Sundays, he went to the office to work overtime during the day. At that time, he was still doing mobile porting. When you're young, you can handle an all-nighter and still go to work the next day. Now the programmer occasionally still stays up all night for releases, but the next day he almost needs to rest for most of the day. There's no fighting the age factor.

From being together every day in college to later having to get used to waiting for the programmer to finish overtime, adapting takes a process, and there are some people who never get used to it, like me. Even now, if the programmer comes back late from overtime, I can't fall asleep; I have to wait until he's home to sleep. As a result, my health has also suffered from staying up.

After working in Beijing for four years, we only then considered getting married. By that time, he had already changed jobs once and moved to a startup, starting to work on iOS. One thing I admire about the programmer is that he is quite sensitive to industry trends. His learning iOS at that time was one example, and he also bragged that he had predicted in college that microblog-style products would take off, and when Bitcoin first came out and almost no one knew about it, he mined for two days, etc. But I don't know if this man is just fated to never have windfalls, so he still just works diligently as an employee to get by.

At the startup he moved to, he also became the technical lead. Overtime wasn't as intense, but it was still hard to see a way out. The company's style was hard to change, so in the end he didn't believe the big pie the company promised. I said, if the company really went public, wouldn't all the stock options together exceed 30 million? The programmer said calmly, don't worry, it won't go public.

At the time, the company's goal was to go public in 3 or 5 years—I forget—but in any case, to this day it hasn't.

Later, the programmer came to his current company through an introduction, which is also considered a relatively large company in China. So he worked hard for another period, frantically working overtime, and later it got somewhat better.

In seven years, he went from a young guy to an uncle, his weight went from 55 kg to 75 kg, from an airheaded code farmer to a small manager at a big company. It very much fits the programmer's growth path. Hard to say whether to be happy or sad.

Since I've been married to the programmer for so many years, although I'm still a complete newbie, I can still summarize a few points:

First, you must endure loneliness

The programmer always spends more time with the computer than with his wife. Overtime is quite frequent, so you need to train yourself to fall asleep alone.

Second, you must endure desolation

It can't be said that the programmer has no romantic feelings, but you can't count on it too much. Since we got married, we've never celebrated any anniversaries or anything like that. Occasionally he buys a gift for a birthday or something, mostly electronic devices.

Third, you must be able to take care of the programmer's life

Of course, most programmers don't have high requirements for clothing and food, but don't expect them to do much either. A certain programmer only shouts every morning, "I have no socks to wear! No T-shirt to wear!"

A foodie programmer can also cook a few impressive dishes, but that's only for showing off when guests come.

Fourth, you must give the programmer financial freedom to buy electronic products

For example, a mechanical keyboard costing over 1k, headphones over 1k, all kinds of Nk gaming devices, and many other odds and ends like wristbands. In short, whenever a new electronic device comes out, if they want to buy it, they have to buy it, otherwise they feel uncomfortable all over.

Fifth, you must know how to play various card games such as Sanguosha and Texas Hold'em

Card games that let you sit still and show off your IQ are the most suitable for programmers.

Sixth, when joining their team-building activities, you must be able to blend in

For example, at meals you should lower your head and eat fiercely, and drink beverages fiercely. Occasionally when you hear "cheers," you clink, chuckle, and then continue lowering your head to eat and drink. After eating and drinking, play Sanguosha or Texas Hold'em.

Seventh, you must understand some basic terminology

For example, bug, and the names of various programming languages. You should be able to understand basic IT jokes, like the rheumatoid arthritis joke I just understood a couple of days ago. In the spelling of iOS, don't make the common mistake.

Eighth, you must worship Steve Jobs and remember the names of the big shots in the IT circle

Read more IT news when you have nothing to do.

Ninth, you must remind [them] to guard against programmer diseases

Watch out for keratitis, shoulder and neck diseases, fatty liver, and tenosynovitis.

Tenth, don't worry too much about the programmer having issues with the opposite sex

Believe that they would rather marry a computer. If he really has a problem, maybe he's not essentially a programmer, but a product manager or a designer.

Eleventh, don't let relatives and friends ask the programmer to buy computers, assemble computers, repair computers, or install systems

Because the programmer said they're not computer sellers.

Twelfth, the last and most important one: praise the programmer, appreciate their aesthetics, because programming is also an art.

Programmers all have a certain aura; otherwise, we wouldn't be able to pick out programmers so easily from the crowd on the street.

Because programmers have a sense of mission. They must have felt the call of fate, to use computers to change and destroy humanity's future, and they have already done it and are about to do it.

Salute to programmers.

Source: http://www.techug.com/things-about-be-programmers-wife