I can't stop listening to Taylor Swift. And it's not because I am a big fan of her—my daughter is.
With no choice but to listen to Taylor Swift, I wanted to know if her songs had anything to say about Software Engineering. Surprisingly, the answer was "yes." Here is what I've discovered.
On being a Senior Software Engineer
I found this gem in the song Karma. It is a perfect description of a Senior Software Engineer. I don't know any who wouldn't identify with it:
Ask me what I learned from all those years
Ask me what I earned from all those tears
Ask me why so many fade but I'm still here
I'm still here
Gnarly bugs
When it comes to bugs, every developer remembers one they struggled with for a long time and became obsessed with fixing. The song Tell Me Why articulates this feeling extremely well.
Why do you have to make me feel small
So you can feel whole inside?
Why do you have to put down my dreams
So you're the only thing on my mind?
Botched Deployments
Remember the time your push brought the entire production down? You can hear about it in the song Ivy.
So yeah, it's a fire
It's a goddamn blaze in the dark
And you started it
You started it
Aggressive schedules
In the Long Story Short, Taylor Swift sings about how developers feel after delivering a critical project on impossible-to-meet timelines. And it's exactly what you'd expect.
Long story short, it was a bad time
Long story short, I survived
Career Development
When I consider all the career conversations I've had in the past 20+ years, the I Forgot That You Existed song perfectly reflects my experience.
Sent me a clear message
Taught me some hard lessons
I just forget what they were
It's all just a blur
I had my domestic Taylor Swift SME (Subject Matter Expert) review this post. She didn't agree with any of my interpretations, so you should, perhaps, take them with a grain of salt, too.
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Thanks for reading!
-Pawel
This is so fun to read!