The Four Faces Of A Programmer's Reality

The eternal programmer delusion, laid bare in four panels of crushing reality.

Society thinks we're hardware wizards, surgically repairing computers with screwdrivers like some kind of digital mechanic. Our parents believe we're rocket scientists in lab coats, probably inventing the next Facebook-killer between family dinners.

Meanwhile, our self-image is that of a beautiful mind—equations floating around our heads as we solve impossibly complex algorithms.

The devastating truth? We're just frantically Googling "How to use dates in JavaScript" for the fifth time this week because nobody—NOBODY—can remember how that cursed Date object works. The duality of programmer existence: cosmic genius in our minds, desperate Googler in reality.