Re^2: Software engineering: a useless profession?

[freddo411]

Is it just me or do some of the rest of you also attempt avoid letting people find out you work with computers?

I developed a rather interesting way of answering such probing questions when I was in college. At that time the question was: "What's your major". If I answered honestly I would say "Astrophysics", which invariably resulted in a response of "Oh, that's nice", followed by a quick retreat by the questioner to refill a drink.

Not wanting to strike out so quickly I modified my response by using the following algorithm: simply adopt the major of the last person I spoke to, and give that as my major. Follow that with a series of questions about their major (reloading for the next conversation).

After a short while I had majored in every subject and managed to store up an unending list of fascinating anecdotes about obscure subjects.

When people ask what I do for a living, I like to say I work for an "evil corporation". ;-)