I don’t particularly enjoy answering the question “What do you do for a living?” Let me explain why. When people ask me that question I usually respond by saying either “I’m a programmer” or “I’m a programmer”. Sometimes though, depending on the perceived geekiness of the person I’m talking to, I’m daring enough to say “I’m a web developer. I write software to sell or give away on ryanware.com. I do custom programming for Home on the Web, Inc. I do custom programming for diapershop.com. I do custom programming for kiwi-designs.com. I take phone calls for 4wheelsupply.com and sometimes update that website. I do customer support for Home on the Web, Inc. clients. I also work on other personal web projects that will be announced sometime in distant future.” It’s kinda funny actually, if I go off on the whole spill when they really are rather computer illiterate their eyes kinda glaze over with the description of all the things I do.

On a recent project I was working on for one of the previously mentioned companies I got a good chuckle (chuckle, isn’t that a nice word?) out of the something the client said to my friend. It went something like this:

Client: “I want it to do this and this and this and this and this. Oh and this too.” My friend: “We can’t do that with the amount of money you have to spend.” Client: “Why? Can’t you just do it? Just make it work. Oh, by the way I’d like it to do this as well.” My friend: “We could just do it, but it’d take a good amount of time and would cost you way more than you’re willing to pay.”

I don’t know if the client ever really understood why we couldn’t “just do it” with the amount of money they wanted to spend. After all, it’s all just point and click, right? Maybe they’re not smart enough.

This kind of thing happens all the time, which is why I especially loved this: If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers… :-D

Found via Simply Geeky