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My tennis pro asked this, guessing that it would be similar to being a mathematician.
I said that was only one aspect, that more often it was like being an engineer, architect, detective, or lawyer.
What would you have said?
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It's like self-flagellation 
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It's too often like being a janitor.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: It's too often like being a janitor.
that missed a spot, here and there.
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But we dress it up and call it refactoring. 
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Greg Utas wrote: But we dress it up and call it refactoring.
Unless I'm certain management isn't around in which case it's de![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) toring.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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I used to call myself Data Janitor,
Manager: "We need clean-up on aisle three. Yeah, some kid just threw up there." 
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It's like nothing else.
At best it's like being a composer or playwrite, but not really.
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Part time sanitation engineer, part time lion tamer, part time priest, part time vampire, part time snake charmer, part time psychologist.
Depends on what sh*t code you're working on for a project you inherited, which uses some front-end framework you know nothing about, so you have to pray a lot and suck the blood out of SO and otherwise charm the code into working while appeasing management.
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Yeah, experience in the dark arts is certainly a must for our kind. 
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Archaeologist -- I dig through the layers of old cities (Business Logic & obsolete code) to find civilizations, old clay pots & bones trapped under the heaps of dust and debris.
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...and get cursed for it.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Drain cleaner.
Quite a bit of crap has slowly accumulated over time in production code.
Suddenly, the flow, instead of gurgling through the cruddy* pipes, comes to a dead stop.
Somebody has to get in and clean out the gunk.
That is the job that falls to the programmer tasked with making the system work again, perhaps with new requirements thrown in to make things more difficult.
- Now you know why database commands are referred to as CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete)!😂😂😂
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I'd have pointed out that math is more exciting
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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It's somewhere mid-range between being a Michaelangelo apologist sculptor and an herbal proctologist.
Software Zen: delete this;
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There are so many areas... there is game development, business apps, mobile apps, scientific apps, etc. So you'll get many valid answers depending on the area. Scientist, artist, magician, builder, engineer, etc.
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it's sedentary work. it requires continuous self motivated learning. Other than that it's like being a machine whisperer....
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There is a reason my title is Wizard.
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.
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Just don't Google what "Wizard's Sleeve" means!
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Builder.
We get to build new stuff - and are then lumbered with the maintenance and alterations. Sometimes, (if we are lucky), we get to knock it all down and start again. But most of the time we battle to tack on extensions to inadequate foundations.
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It's like being a sculptor. You hammer, chisel away, measure and try to figure out how to get the shape you want from the material you have.
All the while sweating and swearing.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Being a sculptor where the users choose the medium, but management already has picked out the paint brushes you have to use!
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This is true on so many levels...
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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firefighter (on occasions!)
A new client calls you, you know nothing about the system which is DOWN and the client is losing £10k/hour. There is a certain amount of stress involved and you're in damage-limitation mode. Afterwards when things are wet and smouldering you step through doing a forensic investigation to find out what caused it all and then specify a new fire detection system and sprinklers.
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