Have you worked on something impressive and wanted to tell a non-programmer about it?
You start to figure out a way to say it, but then you decide 'nah they will not get it'.

But you still want to talk about it with someone so bad... Its super unsatisfying to not be able to explain this tech shit to the people you like.

If you were a pilot, you could say shit like 'i landed a plane during a storm while eating a burrito' and everyone would be like omg thats amazing.

What do I have to say? I made an auto pilot system for a plane, so that a pilot can land it during storm while eating a fucking burrito.. what's their response?

ehm okay <crickets chirping>
🖕🖕

I know that feeling exactly

I once did a binary tree exercise and wanted to tell someone about my recursive functions, but my parents didn't get it :(

When I still had a girlfriend, I was able to explain every single detail in such a way that she could understand what that program does...

This how I did it:

I went through every single line, explained everything in the best detail I could, often with some analogies, sometimes with some ugly drawings on a sheet of paper.
Then I summarized some lines, or whole functions (as those are only supposed to be a few lines long).
Afterwards, I simplified what it does until she pretty much actually knew what the program is supposed to do (but without knowing how to code).

Yes, might be more tedious than explaining it to a dev, I know. However, this also gives you some time to review your code a lot.

And yes, it needs somebody that is able to understand that it requires more work of you than "hurr durr keyboard tap tap".

@kescherRant damn, thats a lot of work.

@ninjapants Yes, and the other person must actually try to listen to you, otherwise there is not much of a point :)

I usually don't. Unless I am asked to.

Like the last time. Wife asked me why do I look so relieved in the evening. I said that I solved a nasty problem in my project [that is usually sufficient for muggles]. She asked what was it and how I did it. And then I took a few minutes, explained the problem in cross-stitching analogy/terms she would definitely understand, and explained the essence of my solution the same way as well.

Sometimes cross-stitching is not the way to reflect dev things. Then I have to take some more time to reflect the topic through the analogies she would understand :)

and sometimes it's just enough to say: "the problem was that I could not <insert very generalised explanation in dev/user terms>. It took me a lot of effort but eventually I've managed to overcome it! And now things will go much smoother in this area"

I've stopped explaining my work/day to my Wife ... When she ask how my day went, I simply stick with things like 'Had a good day', 'Had a bad day' or 'It was ok' ... I'm so glad my youngest son (now 17) is turning out to be a programmer so I can at least explain/tell some stuff to one of my family members. ... My oldest 2 sons (21 and 20) operate much at the same levels of understanding IT related stuff as my wife though :(

@TheCommoner282 I already did, it"s called "Devrant" :)

Awhh what a lovely conversation to join! :)

I've developed my way to overcome the problem, hope it helps you / others too:

Most of the time, when i have a problem to solve, but i'm missing something, i always try to explain the problem to the inner me... :)
To be clear i would explain the 'inner me' as a mixed person between a 9years old little boy who always wants his cookie and a 'homo erectus' (an adult cave man with modern sexuality... btw i'm 27 now)
So most of the time i'm trying to explain complex problems to non-technology people.

- This helps me keep it stupid simple when i work.
- Saves me tons of time, 'cause i can work on other things, while i'm thinking to explain the problem very simple, and of course most of the time i work out problems just before i fell asleep... (computer / mobile / some notes required next to bed)
- When i have to explain in real life to non technical people, it is much more easier...

@figoore
TL;DR: my humor is based on sarcasm

Just an example:
I've always said to my non-technical girlfriend when the output didn't make sense that 'little biatch computer needs sum punches in her face' or 'i will teach this little bitch the way it should speak to me'...
To be clear, i always say thing like this in a really funny tune, to be clear i'm joking

And after that if this is my fault, like a misspelled command i've said "i'm the bitch who can't even type correctly...", or if it is a bug, and i've overcome the problem than i would say that i dominated that bitch with my genius...