cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/63140296
Many people struggle to save some pdfs lately.
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
464 points (98.9% liked)
Programmer Humor
29500 readers
622 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
My first job out of uni was developing an internal system for a company.
On a certain day, I was the first of my team to arrive. Before I could even get to my desk, a distressed colleague stopped me.
"Hey, can you help me? The system is broken! The tables are cutting off and everything is in the wrong place." he says.
We go to his desk and he shows me the problem. I grab the mouse and click the Windows maximize button.
"Oh! Thanks, it's fixed."
That guy worked there for decades and earned over five times more than me.
Some people genuinely do not understand the concept of GUI windows and how they work. They do not generate a full mental model of the desktop and the windows on it and only see the whole screen as one bewildering interface. They focus on what they do know in order to get by.
This may be especially true of people who learned their IT with small screens or low resolutions where running an application full screen (or as the only active application!) is required to get anything done.
Your colleague saw you click on part of the interface they were ignoring because they didn't understand it and magic happened.
Meritocracy at work π .Β
Fastest way to save a PDF in windows is to tell it you want to print it.
I've got a guy like this now. I'm sure he does what he does perfectly fine, but I watched him struggle to identify a very obvious bug he pushed to production which disabled an entire function. It's a little different now when I see him being snarky with other team members...
"Can we get an AI tool to save pdfs?"
Only if it can also be a microservice.
Lol, just received a quote as a ppt.
Then you gotta help them, you go take a bottle of water and they already forgot ya, when they are done (after you helped them again) they will return to treat ya like someone useless cuz to them you are "the useless keyboard jockey"
I can relate to this. A much more senior and older engineer in the department I used to work in was lead over much of my projects. He would call me on Teams over and over until I picked up or harass me via chat messages. 75% of the time it was an βIT issueβ he had and it was like changing the channel for my grandparents lol. Dude is wicked smart/experienced at electrical engineering, but computer illiterate and abusive to younger engineers like me that are tech literate. While he stressed me out a lot, I felt obligated to helped him d since I sorta reported to him. I recently moved departments to work on stuff Iβm much more passionate about. He did it again at 4:52pm on a Friday night and was like nah bro lol.
Or they're embarrassed and appreciative, because the old old (but still critical) Cobol guy is doing it for the first time, and you become friends.
Story of my life.Β
My boss didn't know how to use my ergonomic mouse, and needed me to walk them through how to sign their signature on a PDF.
Struggle to paste the path to a file. Seriously.
moron
Most devs refuse to take on any sort of responsibility of management. The manager gets paid to deal with that for you. Want more money? Manage coders on a successful team. You'll e miserable but at least you'll hit 200k.
That doesn't justify their salary.
"It's not what you know, it's who you know"
Honestly the fact you can become a coder and get paid for it is impressive, by the historical human society average.
I once worked with an SVP at a huge corporation that liked to engage in "bike shedding". This guy is like seven rungs above me on the ladder and is trying to tell me what fields each SQL table should have.
Then we got a new department director who was very good at keeping upper management distracted and off our backs. Lots of people in middle management don't justify their own salaries but I would argue that he sure did.
Seems to me, forΒ most successful companies, it does. Can you name a few successful companies past 50, making money, that don't have management?Β
There is little to no evidence, even in academic studies, typically a pro labor progressive environment, that management is not needed beyond small projects.
I didn't say management wasn't needed.
Okay, well you find someone competent enough to deal with the tech and get paid less than the engineers π€£.
The rates are the rates.
I could point out that I didn't say they should be paid less, either, but my heart isn't in it. I hope you have a good day doing whatever that is.
Then go find them at the same rate. Do it.Β
You can't, because it's an absurdly competitive market and most engineers are happy to skip it for equal or similar pay. You get what you pay for and at the same rate you typically get someone good at management or tech not both. This people go demand 300k from later companies posting more. And they'll get paid more than the engineers because they are harder to find.Β