The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine
that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance.
It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim
room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder
of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the
whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation
of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the
program; it piles up around the programmer.
--Ellen Ullman