--- title: Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties description: Sam Aaron argues that programming is too narrowly perceived as a business tool and advocates for reframing it as a medium for human expression and creativity.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/sam-aaron-why-i-lie-about-being-a-programmer-at-parties-gjazesr9b twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties | daily.dev og:description: Sam Aaron argues that programming is too narrowly perceived as a business tool and advocates for reframing it as a medium for human expression and creativity.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/sam-aaron-why-i-lie-about-being-a-programmer-at-parties-gjazesr9b og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GJazEsR9b.png og:image:alt: Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties **[GOTO Conferences](https://daily.dev/sources/goto)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Sam Aaron argues that programming is too narrowly perceived as a business tool and advocates for reframing it as a medium for human expression and creativity. Using the analogy of reading and writing — skills not limited to legal documents — he challenges developers to broaden how they think about and communicate what programming can do. He shares a personal anecdote about introducing himself as a musician who 'plays code' to spark curiosity at parties, illustrating how a shift in framing can change public perception of the craft. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [You had a story](https://daily.dev/posts/you-had-a-story-aluw9sjxe) · Read the Tea Leaves · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [A programmer's loss of identity](https://daily.dev/posts/a-programmer-s-loss-of-identity-3byktgamx) · Lobsters · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#creative-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/creative-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/sam-aaron-why-i-lie-about-being-a-programmer-at-parties-gjazesr9b) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/sam-aaron-why-i-lie-about-being-a-programmer-at-parties-gjazesr9b","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/sam-aaron-why-i-lie-about-being-a-programmer-at-parties-gjazesr9b"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T12:15:30.508Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T12:15:58.285Z","description":"Sam Aaron argues that programming is too narrowly perceived as a business tool and advocates for reframing it as a medium for human expression and creativity....","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v7hL8TZJD8Y/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v7hL8TZJD8Y/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"GOTO Conferences","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"GOTO Conferences","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--rax7fnoD--/f_auto/v1704628081/logos/goto.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/goto"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/sam-aaron-why-i-lie-about-being-a-programmer-at-parties-gjazesr9b","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"creative-coding","timeRequired":"PT1M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties","description":"Sam Aaron argues that programming is too narrowly perceived as a business tool and advocates for reframing it as a medium for human expression and creativity....","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v7hL8TZJD8Y/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-20T12:15:30.508Z","duration":"PT1M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/GJazEsR9b","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/v7hL8TZJD8Y"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GOTO Conferences","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/goto"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sam Aaron: Why I Lie About Being a Programmer at Parties"}]} ```