Computer programming is an awesome life, especially if you live in Silicon Valley. If you live anywhere else, you'll always be needed and perhaps beloved. One caveat: You need to be comfortable and excited to see language like this:

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If you see art in these typings and think of it as magic when a computer solves a problem…and you have a yen for codes, math, and structured problem solving…this is probably right up your alley.com. You'll spend almost all of your time in your favorite place—right there in front of a computer. You'll make great money and be looked at by your co-workers with awe, or at least respect.

It may actually help if you're something of a people person, as you'll have to deal both with those who speak your language (C, Java, PHP) and with those who speak only English. You'll need to be able to calmly find a way to build a recursive algorithm by yesterday so the site can launch.

There are dozens of flavors of computer programmers. At "the low end" are the operations programmers, who're responsible for keeping servers up and running. Coders, especially those who can code quickly and solve complicated problems, are at the top of the food chain (source). Programmers can be found working for companies of all shapes and sizes, everywhere from independently run small businesses to mega-corporations like Microsoft. Anywhere with programs, basically.

At the extreme end of compliance and security issues are people who work for the NSA—i.e., professional hackers. CIA type people. Spies. Scary knowledge of what dark things you do on your keyboard. Enormous talent needed, less-than-huge pay, and god-like powers at your fingertips.

As things get more complex, the skill requirements become more demanding. Who writes and maintains the new code that Google uses? Or Facebook? Or who adds little features to your browser? Or mobile phone? Coders. This level of coder is smart and has great schooling. They follow complex patterns and extend them. What they don't do is innovate or create.

The creators/founders sort of sit at "the top of the food chain" of computer programmers. These are guys who invent new stuff, which can sometimes create new industries. Think: Larry or Sergey from Google. If you were sharp enough to recognize that algorithmic-based search technology was the future of a geometrically increasingly complex internet, then maybe you too could have had $10+ billion. But you would have had to have executed flawlessly in a sea of competition and hard knocks.

^{Tug o' war skills not required.}

Got coding game? If so, come to Silicon Valley (our 'hood) and have at it.

The work can be tedious, and it may take an enormous amount of patience to go through pages upon pages of code, but if you're interested in computers, chances are you don't find such work as unbearable as the majority of the population. You may even find it—dare we say—interesting?

Be prepared also for long hours. Programmers and other IT guys are often among the last to leave the office each day, so you may not want to sign up for that 5:30PM kickboxing class just yet. But if none of the preceding has dissuaded you, then program away.

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