Completing my B.S. in computer science at OSU while juggling a full-time job, I, like many other of my classmates, do not find myself with a lot of free time. However, something that I’ve been doing in the lower-productivity moments that I’ve managed to enjoy in the past couple of years is occasionally de-stressing by watching some tech-related media content with my friends or family – in other words, movies/TV shows about programmers! I think it’s been recently on trend for them a little to delve more into the technology given how important it is for our daily lives, and I wanted to give a couple recommendations for titles that have given me the perfect mix of escapism with the inspiration to keep coding 🙂
Most Funny: Silicon Valley
This show covers the lives of a couple SWEs in the titled city who come across some miracle algorithm that sends them down the rollercoaster of excitement, money, and humiliation that come with owning an exciting new start-up. This show is now several years old but so much of the humor is still amazing and relevant for our day-and-age. It’s also just really fun to see the parodies of FAANG in the show and have developers be the stars of the show. Lovable characters and good lessons all around.
Based on Real Life: WeCrashed
This one recently came out on AppleTV and each of the episodes were pretty intriguing for me! Per the name, it covers the famous (infamous?) rise and fall of WeWork and its founder. This was pretty cool for me from a cultural standpoint because I remember WeWork getting really big and then suddenly not really being talked about anymore, but I was a little too young to understand or really look into the reason behind the shift. This follows a lot of the formulaic Hollywood rags-to-riches-to-rags story behind a lot of “true” stories and famous individuals, but it was cool to see the glamour and eventual downfall framed in a tech context (or at least “tech” context – unicorn, investor, series jargon, though in the end, he was largely selling real estate or “space as a service”).
It’s a blessing to be able to catch our breaths and just relax and watch some TV with our families and I hope we all find the time soon to do that, whether you can check these titles out, or whatever else you enjoy~
