The Developer

parody of "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers

[Verse 1]

     G                          C               G
On a warm summer's evenin' at a hackathon for start-ups,
  C               G                C                 D
I met an old developer; we were both too tired to sleep.
   G                               C             G
So we took turns a starin' at the code on the whiteboard
     C           G        D               G
'til boredom overtook us, and she began to speak.


[Verse 2]

         G                             C                G
She said, "Yes, I've made a life out of readin' those stack traces,
    C                  G                 C                   D
and knowin' where the bugs were by the way they flag their lines.
       G                               C                 G
And if you don't mind my sayin', I can see you're out of protips.
      C             G            D             G
For a swig of your guarana I'll give you some advice."


[Verse 3]

     G                           C                  G
So I handed her my bottle and she drank down my last swallow. 
C                G             C              D
Then she opened up her laptop and pulled down my change set.
        G                                C                 G
And the night got deathly quiet, and her  face lost all expression.
                 C              G                  D                G
Said, "If you're gonna play the web game, ya gotta learn to play it right.


[Chorus]

           G                     C             G
You got to know when to script it, know when to style it,
C            G         C                D
know when to roll your own and know when to not.
          G                            C              G
You never count your data when you're waitin’ on a Promise.
                 C          G        D                 G
There'll be time enough for countin' when the Callback has come.


[Verse 4]

D                            C             G
All developers know that the secret to code writin'
   C              G           C                   D
is setting up your linter, and writing your test routines.
       G                         C              G
'Cause ev'ry app’s a winner and ev'ry app’s a loser,
        C                 G                D              G
and the best that you can hope for is to write code in your dreams."


[Verse 5]

    G                               C                       G
And when she'd finished speakin', she turned back towards the whiteboard,
C               G             C            D
Closed up her laptop and faded off to sleep.
    G                             C                 G
And somewhere in the darkness that developer fixed my broke code.
    C               G                   D                G
In her final commit message, I found an protip I could keep.


[Chorus]

           G                     C             G
You got to know when to script it, know when to style it,
C            G         C                D
know when to roll your own and know when to not.
          G                            C              G
You never count your data when you're waitin’ on a Promise.
                 C          G        D                 G
There'll be time enough for countin' when the Callback has come.