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Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

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Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#121

Post by bitL »

marktangotango wrote: post #97
bitL wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish... I worked for many companies everyone wanted to get in, and am still approached by big 4 ones G/FB/AP/AM (no MS as I rejected their offer already). What I observed is that consistently the ones that move to the top are the ones that master the practice of appearance, backstabbing, instigating fear of "missing the train" in superiors, throwing peers under the bus when fitting, betraying trust, sensing and ada…

I have noticed there is a stark contrast between those who are aware of the political environment and those who aren't. You seem to be hyper aware and 'plugged in' to hear these stories. Most developers just write code and post memes on the team slack/hipchat channel, completely oblivious to things going on around them. You should blog about some of this, changing names and obfuscating to "protect the innocent" so to…

Maybe it's that half of my family are politicians/lawyers, many of them leaning towards high-performing psychopathy and observing their behavior since being a child, their attempts to control me, expressing frustration I figured out their game and deny them, and then observing the same at work with those "ambitious persons", thinking anyone that does work is an idiot and should be handled like a child in a kindergarten, has something to do with me being hyperaware of what is going on around me.

Frankly, one of my favorite things in the office was to emit bubbles of incomplete information to individual persons and observe who gets to know that piece of information, mapping alliances at work - they were oblivious of being tested, always triumphant they knew better and it was just fun to simulate a clueless person on my side just to understand how did they exactly operate. Try it, it's fun and a quite harmless "game people play".

Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#122

Post by psyc »

marktangotango wrote: post #97
bitL wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish... I worked for many companies everyone wanted to get in, and am still approached by big 4 ones G/FB/AP/AM (no MS as I rejected their offer already). What I observed is that consistently the ones that move to the top are the ones that master the practice of appearance, backstabbing, instigating fear of "missing the train" in superiors, throwing peers under the bus when fitting, betraying trust, sensing and ada…

I have noticed there is a stark contrast between those who are aware of the political environment and those who aren't. You seem to be hyper aware and 'plugged in' to hear these stories. Most developers just write code and post memes on the team slack/hipchat channel, completely oblivious to things going on around them. You should blog about some of this, changing names and obfuscating to "protect the innocent" so to…

Those "most developers" make it to Senior, and then stay there until they leave the company. I was at MS for 6 years, and can confirm much of what the GP said. Some people succeeded on merit, of course! But mostly any real success was extremely proportional to your skill at Machiavellian intrigue, and willingness to engage in it continually. That was surely the main game. Every org change or VP change was surrounded by a lot of Game of Thrones.

Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#123

Post by sidcool »

I wish I put more time in thinking about the problem rather than jumping on solution.

I wish I designed a testing strategy for the feature I am developing.

I wish I learnt and embraced good engineering practices and spread those in the organization.

Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#124

Post by GrinningFool »

* When troubleshooting and hitting a wall, there is always sanity in checking the obvious thing that you assume always works. Not a cursory check, but an actual look without assumptions.

* What customers and clients _need_ isn't always what they say they need. Learn to drive at the underlying problem in your discussions with them, and don't focus on what they think the solution should be. While you should always accept their input for the latter as well, keep in mind that most of the time it will address a symptom and not an underlying problem.

* What a customer wants may be related to what they need, but this varies.

* Don't solve problems prematurely. Even simple bug fixes - what is the impact? Are you changing something used downstream?

* Don't assume good tests will always catch all breakages. If they did that, we'd never have to fix bugs.

* Don't trust your dependencies, vendors, platforms, or anything else to reliably inform you of breakages and incompatibilities. They're all run by humans and humans make mistakes.

* You are responsible for shipping working products. If you include a dependency and it breaks, you are responsible for finding that out before your customers do.

Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#126

Post by baccredited »

I wish I knew I could save aggressively and achieve financial independence in a relatively short time frame. Even medium salary programmers in the US can save the bulk of their income and retire early (if they so choose). I'm on track to retire in about 4 yrs but wish I had done so quicker.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#127

Post by marcosdumay »

noway421 wrote: post #72
bitL wrote: post #56

There is no future in software development as a job. Move to a management position quickly, network, make friends with decision makers, don't spend too much time on crafting your skills, your reward for perfection will be more insane work and crazy interviews where one part not 100% done kicks you out. Work on your appearance, kiss up, lift, dress properly, use anti-aging cosmetics, make cool looking hairstyle, wear…

I really hope this has some elements of satire in it.

Well, if it does, I can copy and paste it here under my name without the satire.

Re: Ask HN: For those programming 10+ years, what do you wish you knew 4 years in?

#128

Post by randcraw »

maxxxxx wrote: post #102

Work somewhere where software is the main product and not just a cost center. You can learn a lot quickly if you do cutting edge things with people who care about technology and not just cost. Solve real world​ problems. Doing elegant things is very difficult because the real world is much more convoluted than theory. Do a few things in depth. Don't jump at the latest thing every few months.

> Work somewhere where software is the main product and not just a cost center.

This is THE big difference between S/W dev and IT. For 20 years I worked in the former, and for the past 10 in the latter. No question about it: IT is hell. Theirs is a never-ending mission to reduce the cost of moving data and being "compliant" with often-meaningless ever-excessive corporate standards (and forever meaningless MBA/CIO fads and groupthink).

Worst, in most businesses, IT doesn't have a respected mission. Ii provides an infrastructural service (a cost center) that other C-suiters dis as no more important than HVAC and sewer. IT appears on their radar in only two ways: 1) when something breaks and info clogs up or stops moving, and 2) when the budget is revisited and interest in IT cuts are reinvigorated.

Since nobody else in the corp. respects IT's mission, senior mgt. compels the CIO to adopt meaningless surrogate goals because IT's actual mission isn't sexy enough. So for the next six months IT adopts "Platforms" or trains half the staff in Six Sigma, or outsources, or insources, or promotes of whatever other CIO groupthink initiative is in vogue at the moment.

So yes, work somewhere software is valued, unlike IT.

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