While in Army basic training, my duffel got swapped with another guy's (no idea whose). Back at the barracks, I discovered that they'd snagged some spent shells from the range. Massive no-no. Young, naive me assumed that presenting these to the drill sergeants and explaining the situation would be the correct move. I was severely disciplined as a result. Others were like, "Dude... why didn't you just quietly toss that shit in the trash?!?" It was a big wake-up call for how poorly I could gauge people (e.g. the sgts), adapting to the situation, etc.
Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
201–210 of 704 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#202Learning that some folks can produce so much value with crappy code. I've seen entire teams burn so much money by overcomplicating projects. Bikesheding about how to implement DDD, Hexagonal Architecture, design patterns, complex queues that would maybe one day be required if the company scaled 1000x, unnecessary eventual consistency that required so much machinery and man hours to keep data integrity under control.…
This is a false dichotomy. On one end, you have "overarchitects everything so much that the code is soon unmaintainable" and on the other end you have "architects the code so little that the code is soon unmaintainable".
Always write the simplest thing you can, but no simpler. Finding that line is where all the art is.
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#203Learning that some folks can produce so much value with crappy code. I've seen entire teams burn so much money by overcomplicating projects. Bikesheding about how to implement DDD, Hexagonal Architecture, design patterns, complex queues that would maybe one day be required if the company scaled 1000x, unnecessary eventual consistency that required so much machinery and man hours to keep data integrity under control.…
I think one of the most valuable lessons I have learned in software engineering is that you can write entire projects with the express plan of rewriting them if they actually gain traction. If I want to prototype something these days, I will often write code that, while not quite spaghetti, would definitely not pass a proper code review. It's actually kind of fun. Almost like a cheat day on a diet or something.
Unfortunately, that rewrite step often doesn't happen. I can't count the number of times a prototype that was meant to be thrown away was actually put into production because "it's cheaper and faster than rewriting."
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because y'all don't mask any more and if all I can do is sit at home then why not be warm while at it? And be closer to family, too. I can travel wearing the Halo to visit my brother's family (in the UK) and my parents (in Hungary) but that's all. Otherwise, by and large, I don't go anywhere any more. I can't. That's the new reality. I wear a positive air pressure respirator to risk such activities as boarding a bus.…
Thank you for the explanation. I definitely didn't appreciate what's going on in your life, but that makes sense. Loneliness is of course a significant danger and I'm sorry your life circumstances are making it difficult to be with other people right now. May I ask what the danger is for your particular circumstance? Is it for your health or for a loved one? And it's something to do with compromised immune system? Su…
For my third shot they were still doing mass vaccinations in Vancouver and the way to get express treatment was by your doctor filling out a stupid form which had a number of conditions but didn't have a way to say "other" so he just gave me a generic doctor's note urging to get vaccinated. On site the nurse asks, ok, why do you need one ahead of your age cohort? I haven't even finished listing the shit I live with when she said enough, enough. It's not one health condition, it's a mix brewed in hell. Based on this and on my reaction to the first AZ shot, I am fair certain I wouldn't survive covid. (You do know "variant" means "vaccine resistant", right?) And if by luck I would, I don't think I would much appreciate long covid.
Luckily shots from 3rd were mRNA and those were uneventful.
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#205I went from hacky hobbyist programmer to working on core business logic for a startup that eventually the whole company would rely on. I was mostly a one-person team at the company, and I kept a lot of my bad unscalable tendencies from making small fun projects. No formal testing, very little documentation, hundreds of “TODOs”, breaking API changes without really telling anyone, no QA process, no monitoring/reporting…
Funny to see this comment which is in stark contrast to the current top comment [0]. I suppose in reality it's all about balance.
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#206Only a few years back did I fully realize pickles and cucumbers are the same vegetable.
You can pickle just about anything, not just cucumbers.
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#207I took my Thinkpad to a repair shop because its charging port was damaged. A very stoic human pointed out to me it has *two* identical ones, USB-C type, right next to each other.
I am confused. Does only one of them support charging? (I've got one where both can charge, though they don't look the same because one is also thunderbolt)
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#208Learning that the world doesn't revolve around me, and that other people (and other animals) have rich and complex inner lives worthy of curiosity, dignity, and love (I can't be sure, but it feels like a healthy perspective). I'm in my 40s and this lesson, started in youth, is still sinking in. Having a child, and the commensurate second childhood, is a major impetus.
A wise team lead once told me "I never knew how selfish I was until I had a kid".
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#209You can tell from a distance whether a ball valve is open or closed. The handle will be in line with (parallel to) the pipe when it's open. I learned this from dad recently.
Re: Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think one of the most valuable lessons I have learned in software engineering is that you can write entire projects with the express plan of rewriting them if they actually gain traction. If I want to prototype something these days, I will often write code that, while not quite spaghetti, would definitely not pass a proper code review. It's actually kind of fun. Almost like a cheat day on a diet or something.
Unfortunately, that rewrite step often doesn't happen. I can't count the number of times a prototype that was meant to be thrown away was actually put into production because "it's cheaper and faster than rewriting."
Yeah, there is that. I guess this comes with the caveat that you have to have enough say in the project that you can mandate a rewrite.