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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?

#341

Post by runT1ME »

bitL wrote: post #79
noway421 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

So you've never worked at those companies, and you are assuming what it's like to work there? And are you claiming you make 500% more than say a senior engineer at G/FB?Am?

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

#342

Post by agentgt »

flavio81 wrote: post #296
agentgt wrote: post #251

What I have learned is: * Typed languages while more complex are worth it (circa 12 years ago I was a heavy scripting language fan) * Unit tests that heavily use Mocks are almost always a bad sign. Brittle tests suck. Don't increase coverage for the sake of it. * Get it done and move on. Try not to obsess on little details that add no value. * "It depends" * NIH (not invented here) is not always bad. In general it ac…

This is interesting. I have programmed in typed languages for most of my life, including C/C++/Java/C#, but when I went to Python, i did not feel any problem with lack of static typing. Or perhaps you mean "strong typing"? Because Python is a "strongly typed" language: It does not do automatic conversion of types, if types are incompatible, an error will be raised. Which I agree with. But it is a dynamically typed la…

> This is interesting. I have programmed in typed languages for most of my life, including C/C++/Java/C#, but when I went to Python, i did not feel any problem with lack of static typing.

I have heard this a couple of times from some developers with similar backgrounds and I have typically found that either these emacs/vim developers are very disciplined and/or have not really worked with large teams.

Or the language hits their problem domain so well that the benefits of productivity and terseness outweigh safety (ie research/scientific computing) and or the projects are small.

But having had 15 or so developers working on a project before Typescript was invented I can tell you the pain was tremendous.

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

#345

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

In order to get somewhere you have to commit yourself and invest a lot of time and effort; however if you overcommit then burnout and disenchantment will follow... Now finding the right balance is hard, if you know some good advice then let me know (I still haven't found it after 20+ years in the profession).

It is important to meet the right people that one can learn from (who are ready and able to share their knowledge).

Spending too much on sites like HN/slashdot/reddit is a bad idea. Again one has to find the right balance (and the right sources of information that do not turn into time sinks), balance is important like with the other stuff ...

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

#346

Post by ilikerashers »

flavio81 wrote: post #323
ravenstine wrote: post #247

Everyone's code basically sucks, including yours. The boundary between a beginner and a coding rockstar really isn't very great unless you are getting into the realm of computer sciences, like machine learning. Learn from your seemingly smarter peers, but don't idolize them. Chances are they will leave the company long before you do, and you will figure out that their coding skills aren't all they are cracked up to b…

> The boundary between a beginner and a coding rockstar really isn't very great I respectfully disagree. My experience says the difference between a beginner and a really good, experience coder, is HUGE, and not only on fields like "machine learning" but in everyday commercial systems. Unless, of course, your platform is something like Java where everybody is crippled to an extreme degree. That is, if you get 400 peo…

The point he was making is that most experienced coders are focused on delivering, regardless of how slick their code could potentially be and eventually all code will suck.

You just proved this by picking on Java.

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

#348

Post by groby_b »

kexari wrote: post #262
ravenstine wrote: post #247

Everyone's code basically sucks, including yours. The boundary between a beginner and a coding rockstar really isn't very great unless you are getting into the realm of computer sciences, like machine learning. Learn from your seemingly smarter peers, but don't idolize them. Chances are they will leave the company long before you do, and you will figure out that their coding skills aren't all they are cracked up to b…

Totally agree on the personality and grooming points you made. You need to be good at making people know exactly what you have achieved. Shout about it on slack, fire up google docs and write some brief documentation on a new feature you implemented. Others within the company won't be actively looking at your contributions. They will notice who stands out, who is taking initiative and touching base regularly. Unfortu…

If you believe you're one of the gods, you're likely delusional. If you don't communicate well and hold that belief, you're certainly delusional.

Programming talent is useless if you can't communicate. Because your main job as a company grows is to grow the people around you, not cranking out more code. Communication overtakes pure coding skill the moment more than one person works on a project.

It's not about "trumping talent", it's about the fact that communication is part of the talents you need.

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

#349

Post by lliamander »

flavio81 wrote: post #323
ravenstine wrote: post #247

Everyone's code basically sucks, including yours. The boundary between a beginner and a coding rockstar really isn't very great unless you are getting into the realm of computer sciences, like machine learning. Learn from your seemingly smarter peers, but don't idolize them. Chances are they will leave the company long before you do, and you will figure out that their coding skills aren't all they are cracked up to b…

> The boundary between a beginner and a coding rockstar really isn't very great I respectfully disagree. My experience says the difference between a beginner and a really good, experience coder, is HUGE, and not only on fields like "machine learning" but in everyday commercial systems. Unless, of course, your platform is something like Java where everybody is crippled to an extreme degree. That is, if you get 400 peo…

I think an important piece of advice to take from this (and something that I learned early on) is to favor tools that reward mastery. In this respect Java isn't actually that bad, even if there are better options available. What's worse is the culture of many organizations that happen to use Java.

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

#350

Post by tkel »

ravenstine wrote: post #247

Everyone's code basically sucks, including yours. The boundary between a beginner and a coding rockstar really isn't very great unless you are getting into the realm of computer sciences, like machine learning. Learn from your seemingly smarter peers, but don't idolize them. Chances are they will leave the company long before you do, and you will figure out that their coding skills aren't all they are cracked up to b…

After having worked in a legacy javascript codebase, I can say it is very much possible to discern between sucky code and code that is maintainable.
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