AI and LLMs are really useful tools and engineers need to stop being all-or-nothing with them. They can't write code, they can't design code, but they can be used to make your code or designs better. Some people are turning up their noses on principle and they are missing out on a lot of useful functionality.
Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
61–70 of 96 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#62Most "Software Engineers" AREN'T ACTUALLY ENGINEERS ... it's illegal in many states to use that title if you're not licensed with the state's Professional Engineering Board. If you haven't taken professional engineering exams, and passed, you're not an Engineer. STOP IT!
Eh.
The reason you call people engineers is that they certify/sign off on designs/releases. It's bureaucracy + technical knowledge. For the sake of efficiency they're usually also the ones who create the designs. IME this is what the difference between software developer and software engineer means.
No there's no licensing board, that's probably a good thing IMO, if there was any more policy involved than we already have software would probably be worse.
Also in my state CS grads are allowed to sit for the FE if they want. No one does this of course.
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#631. People think differently. Some languages suit some people better than they suit other people. The language you're so enthusiastic about, that feels like a revelation to use, is one that fits you . Others don't share your enthusiasm, not because they're dumb, not because they haven't tried, but because the language does not fit them . 2. There is no "best" language for all people or all tasks - not Haskell, not Lis…
I agree with 1 and 2. But, with 3, sometimes "your most" isn't always clear or known which one is the most, or it is more useful to mention more than one anyways (like you and many other people (including myself) did).
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#64DEI hiring mandates destroy teams.
I’m curious if anyone has witnessed this happening, and why it was DEI that was the problem?
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#65Naming things well (and renaming them as new information evolves) is massively important. As important as tests.
Like many comments in this thread and contrary to the question posed by OP, this is a fairly _popular_ opinion.
It's not that often I see a "just fix naming" pr though. People would rather put up with it in general.
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like many comments in this thread and contrary to the question posed by OP, this is a fairly _popular_ opinion.
It's not that often I see a "just fix naming" pr though. People would rather put up with it in general.
Yeah - it's probably a "cultural" thing (as in per-team/codebase opinions change). I see a lot of "naming things is hard" comments on HN and my first internship in college was for a Java position where verbose (perhaps overly so) naming is encouraged. I've brought that mindset with me to other jobs and found plenty of likeminded folks but I assume it's also true that there are far more people who simply don't care (as much).
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup this is a dumb one. Dei != mandates or quotas
During this political cycle I learned pretty much nobody knows what DEI is. No, it's not affirmative action. No, we aren't hiring black people because they're black. It's mostly outreach and employee resource groups. It's completely harmless and no, it doesn't make white people disadvantaged.
From what I've seen, it means that the hiring pool for junior developers is locked into programs for disadvantaged minorities (for example black / female). This means that if you want to hire a junior, you must hire from those pools. How this is not a disadvantage for people outside those pools I don't understand.
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#68Flash was an unreasonably effective way to build web apps.
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup this is a dumb one. Dei != mandates or quotas
During this political cycle I learned pretty much nobody knows what DEI is. No, it's not affirmative action. No, we aren't hiring black people because they're black. It's mostly outreach and employee resource groups. It's completely harmless and no, it doesn't make white people disadvantaged.
Not all DEI initiatives do all of those, but all of those are DEI initiatives. Do you are wrong, yes affirmative action is DEI, as are hiring black people because they are black. Those actions are done for DEI reasons, so they are DEI policies.
Re: Ask HN: What's your most unpopular dev opinion?
#70My programming font. It’s proportional and uppercase letters have a 1/3 of a space of left padding. Proportional because they are faster to read in general, and the padding makes reading camel-case faster as well. https://github.com/ericfortis/verdanacamel
You win. That'd drive me nuts. I reckon I could handle proportional as I have programed in windows notepad! But that space. I'd never know if it were a space or a fake space.