Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 155 posts

Re: Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?

#3

Post by tetek »

1. Don't bitch about legacy software

2. Are willing to help with getting proper requirements

3. Don't need a JIRA task for everything

4. Don't say they are done if something is untestable

5. Are willing to do stuff other than their skill (eg. one of the graphics required for the project is too big, top engineer opens up gimp, resizes and continue. Bad engineer will report to manager that design team did shitty job, reassign JIRA ticket, write two emails and wait for new a graphic)

6. Top programmers deliver well packed, documented software, keep repository clean with easy setup steps accessible for everyone.

7. Top engineers enjoy what they do, and are making the project enjoyable for everyone, keep high morales and claim responsibility

Re: Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?

#5

Post by codesternews »

tetek wrote: post #3

1. Don't bitch about legacy software 2. Are willing to help with getting proper requirements 3. Don't need a JIRA task for everything 4. Don't say they are done if something is untestable 5. Are willing to do stuff other than their skill (eg. one of the graphics required for the project is too big, top engineer opens up gimp, resizes and continue. Bad engineer will report to manager that design team did shitty job, r…

Also, Don't bitch about other's code. You don't know in what constraints they have to write it.

Re: Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?

#8

Post by ericb »

* Better googling. Time-restricted, url restricted, site restricted searches. Search with the variant parts of error messages removed.

* Read the source of upstream dependencies. Fix or fork them if needed.

* They're better at finding forks with solutions and gleaning hints from semi-related issues.

* Formulate more creative hypothesis when obvious lines of investigation run out. The best don't give up.

* Dig in to problems with more angles of investigation.

* Have more tools in their toolbelt for debugging like adding logging, monkey-patching, swapping parts out, crippling areas to rule things out, binary search of affected code areas.

* Consider the business.

* Consider user-behavior.

* Assume hostile users (security-wise).

* Understand that the UI is not a security layer. Anything you can do with PostMan your backend should handle.

* Whitelist style-security over blacklist style.

* See eventual problems implied by various solutions.

* "The Math."

Re: Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?

#9

Post by [deleted] »

tetek wrote: post #3

1. Don't bitch about legacy software 2. Are willing to help with getting proper requirements 3. Don't need a JIRA task for everything 4. Don't say they are done if something is untestable 5. Are willing to do stuff other than their skill (eg. one of the graphics required for the project is too big, top engineer opens up gimp, resizes and continue. Bad engineer will report to manager that design team did shitty job, r…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What do top engineers you know do that others don't?

#10

Post by bobosha »

codesternews wrote: post #5
tetek wrote: post #3

1. Don't bitch about legacy software 2. Are willing to help with getting proper requirements 3. Don't need a JIRA task for everything 4. Don't say they are done if something is untestable 5. Are willing to do stuff other than their skill (eg. one of the graphics required for the project is too big, top engineer opens up gimp, resizes and continue. Bad engineer will report to manager that design team did shitty job, r…

Also, Don't bitch about other's code. You don't know in what constraints they have to write it.

Just "don't bitch" period.
Post reply on HN