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My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

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Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#531

Post by dinkumthinkum »

pink_dinner wrote: post #324
exelius wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just have to say this: So typically american. The attitude presented in the article is indeed typically American -- but not for the reason I think you intended. The quintessential American quality is the belief that every person has the right to control their own destiny. Fuck, it's right there in the first sentence of the first document declaring this country's independence. Americans are often seen as greedy re…

"The quintessential American quality is the belief that every person has the right to control their own destiny." So you don't think you have this right? I believe you have the right of opportunity, but not of outcome. I learned what this guy learned pretty early on: If you are an employee (developer or not), you will be paid to do things you are against and people less intelligent and experienced than you will be ma…

Shhh ... You are supposed to buy into the deep anti-American bias and pretend that only Americans want money and property or some such nonsense. :)

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#532

Post by karmelapple »

Karunamon wrote: post #462
karmelapple wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting point. The idea of a meritocracy is pretty ingrained into the tech world, and that means control over life is internal, not external. But tech is not a meritocracy. [1] [2] Accepting that you have less control over your life may change some of your outcomes, but I doubt it would completely crush one's spirit. I've accepted that I'll never flap my arms unaided and fly like a bird. I'm not depressed because…

But tech is not a meritocracy But it should be, and the issues laid out in your links detail failures to reach that ideal. We can do better. That does not mean we stop trying or abandon the ideal that you should be known for your works above all else.

Nor did I suggest to stop striving for the ideal.

But just like any other institutional problem (racism, sexism, etc), it does no good to simply ignore it while it negatively impacts you. Instead, acknowledging your current situation, and working to make it better, is key.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#533

Post by dinkumthinkum »

bucma wrote: post #163
dcw303 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still coding after almost 20 years in the job, and have no intention of stopping. I tried some other options - teacher, artist, entrepreneur. None of them give me the thrill that I get from programming. I still get locked into a flow where time shifts, and before I know it hours have passed. The only other activity that does that is Civ, and no-one is going to pay me to play that ;) If 10x assets is what drives y…

I think people who are picking up on the 10x assets thing are missing the point... Money can help you feel better about things when things in general aren't going well. What he says about missed opportunities, and working for idiotic management, that's the big thing here. You work your ass off, the management does dumb things, so the thing you're working on never really pays off, in money or fun. The fact that his si…

It is so oddly ironic for the idea of wanting assets and property to be so anathema on HN.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#534

Post by Tloewald »

jacobush wrote: post #404
Tloewald wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My big problem with what the writer says is that he assumes power comes from position. Most power, and the most useful power, is soft power. In those cases he cites, such as the startup store, where he thinks he could have made a difference as a leader - sorry, but he could have made a difference as a peon if he built credibility and stuck to his guns. Clearly he didn't have that kind of personality, or has too narro…

I can't help but think of Sisyphus, or how a drop of water makes a mark on a stone. Yes, he could. But it sounds like a 100 times more work.

Tried and found difficult or thought difficult and left untried?

Building up soft power is something anyone should do if they care about their work. Building big things means collaborating, and collaborating means persuading other people when you're right and recognizing when you're wrong. Do that and you become a leader, regardless of your position on the org chart.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#535

Post by sirclueless »

nostrademons wrote: post #418
naasking wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a little surprising that 1 + '1' is '11', until you spend a little time and learn the rules instead of fighting them - then you start doing your work in a way that uses that to save time. You are omcpletely underestimating the complexity of JS's implicit coercions. If you haven't already seen it, watch the Wat talk [1]. Finally, the fact that you need the console to even understand the meaning of a code fragme…

> Finally, the fact that you need the console to even understand the meaning of a code fragment is a perfect example of language failure. Isn't that the case for every language with polymorphism? Even C, once you add function pointers to the mix. I've certainly heard polymorphism and OOP criticized on these grounds, but unless you're a hardcore kernel or embedded developer, that ship sailed about 25 years ago. Everyb…

> Expecting to be able to look at a code sample in isolation and know what it does is unrealistic for any large-scale system.

My number one favorite thing about Go: you can look at a code sample in isolation in a large-scale system and know what it does.

Why? Every identifier is either lexically scoped or lives in a module. There are about 6 control structures and they all do what they look like they do. Operators are all defined over a small set of well-defined primitives, they can't be overridden. Closures, callbacks, and non-linear control flow are rare and obvious. There is no way for code to be skipped by exceptional control flow apart from the single escape hatch called panic().

It's really like no other language I've ever coded in. You can work in large codebases that are as clear as your average Go code, if you have strong guidance about what kinds of code complexity are acceptable and you are ever-vigilant about avoiding language pitfalls, but nothing is quite as freeing as knowing for a fact you will be able to parse someone else's code because there wasn't any way for them to write something you can't understand.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#536

Post by Tloewald »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #529
Tloewald wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My big problem with what the writer says is that he assumes power comes from position. Most power, and the most useful power, is soft power. In those cases he cites, such as the startup store, where he thinks he could have made a difference as a leader - sorry, but he could have made a difference as a peon if he built credibility and stuck to his guns. Clearly he didn't have that kind of personality, or has too narro…

Stuck to his guns? This is very naive and is really not a good criticism whatsoever. On some level, putting yourself into a position where you have to be, as another commenter wrote, Sisyphus, is probably something to regret in itself late in your career.

He didn't realize the other guy hadn't committed code in two years? He simply didn't care enough to do a good job.

My guess is that this fellow felt like his having set aside his leadership position in a role should simultaneously have given him instant authority and at the same time allowed him to shrug and ignore problems he saw but wash"the directly responsible for.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#537

Post by lai »

wdr1 wrote: post #459

> I simply didn’t realize how little room you have to advance as just a programmer I think this is one thing that has changed dramatically (and for the better) in the last ~10 years. I started as a developer in the 90s. The only way to advance was to go into management. I was pretty conflicted, as I was promoted from developer to manager. Quit, went to be a developer at a new job, and got prompted to manager again. Q…

> I'm an engineering manager today at Google and really happy to see there's now a world where engineers can excel without having to be a manager.

This is really interesting and relieving. Have you been able to see this happen in other companies?

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#538

Post by sokoloff »

mikx007 wrote: post #318

The grass is always greener on the other side. I have another story... I started off as Unix admin, a programmer, about 15 years ago became a technical manager, director, vp and so on. Frankly, looking back at it, I wish I never made that choice and stayed software developer or admin. Trust me, its much more fun.Unfortunately it is a one way street. Paperwork, schmoozing to get funding for your team and sitting in va…

What makes you think it's a one-way street? I fully expect that the early part of my "retirement" may well look like taking an individual contributor role in software again.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#539

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

crasco wrote: post #500
edraferi wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lot simpler to throw money at technology than actually face policy / culture problems.

This is so true. It also explains the revolving door of CIO/CTOs at many places. Every 3-5 years, a new one comes in, makes minor changes and avoids the elephant in the room. On and on we go.

Politics at every level is nowhere close to being a solved problem.

Most business training still seems to rely on parables and cool stories, larded with huge doses of Standard Business Vocabulary to make it convincing (win, compete, achieve, aspire, excel, lead, inspire, and on and on.)

If people really knew what they were doing there would be a lot less noise and a lot more quiet wise action.

Re: My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

#540

Post by bottled_poe »

gear54rus wrote: post #87
wtbob wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> JavaScript is actually an incredibly flexible and effective language. == vs === No integers. Assignment is declaration. Prototypes. Curly brackets & semicolons. Semicolon insertion. It may be flexible (in the sense that an Alfa Romeo driven into a telephone pole at 120 mph is flexible), but it sure as heck ain't effective. JavaScript is the great shame of the computing industry: that it exists, and that it is used,…

No amount of cute phrases will change the fact that it is being spread by people who actually understand its flexibility instead of focusing on something that rubs them the wrong way (which, most of the time is the result of working with other, often shiver enterprisey language(s) and thinking that that's how it's done) quite effectively and there's no sign of stopping for its growth. And that is good. With things li…

JS is popular for one reason - browser support.
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