Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently • Hacker News Board

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#51

Post by d23 » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:03 PM UTC

After doing a lot of interviewing, particularly when asking the same question over and over again, I've noticed the quality of what an interviewee decides to Google varies greatly and can give a lot of insight that just solving the problem alone can't. I've been amazed by some of the incomprehensible things people Google, even among those with the supposed same credentials, skillsets, and backgrounds.

Aside from whether or not they can do the actual problem, it seems to be a good proxy for skill. You can quickly distinguish between those that copy-paste their way to a solution and those that thoughtfully attempt to solve the underlying problem. Seeing what they choose to research, and sometimes having to step in and after a while and say "it seems like this is talking about X, which doesn't have much to do with this problem," speaks volumes about the candidate.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#52

Post by DanielDent » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:12 PM UTC

I've been finding Google less useful in the last little while.

It taunts me and tells me that I'm sorry Daniel, I've decided to exclude the most important keyword from your query.

Domain-specific search tools - e.g. for programming, Dash.app - have become an increased part of my workflow partially because Google simply isn't giving me the results I am looking for.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#53

Post by heleph » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:12 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #26

koolba wrote: post #9

I not only use Google frequently, I use it to search for things I myself have written in the past. I can't count the number of times I've Googled for a programming question where the answer is found on a Stack Overflow page I've written. If it's a particularly old answer that I've completely forgotten, I've even thought to myself, " Wow this genius sounds just like me! "[1]. [1]: ... as well as " This idiot has no cl…

That and finding a question you've search for, only to find out that question was also posted by you years ago. Bonus for ones with no answers still.

Or someone else in your team who tried to make the change last time it came around, who has now left and lives in another time zone.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#54

Post by stephenr » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:13 PM UTC

ahmedbaracat wrote: post #49

stephenr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google? No. A search engine? I'd say the vast majority of developers use one for some part of their job, yes

May I ask you what other search engines are you referring to?

Personally, I use DDG. Others may use bing, my point was to buck the Kleenex-ation of Google.

I don't Google things, or DDG things. I search for things

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#55

Post by blue_dinner » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:13 PM UTC

It's especially good for hangups on some new library that needs to be used.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#56

Post by takno » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:16 PM UTC

I probably Google more for questions about Netty than I do for anything else in Java. I've never seen such a useful library with such terrible documentation

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#57

Post by HillaryBriss » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:18 PM UTC

nathanasmith wrote: post #47

HillaryBriss wrote: post #22

Like others here, I depend heavily on Google searches while programming. Sometimes it's useful just to see how Google tries to autocomplete a search phrase I've started to type.

More often than not I will very deliberately type my search phrase one character at a time paying careful attention to all the autocompleted results. Very useful habit to get into as I have solved quite a few problems much faster than had I gone down the rabbit hole of my original query.

Really cool. I'll try that.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#58

Post by reitanqild » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:18 PM UTC

jupiter90000 wrote: post #27

For programmers that were coding before good search engines: what did you do when you wanted to look up an error, etc back then? Crack open a tome for the language? Just curious as I can't imagine it was easy.

I might not be the best qualified but 1. Yes, 2. Wrote around it.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#59

Post by _RPM » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:21 PM UTC

noobermin wrote: post #7

Let's say tomorrow there was some major catastrophy in which every disk drive or tape drive was wiped, and every computer had reset. How would we fare in rebuilding society? I guess it would be similar if in 1950, all of books lost their ink or all of scientists/engineers had amnesia. I'm not trying to make a point other than it is interesting to think about it.

That is my motivation to learn low level things like kernels, language implementation, etc.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#60

Post by markbnj » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 8:23 PM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #54

ahmedbaracat wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask you what other search engines are you referring to?

Personally, I use DDG. Others may use bing, my point was to buck the Kleenex-ation of Google. I don't Google things, or DDG things. I search for things

Right, agreed, "search engine" is what I should have said, although I suspect that even among developers Google search would be the heavy winner in terms of use.