What Happens to Lazy Programmers?
1–3 of 3 posts
Re: What Happens to Lazy Programmers?
#2I sometimes fear that I am too lazy to make it long term as a programmer but it is hard to pin down what is a virtue and what is a vice.
Re: What Happens to Lazy Programmers?
#3Lazy in an overloaded term in tech circles. It can mean any of the following three things:
1) having a poor work ethic, like working only 2 hours a day and browsing reddit the rest of the time. This lazy programmer gets fired or laid off as soon as humanly possible. Don't be this kind of lazy.
2) not having a close enough attention to detail, like letting the computer manage your memory for you rather than doing it by hand[0]. This lazy programmer is fairly common and is generally tolerated, but will often be at the top of the chopping block come layoff time. This is the kind of programmer you hire when you need bodies and you're not picky.
3) not thinking through a solution before trying to solve a problem, producing working code very, very quickly but leaving a ticking time bomb of spaghetti in your wake. This lazy programmer is usually referred to by management as a "rock star" and quickly gets promoted to "architect".
I would argue that being lazy is not a virtue in any walk of life. But, If you have to be lazy, be lazy as productively as possible.
[0]: this one's a matter of perspective. Web devs wouldn't consider this being lazy. AAA game devs most certainly do.