Okay. So this is a meta-metaprogramming blog post.
That's a meta-meta-metaprogramming comment.
The Metaprogrammer
21–30 of 164 posts
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#22I think that there's two distinct ideas here, and they're fused together. One of them (IMO) is valid, the other is not.
"Programmers spend too much time attention-seeking, or debating online, instead of actually writing code" is a valid topic to debate over; I can see arguments on both sides, but it's certainly a thing that could be argued. The work we do is more important than all the meta-stuff surrounding that work.
"Programmers are too pampered and we should just give them all shitty old computers in shitty offices without perks", though... workspaces are important, as are the tools. A large monitor means I can have more stuff open at once, and I know that I'm more productive when I have an external monitor than when I don't, and I need to cmd-tab a bunch between editor, terminal, and browser.
Companies don't offer good equipment and perks because they're charitable, they do it because it produces results (more often than not).
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#23metametaprogramming (verb.) The act of talking about people talking about programming, rather than doing any actual talking about programming.
So is your comment metametametaprogramming?
Every comment talking about ('meta' times n)-programming is ('meta' times (n+1))-programming :)
So your comment is meta(metametametaprogramming).
But this comment isn't meta(meta(metametametaprogramming)), because of this sentence :D
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#24"When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine." - Picasso, supposedly
Talking about this stuff is only natural.
As for the rest of the OP, not knocking it (or the book), but it sounds like he just read Catcher in the Rye or something. Employees have been jockeying for status inside firms and across firms as long as there have been employees and firms.
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#25[deleted]
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#26Come on now, we real metaprogramming wimps carry our own keyboards with us and don't even bother to complain about the one provided. :-) Otoh, as an Emacs user my mouse costs about as much as one of the black espressos I exclusively drink for coffee. :-) Edit: This made me feel like the wimp I am. Time to stop the singer songwriters on my headphones and play some black metal. (And go to the gym for deadlifts or squat…
With a real, live, META key?
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#27TL; DR: buying a Macbook tricked me into going through a "dark" phase. It was worth all the money.
This isn't necessarily true all the time, although it is in many contexts. For example millions of people are eagerly awaiting the new, shiny, same-as-before-but-slightly-more-expensive-and-with-a-couple-new-features, iPhone 7 but the number of people who get excited when there's a breakthrough in a particular scientific or technological field can be counted on one hand (and multiplied by 10^[2-4]). The explanation is pretty simple: I can get the iPhone 7 when it comes out but it's hard to get excited knowing I might go to Mars in 2060.
I had a similar experience myself. As a human being I'm naturally inclined to, sometimes, consider short-term rewards more valuable than long-term rewards. They say the quickest way to change your lifestyle is to change the environment around you. In the case of software developers that environment is often their gear/tools. In my case it was my laptop. When I was still a student I was using the not-so-crappy-but-still-kind-of-crappy laptop provided by my university. The problem was not the laptop, of course, but the fact that I was doing something I didn't enjoy.
One day, frustrated by the fact that a few Chrome tabs and PyCharm would literally devour RAM and swap alike, I started considering buying a laptop of my own. Fast forward to a couple of months later, and on the edge of a serious depression, I bought a shiny Macbook Pro with 16 GB of RAM. I started getting more into web development (I was doing research in a very specific field of cybersecurity), studied machine learning (and used it for my thesis project), found a very good job (where EVERYBODY was using Apple hardware) and slowly transitioned to doing web development full time.
The Macbook acted as a trigger. I might have gotten the same results by moving to another country, changing house, changing friends, maybe by dropping college altogether, but that shallow, nonetheless very useful, purchase (I'd go as far as to call it an "investment") did the trick. I got my degree, I'm still working, and enjoying what I do, I even moved to another country eventually. Could I have experienced the same thing doing something else? Probably. But it's easy to say so afterwards. :)
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#28Ah the never ending lament about programmers asking for nice things. Sorry, $4k in capital costs for someone you're paying well into 6 figures for to make your business exist isn't that bad. A fast pc is necessary depending on what you're doing - making knowledge workers more comfortable effects their output.
Exactly, all these things are tools of the trade - tradesmen spend money on the right tools for the job because that (and experience) is what separates them from the DIY-ers
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#29> Gotta have that 40" monitor, it's essential, can't work without it
And I was thinking I ought to be content with my 27"
Re: The Metaprogrammer
#30I don't agree. Of course a car mechanic can do his work with just the most basic set of tools, but will he be as productive as someone using the newest stuff that enables him to work faster ? Probably not. There is actually value in having a faster computer, bigger screens and even better chair as a programmer.