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I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

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Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#71

Post by Fiahil »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #34

I've had similar self-doubt in the past, I considered myself fast but sloppy. I changed my opinion after a workshop on different team roles at my previous job. A lot of it was boring workshop fluff, but I loved the core message: that many personality traits aren't purely positive or negative. Perfectionists are nitpickers. Fast developers are sloppy. Experienced ones overthink stuff. Bleeding-edge evangelists ruin lo…

As a healer, I love running donjons with good DPS. I often come and go, sponge their stress, and unfreeze them when they're stuck. In exchange, they sometimes review some of my pull requests and give options/advices when I need them.

Just like sharks and pilot fishes.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#72

Post by Sir_Substance »

abannin wrote: post #69
Sir_Substance wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who are bad at their jobs usually fall into two categories: a) people who lack the insight to realize it, and thus don't work to fix it b) people who realize it but don't care (for various reasons, some valid some not) If you're agonizing over your job competence and trying to improve but feel you aren't succeeding, then it's vastly more likely that either your job specification is impossible, or you're settin…

I'm really bad at basketball. I have to insight to realize this, and I tried to get better. I really cared about getting better. But at the end of the day, I am not athletic. Sure, I can devote time and energy to improving my basketball skills, but I will never achieve anything beyond 'mediocre'. There's also a chicken and the egg issue here; perhaps the author really does not enjoy coding and thus is not willing to…

>I'm really bad at basketball. I have to insight to realize this, and I tried to get better. I really cared about getting better. But at the end of the day, I am not athletic. Sure, I can devote time and energy to improving my basketball skills, but I will never achieve anything beyond 'mediocre'.

None of that is in question, but let me ask you this: are you a professional basketballer?

I'm not a professional chef, read into that as you will.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#73

Post by nope_42 »

Having read some of the comments in here I'm surprised to see that no one has mentioned how the co-workers reporting their time are lying and this developer isn't. If you worked on a feature for an hour and stared off into space for another hour you report that the feature took two hours. If you took 30 minutes to write an email you certainly don't report that; you move time around to make it look better.

This behavior is totally normal in this industry and if you get put in a situation like that you have to do the same. No one can concentrate for 40 hours every week on development without getting burned out.

The reality is most people are probably lucky to get 20 hours of productive work done a week.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#74

Post by hyperpallium »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #34

I've had similar self-doubt in the past, I considered myself fast but sloppy. I changed my opinion after a workshop on different team roles at my previous job. A lot of it was boring workshop fluff, but I loved the core message: that many personality traits aren't purely positive or negative. Perfectionists are nitpickers. Fast developers are sloppy. Experienced ones overthink stuff. Bleeding-edge evangelists ruin lo…

Tradeoffs (like: two of fast/good/cheap) are legitimate, depending on the task. Though we each have preferences, talents and skills for particular tradeoffs, a lone individual developer will need to adapt. e.g. the quick and dirty prototype or "tracer bullet" to understand the problem/technology and/or the client/user needs; vs the second version that actually solves the problem or meets the needs; vs. factoring out reusable library modules.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#75

Post by analog31 »

alkonaut wrote: post #21

Being a developer always means getting stuck on some trivial crap for a full day and going to bed angry. One simply makes up for it by those times when you create fantastic value in thirty minutes. You find the bug right away, or a new feature or deployment just falls into place smoothly. Software development is like solving math problems - it's not a continuously progressing process, no matter how much the agile pri…

It helps to have a way to erase your brain before going to bed. ;-)

For some, it's exercise, reading a book, working on a side project, cooking a nice meal. For me, it's playing music -- an activity that's intense enough that I simply have to exclude all thoughts of the problems at work, and engaged with people who don't give a rat's arse about my job.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#76

Post by phkahler »

>> Bathroom breaks were consider unproductive, talking to co-workers was considered unproductive, and doing any kind of research was pointless unless we could bill a customer.

That is simply bullshit. Don't take anything they say seriously except the broadest interpretation of what the project is.

It sounds like the writer has something north of basic competence. In that case, just do your job mostly your way and don't give a fuck what the others think. If THEY don't think you're worth your price they won't keep paying you. It's really as simple as that. And if you do find yourself out on the street then you can sit back and try to decide how to partition the failure between yourself and the company. If there's any blame you can clearly put on yourself then work on that. Otherwise just assume it's them and move on. The longer you work in the field, the more you can assume you don't suck regardless of what people appear to think.

In other words, actions speak louder than words or even company policy. If they're keeping you it's because you're valuable regardless of what they say.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#77

Post by rwallace »

abannin wrote: post #43
rwallace wrote: post #33

> This isn’t an impostor syndrome. Sure it is. Impostor syndrome is defined as the state of affairs where your emotional assessment of your competence is lower than your actual competence. The definition does not depend on which aspect of the task is being discussed. "I can't write code" (when you can) and "I'm too slow" (when the people who appear faster, are doing it by just sweeping bugs under the carpet) are both…

Such bold conclusions from 900 words and a single perspective. Isn't it possible that the author is, in fact, not good at the job?

All sorts of things are possible from this post as from any other that one isn't in a position to personally verify. It's possible that the entire post was created by Mossad as an experiment in memetic warfare; not that that's likely, but I can't disprove it. Thus, as usual, my response has the implied precondition 'if things are substantially as the post suggests they are'.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#78

Post by rwallace »

st3v3r wrote: post #57
rwallace wrote: post #36

One more thing: always remember that it is not your job to protect your employer from the consequences of their bad decisions. It is their job to give you incentives that align with their own interests. If your employer is putting pressure on you to ship faster at the cost of sweeping a lot of bugs under the carpet, do that. If you think they're making a mistake, say once, calmly, that you think it would be worth spe…

It's not necessarily my job, but in many cases, there's still a good chance that I'm going to be the one yelled at, or have to deal with the consequences (having to work late nights to put out the fires caused by those decisions).

Okay, but then it's important to understand your problem is not actually a technical one of bugs in the software, it's a political problem of your boss being a sadistic bully willing and able to ruin your life, plus a financial problem that you can't walk away from the job. Framing the problems correctly doesn't make them go away, but it does help focus your mind on things that have a chance of solving them.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#79

Post by labster »

alkonaut wrote: post #21

Being a developer always means getting stuck on some trivial crap for a full day and going to bed angry. One simply makes up for it by those times when you create fantastic value in thirty minutes. You find the bug right away, or a new feature or deployment just falls into place smoothly. Software development is like solving math problems - it's not a continuously progressing process, no matter how much the agile pri…

And here I have thought hubris was one of the most important qualities of a good developer, along with impatience and laziness. Having a belief you can do it right is important to getting it right.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#80

Post by Mathnerd314 »

elihu wrote: post #18

One way to look at it is that if some company is continuing to pay you to work for them, they must have determined that it was worth it to them. If management is putting pressure on you to produce more, it's because they want, say, a 3x return on their investment instead of a 2x return. By accepting a job from them, you're obligated to work diligently at a sustainable pace. You aren't obligated to worry about whether…

If management has capital to spend, they might be spending it on new hires to see which ones work out, and firing low performers such as yourself. The majority of states are at-will states so you could easily get laid off.
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