I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by edblarney » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:11 AM UTC

"I mean, how could someone spend several hours trying to debug a table that looked one way on Firefox and one way on Chrome?"

Because HTML and it's various implementations/versions are a Byzantine mess.

'Web development' is not so much development ... it's about knowing a myriad of little, innocuous details regarding various platform, api quirks, toolchain bits etc..

The 'development' part of web-dev is usually quite straight forward - you're not doing complex AI etc..

And fyi - development is 90% struggling through things you don't understand, bugs, hiccups etc.. A good chunk of the code you write like English. It's all about working through the pain points, making 'aha' realizations about how you structured something, or about some crazy API quirk. That's the job.

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

#82

Post by Axiverse » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:16 AM UTC

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…

I agree with your assessment.

As you get experienced, I think it's beneficial to be able to learn to be both fast/sloppy and slow/meticulous given the circumstances. Having worked in both enterprise scenarios and startup environments, I've learned that it's really a result of larger environmental pressures.

If you're working in long-range software, it's by far more beneficial to be a bit slower and more meticulous in your approach. What you're really looking for is incremental improvements that have large impact because the scale or importance of the project is already established to be very big. While you feel like you're not getting much done, the impact multiplier in these situations is very large.

However, when you're in a startup environment, you don't have any value in the product yet, so you have to move fast. A few bugs here and there are not really a problem since you will probably redesign and revamp different features. Testing is a lower priority and you feel like you're moving a lot faster as a developer.

I think healthy teams have a healthy spread on these trade-offs, centered about around the maturity of the team/product/company. Tension between the two sides keeps things moving forward and allows adjustments to keep the machine moving forward as best it can.

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

#83

Post by fnordsensei » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:18 AM UTC

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…

This reminds me of Strengthsfinder[1], that came out of Gallup as the result of a lengthy study.

Basically it said that loads of time and effort is wasted by managers trying to fix the flaws of individuals. The alternative, they argue, is focusing on building teams where the members bring complementary strengths to the table, and then working on how to make the most of an individual's strength in relation to the context of the group.

Let's optimise the throughput of the team instead of maximizing the resource use of individuals. Just because you maximize the the amount of code written by each individual doesn't mean that you've optimized the throughput of the team: sometimes the opposite is true. They're orthogonal concerns, but they're treated as if the former magically creates there latter.

[1]: http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-20....

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

#84

Post by edem » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:33 AM UTC

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…

> TL;DR: A damage dealer will beat a healer one on one, but that doesn't mean he's better. You need them both (plus a tank) to run a dungeon successfully.

I haven't played a single game where this was true. Simply because both the healer and the damage dealer can do damage but only a healer can heal.

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

#85

Post by Noumenon72 » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:35 AM UTC

nishs wrote: post #50

tbirrell wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SME = Subject Matter Expert (if google is to be believed).

Yes. Also defined in author's last paragraph.

I saw it, but only because I had started skipping through his post knowing it wouldn't make sense unless he explained SME. Poor communication habit.

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

#86

Post by Noumenon72 » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:36 AM UTC

loup-vaillant wrote: post #61

I got the "you're a bit slow" once. Which was funny, because I was very focused and felt very productive at that time —more than ever before. Plus, some of my code allowed a business expert to contribute directly, which made us even faster. I have since realised it had nothing to do with my actual performance. It was a people thing.

Please elaborate on the people thing.

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

#87

Post by palunon » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:44 AM UTC

edem wrote: post #84

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…

> TL;DR: A damage dealer will beat a healer one on one, but that doesn't mean he's better. You need them both (plus a tank) to run a dungeon successfully. I haven't played a single game where this was true. Simply because both the healer and the damage dealer can do damage but only a healer can heal.

It's true in EVE. The an army of the most powerful damages dealers in the game would be overwhelmed by an army with a decent composition...

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

#88

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:44 AM UTC

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…

> Need a quick-and-dirty prototype ASAP? Give it to the framework hipster.

So that he can make the prototype with the newest hipster tech that noone else knows in the company and will probably be abandoned next year...

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

#89

Post by probinso » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:45 AM UTC

tbirrell wrote: post #24

probinso wrote: post #12

Pay has little to do with throughput. Pay is an arbitrary number that you and your handler select from the ether. This decision is often made well before there is any chance of measuring your productivity. If you think the number was poorly selected, just know it is. I found time tracking tools to be hugely beneficial. It changed my focus, and forced me more aware of what I was working on. I am, however, a slow devel…

SME = Subject Matter Expert (if google is to be believed).

google is to be believed

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

#90

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 1:47 AM UTC

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…

> Don't scold the fast guy for being sloppy, give him tasks that require speed and solve bugs with better QA and tests.

What if we're in finance industry working on critical systems and a bug mean millions dollars lost? Should we hire "sloppy" at all? I think not.