Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A guide for how to talk to a developer

hatchapps.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#12

Post by Hasz »

This is painful.

If, as an employee you're so engrossed in technical jargon that you can't explain it at an understandable and reasonable level to a competent adult, there's a problem.

Likewise, as a manager, you memorized some flashcards and now "understand" enough to throw around some buzzwords and jargon, that's going to have it's own set of problems.

Talk like a human, ask questions, and don't be an idiot.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#13

Post by acconrad »

The UI is pretty, but that's about it.

How about you just talk to a developer like a regular person? Don't understand what an API is? Just ask them. Great folks love explaining things to others, and if you're not a developer yourself, it's not too stupid of a question to ask (or simply Google it).

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#14

Post by mfoy_ »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #6

Rather than memorize a bunch of flash cards it seems much easier to just talk to them like humans and if they say something you don't understand don't be embarrassed to ask them what it means.

I know non-technical people who, when they think they are hearing anything remotely technical, seem to shut down and go into "I don't know technical stuff!" mode...

Not that flashcards are going to cure _that_.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#15

Post by Rapzid »

Hasz wrote: post #12

This is painful. If, as an employee you're so engrossed in technical jargon that you can't explain it at an understandable and reasonable level to a competent adult, there's a problem. Likewise, as a manager, you memorized some flashcards and now "understand" enough to throw around some buzzwords and jargon, that's going to have it's own set of problems. Talk like a human, ask questions, and don't be an idiot.

And if one of the two things you "know" about C is that it's "uncommon".. Best not to remove all doubt.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#18

Post by gone35 »

positr0n wrote: post #3

Some of these are just wrong. "Django" is not "A style sheet language that extends from CSS."

And an API is not quite "A set of rules that developers follow to create software that can interact with an external system or application" [emphasis added]... (Gives the impression of a design pattern or something, IMO)

This is awful.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#19

Post by alxlaz »

1. Is this for real?

2. Here are exactly two things that you need to memorize in order to make this sort of talk productive:

a) I don't know what X is, sorry. Can you tell me what that is/Can you explain to me what it does?

b) I'm not sure I follow. I thought X is [...]/does [...], what am I missing?

3. Did anyone who actually knows what these things mean review these definitions? E.g:

Vanilla:

"Plain or basic, often used in reference to coding languages or other computing-related systems that remain unmodified from their original form."

There's nothing plain or basic about the vanilla Linux kernel. What makes it vanilla is the absence of distribution- and/or vendor-specific patches that are not in mainline.

API:

"A set of rules that developers follow to create software that can interact with an external system or application."

This sort of matches what an API is in web land, if you squint a little. If someone were to ask me what that definition describes, "API" is about the last thing I'd say.

Django:

"A style sheet language that extends from CSS."

Last time I wrote web-related code, my girlfriend dragged me to see The Aviator twice because it was all the rage, and I haven't really kept up, but I could swear Django is not a language and that it doesn't extend from CSS, whatever that means.

Post reply on HN