A guide for how to talk to a developer • Hacker News Board

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#21

Post by thorell » Wed, May 23, 2018, 6:42 PM UTC

mfoy_ wrote: post #14

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_.

I think you're right. I also know technical people who obscure gaps in their own knowledge with jargon. So clarifying questions that might expose the gap are responded to with increasingly technical rambling. Bad habits all around, feeding off each other.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#22

Post by glax » Wed, May 23, 2018, 6:46 PM UTC

Just No. It doesnt't even feel human. It's like throwing bunch of things at the developers and will give out output. It's upper management version of random button smashing.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#23

Post by Animats » Wed, May 23, 2018, 6:48 PM UTC

The "computer science" terms are funny. That's not computer science, that's web project development.

"Agile - A adapted method of project management in which tasks are divided into short phases, and plans are regularly revisited and modified in response to new information."

What does "adapted" mean in this context, anyway?

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#24

Post by watwut » Wed, May 23, 2018, 6:51 PM UTC

thorell wrote: post #21

mfoy_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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_.

I think you're right. I also know technical people who obscure gaps in their own knowledge with jargon. So clarifying questions that might expose the gap are responded to with increasingly technical rambling. Bad habits all around, feeding off each other.

Increasingly technical rambling is good. What I hate is when techies start to imply that whoever they talk with is an idiot after they reach limit of their knowledge. That tactic is used surprisingly often.

It makes people scared to ask and passive.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#25

Post by Jeremy1026 » Wed, May 23, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

holografix wrote: post #16

Django - “a style sheet language that extends from CSS” what blasphemy!

"Django is a free and open-source web framework, written in Python, which follows the model-view-template architectural pattern. It is maintained by the Django Software Foundation, an independent organization established as a 501 non-profit. Django's primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites."

The flashcard is uhh, close?

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#26

Post by deft » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:01 PM UTC

rhapsodic wrote: post #20

If you look past the poorly-thought-out title, this page is actually a good information resource for non-technical people.

If it was cleaned up a bit sure. The title totally ruins it... how elitist can tech people get? Go study this glossary of terms THEN you can talk to me.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#27

Post by joslin01 » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

Shoot, well if this is the way the world works, I better get some flash cards to talk as a doctor/mechanic/craftsmen/anything-else before I even think of talking to them. The horror of asking what something means is too much!

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#28

Post by gaius » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

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.

Flagged article because it is beyond stupid

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#29

Post by LyndsySimon » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

alxlaz wrote: post #19

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…

> API

Yeah, I'd say an API is the interface that you expose so that other developers or systems can interact with your project. That can be over HTTP if it's a web service, but it can also be the interface that you expose from a library that's intended to be used by other developers. Python's Requests is based around the idea of exposing a better API than the stdlib's to manage HTTP requests. Win32 is an API, and so is Cocoa.

> Django

Uh... generally speaking, Django is a Python web framework. It has its own templating language, but I don't recall any facility specific to CSS. That one is just weird.

Re: A guide for how to talk to a developer

#30

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 23, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

gone35 wrote: post #18

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.

[deleted]