181–190 of 356 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
History is filled with re-discovery and explanation of things that were blindingly obvious to the generation that came before.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ― George Santayana "I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive." ― Kurt Vonnegut
There’s a certain amount of ladder kicking involved in telling people to choose boring and beige technologies after you started up your career chasing after new and exciting shiny things. Every developer should spend some time working at the bleeding edge, so they know how it feels to get cut. The best time is absolutely at the beginning, when you’re a fresh grad and have the energy. You have the rest of your life to…
Always glad to see this making the rounds, as it has been influential for me, especially the perspective of "Happiness comes from shipping stuff". I often think about this part, in particular: >Then we walked away. We didn’t do anything related to activity feeds for years after that. We barely even thought about it. >Then one day I said, “hey, I wonder how activity feeds is doing.” And I looked at it and was surprise…
For me, implementing something that provides value with near-zero maintenance for years is the ultimate sign that I've done well. Such a good point it's worth repeating. We have a bunch of small tools of which the code might not exactly be brilliant or adhering all possible good practices, but after 10+ years they still just work without any unsurprising behavior nor bugs and still also just build/deploy with a click…
I think this is also a mindset of devs who are committed to a job long term. Many places seem to churn through people every few years. If I had to look for a job every year or two I'd be doing resume-trendy "best tool for the job" stuff too. If I knew I'd be on the same system in 2029, I'd be keeping things easy to maintain.
Another case of someone discovering, after 10+ years in tech, that code is a liability and you're supposed to solve problems instead of chasing trends and padding the resume. Great that he's spreading the word!
A huge part of our VC bubble in OSS infrastructure (NoSQL, clouds, middleware, automation) is fueled by a generation of technologists not choosing boring technology. This is a great presentation, and great advice. What this piece misses are the marketing, hiring practices and incentives in that capital pool that is fueling FOMO (fear of missing out) as the main driver of our technology trends. Most people orbiting IT…
Not sure I agree with this perspective. Many of these companies are started by engineers or product managers who have seen the boring solutions not work for them. In some cases they either see it not work many times or see a future where other organizations get to that point and need a better solution. In digging into what these companies do it becomes clear that they aren't doing it just to push new tech, but maybe…
I think the main reason why it gets used for things it shouldn't be used for is that engineers get all enthusiastic about using it, and look for a job that it can be used for. This is especially true when the tech in question is becoming a de-facto requirement in the industry and everyone needs to know how to use it to succeed at their next interview.
Hence the need for this presentation, which wouldn't be needed (or popular) if there weren't so many damn bubbles.
There’s a certain amount of ladder kicking involved in telling people to choose boring and beige technologies after you started up your career chasing after new and exciting shiny things. Every developer should spend some time working at the bleeding edge, so they know how it feels to get cut. The best time is absolutely at the beginning, when you’re a fresh grad and have the energy. You have the rest of your life to…