How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
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How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
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Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#2Two things jump out to me:
> Only learn something new when forced
I think there is a balance between always doing things in a new way, versus always doing things as you've done before. When engineers are pushed too hard on deadlines, some will avoid learning new things as a short term approach for quick delivery. If your in that environment, you aren't going to grow.
> Avoid linking to other software unless forced. It empirically rarely goes well.
Source? The rapid growth of npm, rubygems, and other ecosystems suggests otherwise.
I was hoping this would talk about how to support your co-workers (code review, culture, cohesion) or how to succeed at non-engineering tasks other 'good' programers may overlook
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#3Two things jump out to me: > Only learn something new when forced I think there is a balance between always doing things in a new way, versus always doing things as you've done before. When engineers are pushed too hard on deadlines, some will avoid learning new things as a short term approach for quick delivery. If your in that environment, you aren't going to grow. > Avoid linking to other software unless forced. I…
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Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#4ALAN. Avoid Learning Anything New
Terrible advice and mindset, It's good to learn for pleasure or curiosity. This way, you can enjoy reading SICP, effective java, code complete... Or you can use a new system, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS. Doing it you model your thoughts and mind, learn new ways, practices, or patterns, you don’t have to use then only for having learned, but even so, they will be useful to you.
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#5ALAN. Avoid Learning Anything New Terrible advice and mindset, It's good to learn for pleasure or curiosity. This way, you can enjoy reading SICP, effective java, code complete... Or you can use a new system, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS. Doing it you model your thoughts and mind, learn new ways, practices, or patterns, you don’t have to use then only for having learned, but even so, they will be useful to you.
Yes, it's a terrible, second-stringer attitude. Curiosity and obsession are a couple of the key differentiators between a workaday jobber in it for the money (like many who flocked to tech in the dot-com times) and a badass. TBH, if someone's only in it for the money, they're wasting their life in the wrong field when they could be doing something else such that their morale and satisfaction would be greater.
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#6I don't think most of this applies only to "poor programmers".
The advice about KISS is something many "good" programmers would benefit from following. Likewise, I've seen good programmers recommend using arrays as your first attempt at a data structure as well (e.g. Jonathan Blow, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjDsP5n2kSM )
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#7Two things jump out to me: > Only learn something new when forced I think there is a balance between always doing things in a new way, versus always doing things as you've done before. When engineers are pushed too hard on deadlines, some will avoid learning new things as a short term approach for quick delivery. If your in that environment, you aren't going to grow. > Avoid linking to other software unless forced. I…
> Source? The rapid growth of npm, rubygems, and other ecosystems suggests otherwise.
Probably referring to the dependency hell that can occur. Things work great when you first choose your libraries, but then months or years later while maintaining code you find x feature is deprecated or lib y no longer plays nicely with lib z or lib a is dependent on lib b version 2 and lib c needs lib b to be version 3, etc.
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#8ALAN. Avoid Learning Anything New Terrible advice and mindset, It's good to learn for pleasure or curiosity. This way, you can enjoy reading SICP, effective java, code complete... Or you can use a new system, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS. Doing it you model your thoughts and mind, learn new ways, practices, or patterns, you don’t have to use then only for having learned, but even so, they will be useful to you.
6. Be aware that most coding advice is bad. Think about whether there is empirical evidence that a given piece of advice is true.
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#9I’ve been in a rut lately. Missing obvious things, shipping less than my best code. It’s come to my attention that I’m not as good at programming as I am at crafting database queries and tuning them but that’s such a small niche given how easy it is to pick up SQL that I’m having an existential crisis.
So I’m working on getting better and getting more confident.
Re: How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer
#10ALAN. Avoid Learning Anything New Terrible advice and mindset, It's good to learn for pleasure or curiosity. This way, you can enjoy reading SICP, effective java, code complete... Or you can use a new system, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS. Doing it you model your thoughts and mind, learn new ways, practices, or patterns, you don’t have to use then only for having learned, but even so, they will be useful to you.
If you read what he actually wrote, he obviously means "Avoid Learning Anything Newly Invented/Created" not "Avoid Learning Things That Are New To You". In that context, SICP, Java, and Linux hardly count as new...