101–110 of 143 posts
Yet another article on HN that reads as if the entirety of programming = making CRUD web apps. I make games, it has nothing to do with the real world, I'm not solving any real world problems. I'm making a new fantasy world.
This is all very well and good until the code you’ve written to solve the problems becomes a bit too unwieldy, then you need to become better at writing code. The problem you were solving was solved, but now you have a new problem to solve. True then, the best code you can write, is indeed, no code at all.
This insight seems to making the framing even more useful, not less.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't use pipenv, you don't need it. Seriously. Edit: you don't need poetry either.
Is there a better way to get a lock/freeze file that includes checksums ?
"You're not cooking meals, you're solving problems"
There's a real lack of humility among our industry, especially in the AI space. Literally you can google "AI solves world peace" or "AI solves COVID-19" and you'll hit an article. We also call ourselves ninjas when most of us are just building hugely complex infrastructure behind what is ultimately just a CRUD website.
But I think it is mostly just American programmers. Or maybe just big city programmers. I've had the opportunity to work with people in Spain, The UK, and Prague, others remotely as well, but I haven't seen the level of ego in those guys as I have seen in Americans.
It's part of the reason I loathe the idea of hiring developers from America. EVERYOTHER industry is perfectly fine with criticizing or reanalyzing the work of others either underneath their authority or about their competitors. I'm sure even some of these programmers have even said "OMG this caffe macchiato is crap. I'm never drinking from this place again." But nope, don't criticize programmers or ask them to redo work. It's just so rude.
But it is probably the fact that companies like Google literally put slides and children's toys in their offices for their apparently adult programmers to enjoy. An artifact of programmer scarcity I'd imagine.
Depends on the language. I find that in C++, I spend a lot of time working on figuring out the language, while in python I spend far more time solving the actual problem.
In Lisp, I lose time manually writing FFI wrappers. It really makes you appreciate the size of Python's ecosystem.
In C++, I spend inordinate amounts of time buried in the language standard. It's just _so large_.
In C, I have "fun" with manual memory management, name collisions, and boilerplate.
I think Lisp is my preferred choice for the time being.
Yet another article on HN that reads as if the entirety of programming = making CRUD web apps. I make games, it has nothing to do with the real world, I'm not solving any real world problems. I'm making a new fantasy world.
A game has everything to do with the real world. A game is only successful if real-world people want to play it.
I think this article constructs a strawman argument – pretty much all developers are solving some sort of problem. The big question is who you're solving problems for – when I was a single person doing freelance web work (like this article seems to assume), I was always solving problems for customers and their clients. Once I started working with other developers, I became interested in solving their problems too – s…
Aren't a lot of jobs about solving problems? A therapist solves psychological problems. A lawyer solves problems between people and organizational entities. A surgeon solves medical problems. The reason I'm asking this question is because a few groups proudly say that they are problem solvers. The most notable groups that I've seen are programmers and the consulting industry. But who isn't solving problems? Why this…
Unskilled labor. Unskilled labor is there to execute a solution. Programmers (and others) are expected to innovate. Its important to remember that instead of simply cranking out code for the facet of the problem that happens to be immediately in front of you.
Junior devs solve computer problems using computers. Senior devs solve business problems using computers.
And “ninjas” or whatever the term is for senior+ programmers know when to solve problems without a computer at all! That’s when you’ve reached enlightenment :) And I don’t mean that in a woowoo wishy washy way. I mean that when someone comes to you with a business problem, often the solution can be something as simple as “why not just change the text to say X” or “did you know that dept Y already do that thing? Let’s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My life would be much easier if I didn't have to dig through piles of useless garbage like that post. As a matter of fact that's why I like and keep coming back to Hacker News is because most of the posts I can read here are less fluffy than anywhere else. So yeah, if I don't respect something I am willing to fight for the right to see something I have respect for; even if I don't like it btw.
Vote for things you like and move on - commenting is just generating noise since it doesn’t affect ratings.