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Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

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Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#41

Post by clashmeifyoucan »

worik wrote: post #36

I am not sorry, this does not impress me. From the comments it appears this person has done some significant work in YetAnotherJavaScriptFramework. Boasting that: Fuzzy on the details of how TCP/IP works (hello web developer, read a book!), does not understand order complexity specifically or algorithms in general - as one commenter pointed out - no wonder JS front ends are such shit if this is the level of intellect…

> I am not sorry, this does not impress me.

I don't think it was meant to impress. On the contrary I think the overarching point of the whole article was that it's okay to not know things outside of your domain that may seem trivial to other CS folks.

> Not knowing modern CSS - how can this person possibly work in any sort of cutting edge web development and not know about that?

Well, I don't know how he does it anymore than you do. But it looks like he's still working on cutting edge web development and it seems to be working out, so my takeaway is that he doesn't need to know about it plain and simple.

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#42

Post by [deleted] »

worik wrote: post #36

I am not sorry, this does not impress me. From the comments it appears this person has done some significant work in YetAnotherJavaScriptFramework. Boasting that: Fuzzy on the details of how TCP/IP works (hello web developer, read a book!), does not understand order complexity specifically or algorithms in general - as one commenter pointed out - no wonder JS front ends are such shit if this is the level of intellect…

[deleted]

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#43

Post by alexanderscott »

mellosouls wrote: post #39
alexanderscott wrote: post #38

no offense, but from this list the author is either 1) stuck in a particular domain or language or 2) not very proactive in broader learning or side projects. I agree it’s ok to not program C or understand network/transport layer in depth. but things like unix shell basics, python, micro services, docker - these are all fundamentals I assume everyone (backend, frontend, mobile, or game engine) has working understandi…

Co-creator of redux, he was partly motivated to write the article to counter ideas you need to be fluent in everything, often propogated (intentionally or not) by "as a hiring manager...red flags" posts like yours. Fwiw: https://github.com/gaearon

didn’t say need to be “fluent”, said need “working understanding” in today’s environment. countering that idea is futile.

working on an open source JS framework is great and all, but doesn’t make you a seasoned engineer IMO.

TlDR: take this list and dedicate time in 2021 to learning so you can be productive in real world business engineering teams

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#44

Post by [deleted] »

alexanderscott wrote: post #43
mellosouls wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Co-creator of redux, he was partly motivated to write the article to counter ideas you need to be fluent in everything, often propogated (intentionally or not) by "as a hiring manager...red flags" posts like yours. Fwiw: https://github.com/gaearon

didn’t say need to be “fluent”, said need “working understanding” in today’s environment. countering that idea is futile. working on an open source JS framework is great and all, but doesn’t make you a seasoned engineer IMO. TlDR: take this list and dedicate time in 2021 to learning so you can be productive in real world business engineering teams

[deleted]

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#45

Post by alexpetralia »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #22

This article really makes me feel good as a current intern and comp sci student. I thought I clearly defined what a junior dev could be if I worked at it for another year. Having read all the stuff this guy doesn't know and what I've learned at my internship, it's almost any hint of imposter syndrome I might of had went away. Now I'm not saying he doesn't know how to program. I'm just saying it's very interesting to…

Most importantly, if you always keep this mindset, you will never stop learning!

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#46

Post by zests »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #22

This article really makes me feel good as a current intern and comp sci student. I thought I clearly defined what a junior dev could be if I worked at it for another year. Having read all the stuff this guy doesn't know and what I've learned at my internship, it's almost any hint of imposter syndrome I might of had went away. Now I'm not saying he doesn't know how to program. I'm just saying it's very interesting to…

Keep in mind technological knowledge is not the only factor. We pass on hiring plenty of technically competent people because of their communication skills. Knowing what you don’t know is one way to improve your communication skills.

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#47

Post by H8crilA »

Toutouxc wrote: post #30
choeger wrote: post #11

From the list, I would suggest to learn C, because a lot of stuff is written in it or at least uses its ABI. So understanding that will give you a lot of leverage. Besides that, a deep dive into operating systems (yes, that means to get rid of MacOS if you use it) will give you a solid foundation to understand networking, containers and even more.

> I would suggest to learn C, because a lot of stuff is written in it Does it also mean we all need to learn how to design integrated circuits?

I do recommend learning VHDL/Verilog (it's like learning functional programming or prolog - a completely unique experience), but it really depends on what you're after in life. Churning out Java/Web CRUD apps is enough to earn a living, it is actually what most programmers do (and even though every such app is boring as hell, collectively it is highly important for the world).

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#48

Post by Xevi »

watermelon59 wrote: post #40
anonu wrote: post #24

This is common. I think there are few people that are masters at everything. Instead you should focus on building a talent stack or a skills mosaic. (Choose whichever term you want). The point is you might not be a master in any one subject but you might be pretty good at a handful of things. That permutation is enough to make you valuable and unique.

I wonder if this is what contributes to the instability of most software though, especially SaaS. People do just enough to get by and "get things done," which always looks great at the time it happens. And then things break, and no one knows why because no one has the depth of knowledge to investigate it. But it has to be fixed, so typically one or two people in the team are assigned to it and are miserable for days…

You're right. Just by looking at job posts you'll see requirements to know several languages, frontend frameworks, databases, enterprise services, and so on. The modern programmer is often a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

I'm building multi-million dollar applications for companies, and often it's with languages and frameworks I've never used before.

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#49

Post by kyberias »

clashmeifyoucan wrote: post #41
worik wrote: post #36

I am not sorry, this does not impress me. From the comments it appears this person has done some significant work in YetAnotherJavaScriptFramework. Boasting that: Fuzzy on the details of how TCP/IP works (hello web developer, read a book!), does not understand order complexity specifically or algorithms in general - as one commenter pointed out - no wonder JS front ends are such shit if this is the level of intellect…

> I am not sorry, this does not impress me. I don't think it was meant to impress. On the contrary I think the overarching point of the whole article was that it's okay to not know things outside of your domain that may seem trivial to other CS folks. > Not knowing modern CSS - how can this person possibly work in any sort of cutting edge web development and not know about that? Well, I don't know how he does it anym…

> it's okay to not know things outside of your domain that may seem trivial to other CS folks.

Well, it's not ok. It's bad. It's irresponsible.

There is a lot of basic stuff on that list one has to know.

Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018

#50

Post by itsoktocry »

justin_oaks wrote: post #16

Reading this list made me really want to explain the basics of each of those items so as to clear up any misconceptions, or to confirm that, yes, he gets the gist of it. When I try to learn about topics that I'm unfamiliar with, the hardest information to find is "Why is X important?" and "What is the most important thing to know about X?" With those in hand, I'd be able to determine if a deep dive into the topic is…

>With those in hand, I'd be able to determine if a deep dive into the topic is useful for me or not.

I think that's the point: we all know (most of) the gist of it. But the practical experience isn't something you can prep for in advance. You never know what tech you'll need to use in the real world. The "deep dive" comes when you get hired and the employer needs that tech. I'm not sure the employer gets that.

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