When you think of someone who has mastered the discipline of Software Engineering what comes to your mind?
Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
1–10 of 290 posts
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#2Perfect estimates, deep insights, and anticipating challenges
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#3Perfect estimates, deep insights, and anticipating challenges
I would say that even just aiming at perfect estimates is a sign that mastery has not been achieved yet.
Wisdom is to acknowledge uncertainty and that estimates are uncertain in nature because the information available at the time is always incomplete.
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#4I think of Rich Hickey [1]: helping others to understand the code faster by identifying and removing most of the accidental complexity.
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#5Pai Mei mustache, sits on a rock meditating and dispensing advice to juniors, quotes Martin Fowler by heart, seems to never touch a keyboard but every commit will replace entire module(s) flawlessly, demonstrating high level architectural knowledge that lies on the far side of the organisation's learning curve.
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#6Pai Mei mustache, sits on a rock meditating and dispensing advice to juniors, quotes Martin Fowler by heart, seems to never touch a keyboard but every commit will replace entire module(s) flawlessly, demonstrating high level architectural knowledge that lies on the far side of the organisation's learning curve.
Hahahahaha. This is the funniest thing I’ve read on HN.
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#7I like Mozilla's descriptions of increasingly senior roles. https://twitter.com/Gankra_/status/1046438955439271936/photo...
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#8Handling errors rather than ignoring them.
Knowing that the correct answer to almost every question is "it depends".
Knowing how to somewhat-less-inefficiently produce larger-scale software that adequately meets the need. (Note that I did not say "efficiently", and I did not say "bug-free".) This takes at least some skill in dealing with people, not just computers.
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#9I'm somewhat doubtful that 'mastering' Software Engineering is possible.
You wouldn't ask what it looks like to master the practice of medicine today because there are dozens or hundreds of specialities and roles all of which contribute to medicine.
Firmware engineering and 'agile' website development are very different practices with different assumptions, requirements, etc. I wouldn't expect someone to master both web development and video encoder development just like I wouldn't expect a doctor to be a master pancreatic surgeon and develop vaccines.
On the other hand there is a 'journeyman' level of software development and engineering skill that carries over between different development areas. It's definitely not algorithmic interviews though.
Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?
#10I think of Rich Hickey [1]: helping others to understand the code faster by identifying and removing most of the accidental complexity. [1] https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/
This reminds me of a talk of Linus Torvalds. From this perspective, mastery can be seen as an acquired taste that came after doing a large volume of work.