Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#221

Post by kubanczyk » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:05 PM UTC

jasonpeacock wrote: post #13

Consistently and reliably delivering good software solutions. Just like a master woodworker would consistently and reliably deliver good furniture. Or a master author would consistently and reliably deliver good books. The key points are: * Consistent - It wasn't just a fluke or luck, you know what you're doing and can repeat it. * Reliable - You know how much effort it will take and can deliver it. * Good - It's not…

What if a woodworker is an employee of a big org? (IKEA?) None of your points regard interacting with people downwards and upwards.

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#222

Post by mpweiher » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:06 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #142

bedobi wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with this, but sadly, a prerequisite for that is a position of privilege where you're able to push back against non-valuable work. I've seen many, many very good software developers that have this quality, but get overruled, and their true value goes unrealized as a result.

Part of what it means to be a senior engineer is that you have a mastery over the soft skills/people skills commensurate with your engineering abilities. Someone who knows how a bridge should be architected but cannot navigate the politics of city council necessary to get it built isn't much of a bridge builder. The importance of good politics cannot be understated. Politics in this case is roughly defined as getting…

Hmm...why should the onus be on the engineer?

An organisation that does this is broken.

Most are.

While it is important to realise that this brokenness is in fact widespread, I don't think it should be normalised.

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#223

Post by lincpa » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:07 PM UTC

The Grand Unified Programming Theory: The Pure Function Pipeline Data Flow with Warehouse/Workshop Model

10 Principles of system design: Take Warehouse/Workshop Model as an example

https://github.com/linpengcheng/PurefunctionPipelineDataflow

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#224

Post by dhsysusbsjsi » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:08 PM UTC

mechEpleb wrote: post #182

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of a guy I used to work with. He two-finger typed looking at his keyboard all the time, but the code he did end up writing was exactly what was needed. Consistency and quality was much more important than cold, hard "productivity".

Can anybody actually produce working code at the same pace as they touch type? Typing hardly registers as a factor when it comes to how long it takes for me to code anything, at least.

It’s faster for typing my question into stackoverflow!

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#225

Post by gitgud » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:13 PM UTC

"Software" is the implementation of logic. "Engineering" is solving problems with science, within a set of constraints.

Therefore software engineering, is solving problems with logic, within a set of constraints.

Where constraints can be; business requirements, hardware limitations, development time limitations, performance limits, solution simplicity, release frequency... Etc

Mastery of software engineering is efficiently solving problems, and optimising for the constraints that matter...

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#226

Post by dusted » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:13 PM UTC

itsmejeff wrote: post #85

I’ve been pondering this a lot lately, as an engineering leader. Masters in my organization have an extremely high ratio of value shipped to hours worked. This means two things. They are able to discern and avoid work that does not provide value (this is often their greatest skill), and the best ones can direct a whole team away from large swaths of work that is not valuable. And they are able to build systems such t…

One has to be very careful in determining what work amounts to "value shipped". It's not uncommon to have a few persons who seem to ship all the value, while the rest.. just enable them to do so, by doing the required, but invisible stuff, like the refactoring required for the new feature to ship, or fixing the bugs that makes the customers not leave, or attend those meetings that has to be attended by someone. This is somewhat related to the 10x engineer story, sure, some are a lot better than others, but sometimes it's not entirely undue to their situation. Maybe it is a skill too, to be aggressive enough to grab the work that looks most valuable and push that through, leaving your team to do the rest.

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#227

Post by kubanczyk » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

arensc wrote: post #60

Hey So I view Software Engineering as a multidimensional optimization surface where you have to optimize for a goal by choosing an axis and playing with those axis until you get a desired result. Mastering the language but understanding why the language was developed what problems it looked to address. Reducing the cognitive load of the design using the language. Understanding the fundamentals of the types of applica…

TIL: SCRUD == Search + CRUD

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#228

Post by HellDunkel » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:34 PM UTC

Nintendo, Doom, Unreal, Maya (not Autodesk), Nuke, VRay... beautiful products altogether. Its almost always teams of people but leads are key.

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#229

Post by GuB-42 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:35 PM UTC

Nothing specific to software engineering.

But I'd say a master is simply someone you have a lot to learn from.

I'd say you have mastered the discipline when even though you know the limits of your abilities and you are eager to learn, it becomes difficult to find someone to teach you something new.

Re: Ask HN: What does mastery look like in software engineering?

#230

Post by fancythat » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

Look no futher than this: https://archive.is/NCWmz (Wolfenstein 3d iPhone development By John Carmack, Technical Director, Id Software)

To be exact: "The developers came back and said it would take two months and exceed their budget.

Rather than having a big confrontation over the issue, I told them to just send the project to me and I would do it myself. Cass Everitt had been doing some personal work on the iPhone, so he helped me get everything set up for local iPhone development here, which is a lot more tortuous than you would expect from an Apple product. As usual, my off the cuff estimate of "Two days!" was optimistic, but I did get it done in four, and the game is definitely more pleasant at 8x the frame rate.

And I had fun doing it."