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Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

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Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#161

Post by brailsafe »

The last time I was employed, almost a year ago, my answer would have been one of the following.

1) I can't concentrate with the sound of this dickhead next to me eating 5 times a day.

2) You keep asking me why my ticket isn't done yet

3) I'm troubleshooting this other problem for a customer that I'm for some reason supposed to do concurrently with my assigned tasks.

4) I'm not interested enough in creating what is ultimately a html/css page, but that has devolved into a complex state management, component architecture, strict typing, and build system monster.

5) Meetings, though the last place was reasonable about them for the most part.

If I were to try and answer why I would be coding, the answer would be that the problem is sufficiently complex or new to me, and I have the mental and physical space to tackle it. Every one of the above 5 are constants in most workplaces, and it burns me out to the point where I don't know what compels me to keep seeking jobs.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#162

Post by username90 »

anw wrote: post #96

Because Coding is not Working. Coding is not Planning. Coding is not Being Efficient. Coding is not Accomplishing Goals. Coding is not Saving Money. Coding is not Gaining Customers. I am getting paid to get things done in a good manner. If I wanted to have a house built for me, I would not expect to pay somebody and immediately have them start laying bricks without them looking at the land, taking soil samples, sketc…

> I am getting paid to get things done in a good manner. If I wanted to have a house built for me, I would not expect to pay somebody and immediately have them start laying bricks without them looking at the land, taking soil samples, sketching up drafts of what the house should look like within the constraints available, and then plan the foundation of which to start building.

In the software world most of those would be accomplished by coding though. You code up prototypes, show them to people, ask questions, test performance, test the different dependencies etc. Making a big design up front as you suggest instead of just coding prototypes is naive and wastes time. It is a good way to look productive to management though, I give you that.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#165

Post by TheDudeMan »

jmchuster wrote: post #152

Code you write is code everyone will now have to maintain forever, so naively, you want to solve problems with as little code as possible, and maximize the value being generated by your codebase. So you should be spending your time on... properly validating the business value of your projects, properly designing what a system should look like on paper, properly considering use cases and edge cases, finding what code…

> Code you write is code everyone will now have to maintain forever

False. You may throw code away.

Also, did you visit the link?

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#166

Post by adjkant »

Actual experience I had recently that could work here:

1. I'm simultaneously filling out performance feedback while supporting infra and a team who is developing said tool.

2. I go to merge code from said team to fix a UI/UX issue of decent urgency. Looks good, builder succeeds, deploy to staging quickly to confirm before going straight to prod. Deployment fails. Odd. Check, odd errors. Turns out JFrog is experiencing an outage and that's a dependency on the builder, keep that status page open, go back to actually filling out performance feedback.

3. Get some unusual flakiness on the performance tool, don't think much of it.

4. See update from JFrog, they are down due to a GCP outage. I go to GCP to see what services are down, and Cloud SQL (the database the performance tool is on) is experiencing issues.

In summary, GCP goes down while dealing with a bug in a performance feedback tool that I am both in the middle of using and also assisting with in a non-coding capacity. There's some non-coding for ya :)

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#167

Post by hansvm »

PopGreene wrote: post #65

I finally checked out the link. You're looking for material to use in a comic? And I'm trying to give you a serious answer. Maybe these experiences will help: Had a coworker get promoted way past his level of incompetence. He never accomplished much before, but afterward he spent all of his time lobbying for his ideas and undermining those of us that were trying to get work done. Wasted a lot of time dealing with him…

> I'm sure a lot of people have this problem: naming things. Can't code until you figure out what that variable should be called.

i, j, k, foo, bar, baz, and don't waste a moment thinking about it till your solution is finished and warrants a once-over (or till it has grown sufficiently complicated that a real name is finally necessary even if temporary -- try to work in small enough units that this never happens).

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#168

Post by TheDudeMan »

Love the comic! Sorry about all the people replying without visiting your comic.

For me, it is definitely schedule anxiety. If I have meetings throughout the day (I do), forget it.

Why aren't I coding? Because it's the middle of the day. I'll get going at 7-ish. Or tomorrow, when everyone else is taking their kids to the park.

Why aren't I coding? I have perf reviews that need to be completed by Wednesday. I HATE PERF REVIEWS! Unable to function.

Why aren't I coding? I have to do a presentation next week. I HATE PRESENTATIONS! Running on zero sleep. Unable to function.

Why aren't I coding? Because we are hiring. Always. Damn. Hiring. Non. Stop. Interviews. Please make it stop.

Why aren't I coding? I already have 4 changes out for review. My git skills aren't good enough to keep stacking these things and keep them straight in my head. I'll rewatch The Expanse while I wait.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#169

Post by tbirdny »

Profectionism procrastination: Because I haven't figured out the best perfect solution that solves all the problems without any trade offs. I'm waiting for the perfect design to occur to me. I'm hoping it might occur to me while working on something else, reading blogs, watching youtube, in the shower, or while I'm sleeping. Or, I'm waiting for inspiration of any kind. Or, I'm waiting for an idea that intrigues me enough, or that I might learn something from, that I think is worth attempting.
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