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Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

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Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#81

Post by monocasa »

deltree7 wrote: post #69
hallway_monitor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are assuming the worst intentions here but anyone who has worked in an enterprise knows sometimes it's useful to build tools for your use and not to share. The tool might not even be allowed, C# is probably not in the supported platforms and even if it was, getting it into the official repos can be arduous. If OP really cared about maximizing everyone's productivity of course they would share the tool…

Increasing productivity never lays people off, unless the people were originally being unproductive. That's a dumb understanding of economics and even management. Also, scaling tools to more than one user is incredibly hard. Software development is still custom / art. This tool works because it is suited to OPs workflow and his "way of thinking". In order to make it work for others, it needs lots of improvement and g…

Management commonly has a dumb understanding of economics and management. Particularly when they view engineering as a cost center.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#82

Post by alberth »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #9

Yeah I do this. Most of what I build, nobody knows about it nor is it release into the wild. Latest example: at my current workplace we have some crappy custom compilers for our platform.... I've rebuilt them in a way that I like (and using C# instead of Java), that enables me to use it in a small visual studio code plugin that enables me with real time error messages as I code against our platform, so basically cons…

A lot of successful companies are founded this way (Eg HashiCorp, SAP, Basecamp, etc).

Person sees a massive inefficiency at their employer. They know of a way to save time and money by building a tool to solve for it.

That person starts their own business to sell that product to others.

No better way to find product / market fit than to have first hand experience in the problem that needs to be solved.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#83

Post by xg15 »

> but apparently money makes people do anything.

Money and being employed.

Employees have a duty to act in the best interest of their employer - in many jurisdictions this is an actual legal duty.

You'd have to be pretty immature to forfeit that duty for internet points or some kind of nebulous "dev solidarity".

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#85

Post by jcun4128 »

If not for the YT API itself, next thing seems to be also another extension but I wonder, even if you tried to do something like a decentralized approach (no one holder of data) are you still "infringing" on YT somehow by indexing stuff/keeping track of dislikes. Also would be hard to prove genuine/not fake counts.

Regarding question, I would post to get validation/external feedback so as to not feed my own biases/delusions.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#87

Post by newbamboo »

deltree7 wrote: post #69
hallway_monitor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are assuming the worst intentions here but anyone who has worked in an enterprise knows sometimes it's useful to build tools for your use and not to share. The tool might not even be allowed, C# is probably not in the supported platforms and even if it was, getting it into the official repos can be arduous. If OP really cared about maximizing everyone's productivity of course they would share the tool…

Increasing productivity never lays people off, unless the people were originally being unproductive. That's a dumb understanding of economics and even management. Also, scaling tools to more than one user is incredibly hard. Software development is still custom / art. This tool works because it is suited to OPs workflow and his "way of thinking". In order to make it work for others, it needs lots of improvement and g…

You may be correct but still, this made me literally laugh out loud.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#88

Post by GartzenDeHaes »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #9

Yeah I do this. Most of what I build, nobody knows about it nor is it release into the wild. Latest example: at my current workplace we have some crappy custom compilers for our platform.... I've rebuilt them in a way that I like (and using C# instead of Java), that enables me to use it in a small visual studio code plugin that enables me with real time error messages as I code against our platform, so basically cons…

Here's some management issues OP might be referring to.

- Who is going to provide support, bug fixes, documentation, manuals, etc?

- What happens if you leave? Can our other devs maintain this?

- Did I mention documentation?

- Did you get this approved by the architecture committee?

- Why didn't you follow our process improvement policy?

- We are a Java shop, so can you rewrite it in Java; you know this, so why didn't you write it Java?

There's also people issues with the other devs who may not like OP's tools or want to change their process.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#89

Post by philosopher1234 »

deltree7 wrote: post #69
hallway_monitor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are assuming the worst intentions here but anyone who has worked in an enterprise knows sometimes it's useful to build tools for your use and not to share. The tool might not even be allowed, C# is probably not in the supported platforms and even if it was, getting it into the official repos can be arduous. If OP really cared about maximizing everyone's productivity of course they would share the tool…

Increasing productivity never lays people off, unless the people were originally being unproductive. That's a dumb understanding of economics and even management. Also, scaling tools to more than one user is incredibly hard. Software development is still custom / art. This tool works because it is suited to OPs workflow and his "way of thinking". In order to make it work for others, it needs lots of improvement and g…

>Devs should stop being delusional about their self-importance in these things. There are 100 other factors going on in an org and your one little tool ain't gonna make a penny difference in the profitability or productivity of the company (unless you have data to prove it, including impact on profitability)

This is false. My org has seen millions of dollars of savings many times on the backs of tools. Improving developer productivity, and it sounds like ops tool would be huge for productivity, is extremely valuable.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#90

Post by jdavis703 »

RankingMember wrote: post #16
BatteryMountain wrote: post #9

Yeah I do this. Most of what I build, nobody knows about it nor is it release into the wild. Latest example: at my current workplace we have some crappy custom compilers for our platform.... I've rebuilt them in a way that I like (and using C# instead of Java), that enables me to use it in a small visual studio code plugin that enables me with real time error messages as I code against our platform, so basically cons…

Making it broadly available could also potentially just set a new floor for productivity in an industry that doesn't always reward such gains commensurate with their value, i.e. you'd get an attaboy and "alright well now you can do three times as much work for the same pay!"

Isn’t that the whole point of software engineering? You should always be engineering yourself out of your current job. If I’m dealing with the same issues I have today, a year from now, then I’d view that as a personal failure.
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