The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
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The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#2Well then, I must be in the utmost echelon of hacker demigods, as RescueTime tells me I spend the majority of my days reading programming stuff on the interwebs instead of working.
(In my defense, I do still manage to finish stuff on time...)
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#3Well then, I must be in the utmost echelon of hacker demigods, as RescueTime tells me I spend the majority of my days reading programming stuff on the interwebs instead of working. (In my defense, I do still manage to finish stuff on time...)
I think the problem is people who read things but don't try to build new things. You can write Lisp style code in C# and if you want to play around with the object system you can even do so in C++ or even Java but coders who only read the hype and never understand what it's saying build the same junk in each new platform.
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#4Even when I am actually doing work, I often spend at least half of my time reading and investigating existing code, not coding. Why? Because I want to:
1) Really understand what is going on in the existing code base
2) Make sure what I plan to do is in line with the philosophy of the current code
3) Make sure I'm not replicating something already implemented
4) Give my brain enough gestation time to allow lateral thinking to happen
In fact, often I'll spend some time reading, go off and practice juggling, then come back and whip off an initial prototype, then go and do something else distracting (read Hacker News) then revisit the problem again the next day. Most of the time, I'll figure out an even better way to do it.
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#5The average software developer, for example, doesn't own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn't ever read one.
I used to own, and read, books about programming. Now my reference books at least are made obsolete by the web.
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#6This sets the bar for an elite programmer fairly low IMHO.
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#7" they are the kind of people who read things in order to better themselves as programmers. And that's already, you know, 5-10% of practising programmers"
I find this hard to believe. I have at least 20 friends who also program and they all read online and own programming books.
I'd like to know where Joel gets his statistics.
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#8In one of my previous jobs we had this dude who had like 20+ books on his desk.
At best the guy was an average developer...
There is a difference between a read and a reference.
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#9>And that's already, you know, 5-10% of practising programmers. It's not the vast masses of Java monkeys who were formerly VB monkeys who were formerly COBOL monkeys who are just doing, you know, large swathes of extremely boring stuff internally somewhere. I'm certainly not above the occassional look down my nose at Java, but how do you suppose someone would move to Java from VB without reading a few books or manuals?
Re: The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read
#10" they are the kind of people who read things in order to better themselves as programmers. And that's already, you know, 5-10% of practising programmers" I find this hard to believe. I have at least 20 friends who also program and they all read online and own programming books. I'd like to know where Joel gets his statistics.
- From Peopleware, Productive Projects and Teams by Tom De Marco and Timothy Lister (2nd Ed, page 12)